We’ll Never Say No To Finding Cats In Cat-alan Country
The Hidden Cats in… series has been a Lonely Planet guidebook in video game form for some time now. If you’ve ever been tempted to visit a country or city, you could do worse than play its associated Hidden Cats in… game. You’ll be whisked to a locale where you can see and visit all of the tourist attractions, jump into levels that showcase bars, bazaars and museums, and generally get a sense of the ‘vibe’.
Hidden Cats in Barcelona is another Lonely Planet guide, speckled with cats. If you’ve played a game in this series, you will know what to expect, and that expectation is duly delivered upon: there is one super-scene that encompasses the entirety of the city, and there are seven sub-scenes that explore its culture on a more micro-level. You go from Barcelona to Sagrada Familia and the markets of La Boqueria.
Barcelona, It Was The First Time That We Met. Barcelona, How Can I Forget?
Hidden Cats in… fans will be pleased to know that there are a couple of changes to the traditional formula. The biggest is the introduction of two modes: Progressive Colouring and Final Colouring. The series has dabbled with both of these in the past, but never offered them as a choice. Progressive Colouring will pour paint onto any section of the scene that you have completely cleared of cats. Final Colouring will only colour-in the backdrop once every cat has been found in the entire scene. The first mode is slightly easier than the second, as it narrows the options for where remaining cats might be.You will quickly find your preference, and presenting it as a choice is a strong step forward.
The other distinct difference is that the cars, trucks and boats in the super-scene get coloured individually. Before, you would need to find every cat in every vehicle for the road itself to become vibrant. It’s a subtle change but a welcome one as there was some ambiguity in previous Hidden Cats in… games: you were never quite sure if you needed to find a final cat in a car, on the pavement, or if the cat was instead a human that needed to be found. Now, there’s no doubt.
The rest of Hidden Cats in Barcelona is very much the same. 232 cats are tucked away in the super-scene, and finding all of them will tint the skyscraper or other building that they were sleeping in. As we often take for granted, the scenes are crisp, even at full zoom, and they are also full of life and occasionally humorous. There are lots of micro-stories to be found in the large Where’s Wally?-like scene.
So Laid-Back That You’ll Have A Cat-Nap
A hint system can be called upon if you can’t find the last cats, but we’re willing to bet you won’t need it. The Progressive Colouring means that you have a very good idea where the last cat is hiding, and a helpful ‘mewing’ sound-effect plays when a cat is onscreen but not found. There are so many little nudges and helpful paws in Hidden Cats in Barcelona that it feels particularly cosy. Rarely will you ever feel frustrated.
My wife would like to raise a hand here and highlight one thing that is starting to grind her gears. There are many special cats and special locations in Hidden Cats in Barcelona, and they all have a pop-up that lets you learn more about them. The idea is lovely, since you get to find out more about Barcelona’s attractions, as well learn more about the cats. But these pop-ups like to pop every minute or so of play, and sometimes you just want to stay in the flow of cat-finding. They could do with a reduction or an option to turn them off.
Completion of the super-scene leads to the unlocking of the sub-scenes. The rules change a little here, as there are hidden cats to be found – jiggling fern leaves and rustling bags. They’re never particularly hard to spot, as the animations make them hard to miss. The cats look slightly different, as if drawn by a different artist, and the Progressive/Final Colouring options apply here, where they don’t in the super-scene. But even with the differences, the sub-scenes are just as good, if not better, than the super-scene. Quality is consistent throughout, even if the rules change a smidge.
The Elephant’s Tower In The Room
‘Consistency’ is the optimal word here, as Hidden Cats in Barcelona is very much a continuation of the structure and quality of the other games. While it has a couple of incremental improvements, this isn’t a huge deviation from all the other Hidden Cats in… games. Which is to say it’s very good, a welcome break from more intense games, and a hidden-object title that is incredibly hard to get bored of. They arrive every couple of months, and we’re still happy to see them arrive through the cat-flap.
But there is a tiny asterisk here, which is perfectly illustrated by Hidden Cats in Barcelona arriving on the same day as A Tower Full of Cats. We recommend that you pop over to read our review on that rival hidden cat game, as we were glowing about it. The Hidden Cats in… series have a competitor, and there is a significant gap between them. Where Hidden Cats in Barcelona is an amuse-bouche, A Tower Full of Cats is a main course.
Will Hidden Cats in… notice and attempt something different? Who knows, but I like to think that it will be a cat-fight for the ages.
Important Links
Hidden Cats In Barcelona Takes Us To Cat-alan – https://www.thexboxhub.com/hidden-cats-in-barcelona-takes-us-to-cat-alan/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/hidden-cats-in-barcelona/9PJ6RKQH3VFX?wfExp=382CT
