Far From Timely, But Still Delightful
It has to be asked: Hidden Cats in Christmas? I love Christmas as much as the next guy, but it’s late enough in the year that I don’t have a single Christmas chocolate left. Everything edible from Christmas has been eaten. That’s a good sign that Hidden Cats in Christmas is a wee bit late.
But if there was a series that could pull off a February Christmas game, it’s Hidden Cats. I’m struggling to think of a cuter, more charming, more adorable series than this one. You can’t stay angry or confused at it for long.
Where’s Moggy?
This isn’t Hidden Cats’ first Christmas rodeo. We’ve had Hidden Cats in Santa’s Realm, which met the big man where he lived. This takes a broader view of Christmas, encompassing Christmas markets, homely Christmas dinners and – very generally – the customs of various countries.
If you’ve played a Hidden Cats In… game, this will be familiar. Things start with a giant diorama that dwarfs a Where’s Wally. You’ve got 200 cats to find and 20 people, with a smattering of special cats along the way. This diorama is reasonably new in that it incorporates landmarks from several different cities, not just one. Think of it as a Christmas multiverse.
As usual, this scene is expertly drawn. Everything is pixel sharp, even when zoomed in. Finding cats is a joy, because the game handily colours in any building that is now cat-free. It’s a small prompt to move forward, that you’ve done all that can be done. And the little stories and events that are happening in the scene are charming.
It does feel like the cats are embedded more seamlessly into the scene than before. In previous games, it could feel like cats were copy-pasted onto a previously drawn backdrop. Here, the cats react to the scene, and the scene reacts to them. It’s a little more authentic. I can’t pinpoint exactly how much has changed, but it is an improvement.
Never Let A Cat Near Paint
The real improvement comes with the unlocked scenes. As is customary, when you find special cats (and, new to Hidden Cats in Christmas, when you colour-in special buildings) you gain access to bonus levels. These are smaller, with 50-100 cats to find. But what’s changed is that they, too, colour themselves in, like the larger diorama does. This is actually new – something we’ve noted as a possible improvement to the series in previous reviews – and it’s great to see it here. The scenes become a patchwork of colour as you complete them, giving you a gentle helping hand.
There is an argument that it’s too much of a helping hand. You already have meow effects when you move the screen to a lost cat, and many of the cats wiggle for your attention. But our family found it to be a net positive: we see the series as less a puzzle and more a calm meditation, so it fits.
We suspect that this leap forward is why Hidden Cats in Christmas has come out in February. You have to imagine that they aimed for Christmas and missed. A whole new mechanic will probably do that.
We’re Feline Cozy
The rest is up to the standard which we expect from the Hidden Cats series, i.e. very high indeed. There’s a homely, cozy glow from playing these Christmas scenes. While it might be late (or early) in the year for a Christmas game, it suits the sit-in-an-armchair, play-with-cocoa ambience of the games. For a small moment, we could imagine it was the holidays again.
Newcomers will need the usual caveat: this is not a high-stakes, adrenaline-pumping game. Nor is it huge: you will likely finish this within two or three hours. But we see that as a positive rather than negative: games often clamour over our time, but Hidden Cats in Christmas respects it. It’s done with you after a few hours, and only asks for £3.29 for the privilege.
Two Paws Up for the Most Polished Feline Finder
Which is to say that Hidden Cats in Christmas gets another two-paws-up from us. It’s comfortably the most polished, enjoyable and high-value cat-finding game on the Xbox, which sounds like a minor achievement but isn’t. There are oodles of these games out there, and the Hidden Cats series looms above them all.
So flip back a few pages on the calendar and imagine it’s December again. There are cats to find, and they won’t find themselves.
Important Links
Hidden Cats In Christmas Proves It’s Never Too Late For Festive Cat Hunting – https://www.thexboxhub.com/hidden-cats-in-christmas-proves-its-never-too-late-for-festive-cat-hunting/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/hidden-cats-in-christmas/9NB4Z60W9LC5/0010
