The Problem with Pressure
Hide me a virtual cat in some kind of line-drawn cityscape, and I’ll hunt it down like there is no tomorrow.
Chuck a couple of hundred into, say, a Wild West town full of Outlaws, and I’ll happily spend an evening clicking away on the most lazy of felines.
Throw upwards of a thousand or two into Tokyo, drop in some boss battles, mini games and narrative, and well, I’m not sure if there is anything better in life.
But if there’s one thing I don’t want from my cat hunting games, it’s to be pressured by time. These games, those that make up the whole Hidden Cats sub-genre of the more encompassing Hidden Object scene, should be relaxing affairs, games in which the player can take their own sweet time, switching off from the real world as they click, click and click some more on some meowing minds.
So why on earth did Silesia Games and Noobzilla decide to add some speedrunning opportunities to Cats and Seek: Osaka? What do you mean some people like speedrunning???
Three Levels, Too Fast
Perhaps for the price of a Mars Bar and a half (and we’d normally mention the price of a coffee at this point, but Cats and Seek: Osaka is so cheap, you couldn’t even get the tiniest of espressos for the asking price), we shouldn’t really complain. But complain we will. We hate being rushed. And we hate it even more when that rush affects a pastime that is otherwise as slow and steady as you can get.
Cats and Seek: Osaka sits alongside other bigger hidden cat games, with the gold standard being that of ‘Hidden Cats In…’ But it’s cheaper than those games, and far from as accomplished either. Instead, you’re treated to no more than three levels (yes, three levels) in which you are left to find roughly 100 cats in each. Again, why not exactly 100 in each? God knows.
You should know the drill by now – scour the cityscape provided, click on a cat, filling the world with an injection of colour as you go. And that’s pretty much it for this one, with a lack of other items or people ever helping fill out the process.
Minimalist Cityscape
The stages in place are smaller than we are used to as well. Whilst they are cleverly created, clear and detailed in line drawing, there isn’t too much about them that will wow. In fact, whilst zooming in and out with a pull of the triggers is a cinch, rarely will you ever have to move your sight too much in order to find the cats hidden in Osaka. Of course, there are the odd small guys that will take a bit more of a keen eye, merging into the background more so than usual, but for the most part, you’ll be mopping up 60, 70, 80 or more of the cats, in each of the levels, in just a couple of minutes.
With a timed hint system at hand should you need to call on it, completion of Cats and Seek: Osaka is a simple affair and you’ll be done with the three stages within less than a half hour, probably less than 15 minutes, in fact.
Speedrun Stress: The Addition That Rips Out the Heart
And so Silesia and Noobzilla obviously felt the need to add more content to their game. And it’s here where the speedrun aspect rears its ugly head. In a separate menu section, with a timer attached, comes the opportunity to complete the exact same stages as previous, but in the fastest time possible. Your reward for the swift clicking of cats? A smattering of extra Gamerscore, and knowledge that you can be seen as the fastest clicker in cat town.
But, and we’ll be utterly honest here, we hate the fact that this speedrun option is even a thing. The absolute joy of these games, the hidden cats ones and those that make up the Hidden Objects scene as a whole, is the no fuss, no bother, no stress vibes. Stick a timer on things, and those relaxing moments go straight out of the window, ripping the heart out of the game itself as things turn into a frantic, stressful button-mash.
Of course, you don’t have to play the speedrunning elements of Cats and Seek: Osaka. You could leave it to one side, safe in the knowledge that you have completed the ‘proper’ bit of the game. But then, that leaves you with three levels that can be over before that coffee is made. And frankly, we want a little bit more from our games than that – even taking into account the £2 odd asking price.
There are some other aspects of this Osaka hide and seek that are probably worth a mention too, and that is the opportunity to mix up the colour scheme of the game as you so wish. You can amend background colours, cat colours and well, colour colours if you so wish. That’s something to look forward to, no?
Too Short, Too Simple, Too Fast
It does mean that even taking the super low asking price into account, Cats and Seek: Osaka is a hidden cats game that is seriously low in content. If you’re after a smack of Gamerscore, crack on, but if you’re expecting this one to keep you busy for anything close to an evening or two, like the other games on the market that it sits alongside, you’ll be left sorely frustrated.
We hope this is the last time we ever have to partake in cat clicking speedruns. Just give us more proper levels, please.
Important Links
Cats and Seek: Osaka Pounces onto Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/cats-and-seek-osaka-pounces-onto-xbox/
Buy Cats and Seek: Osaka on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/cats-and-seek-osaka/9NB6MLJB72N6/0010
