A Zen-Like Hunt in the Sun
Those pesky cats are back, and this time they’ve hopped on a plane and made for Brazil, hiding away in the nooks and crannies of Rio de Janeiro. And you know what that means? Yeah, we need to uncover them. As a seasoned veteran of this feline-finding franchise, I was more than ready for the task.
Hot on the heels of Hidden Cats in Tokyo – a game that took the series forward in ways we never expected, with a full-blown narrative and mini-games – Silesia Games and Nukearts have taken a significant step back to basics with Hidden Cats in Rio de Janeiro. They’ve completely stripped away the story, an element we thought might become a new staple.
Instead, the focus is placed entirely on the cats themselves, for it’s they who are the true stars. This time, they are hidden away in eight unique scenarios, all steeped in a vibrant, sun-soaked Brazilian feel.
The Appeal of the Franchise
Honestly, that’s all we ever really wanted from the Hidden Cats franchise: an hour or two of pure, unadulterated kitty uncovering, with little fuss and little bother. Tokyo was an interesting experiment, but its ambitions sometimes got in the way of the core, zen-like appeal. And honestly, this series has never been about complex mechanics or deep narrative; it’s the ultimate digital comfort food, a relaxing palate cleanser after a stressful day.
If you’re a veteran of the scene, we’d suspect that’s exactly what you’ll want to hear too, diving in for a couple of hours of fun, perhaps topping it all off with a bunch of easy-to-obtain Gamerscore and achievements. If that sounds like your idea of a good time, get on that plane yourself, for the Copacabana is calling.
Eight Scenes of Brazilian Charm
In Hidden Cats in Rio de Janeiro, you’ll find eight distinct stages, each populated by numerous hidden felines. Your first port of call is the main Rio de Janeiro level, and it’s a stunner. This huge monochrome cityscape is begging to be interacted with, a sprawling canvas of iconic landmarks, bustling streets, and packed favelas. As you do so, clicking on the hidden cats you stumble upon (as well as a variety of special characters), that drab, hand-drawn scene is injected with glorious colour. New hues and delightful animations pop with each and every satisfying meow.
Zooming in and out on this massive stage is as delightful as ever – smooth, responsive, and perfectly on point. Hidden Cats in Rio de Janeiro draws you in immediately, and it’s a genuine pleasure to just watch the scene play out. There may not be too much movement going on, but the world feels alive, with bustling traffic and animated citizens bringing the Brazilian vibes, all while you meticulously hunt for those kitties that make up the entirety of the gameplay.
Mid-Sized Levels and the Carnaval Chore
After ticking off some 232 hidden objects, and having collected some special cards in the process in this main Rio-based level (a task that will happily consume a good chunk of your time), you’ll find yourself unlocking the next stop on your Brazilian tour: the Grocery Store. This is a much smaller stage, a single, static screen more akin to the Cats & Seek series that sits as a younger, less mature sibling to Hidden Cats. It’s a fairly simple affair, tasking you with finding felines hiding behind displays and peeking out of shopping baskets.
Some 53 clicks later, you’ll unlock the Bar and then the Cable Car, both of which work on similar ideas and angles. Are these levels just filler? Perhaps. They are over in a flash and lack the grand scale of the main stage. But, as quick five-minute distractions that break up the larger hunts, hunting down those cats is still all cool.
Maracana and Muted Tones
From there, comes a larger (just) stage in the form of Meowing Hill. This is followed swiftly by the Botanical Garden and the iconic Maracana – Brazil’s world-famous sports stadium. All these levels work nicely and allow the minutes to fly by. The Botanical Garden is a lush, green environment where cats’ tails are cleverly disguised as hanging vines, while the Maracana is a sea of football fans, with kitties cleverly dotted among the crowd.
However, never do these mid-sized levels reach the heights of that initial, spectacular Rio stage. Perhaps it’s the lack of the pop in colour, with this mid-point stages opting for a more muted, single-tone palette; and that brings the enthusiasm down just a bit. Still, with helpful hints available should you need to be advised on the placement of certain, unfound kitties, they more than do the job intended of them.
Everything we have mentioned so far will be familiar to veterans of the scene, as will the final stage: the huge, sprawling mass (and perhaps mess, at times) of the Carnaval. This level is a visual feast of parade floats, dancers, and chaos. You’ll find another 150-odd hunting opportunities in this, and whilst it’s all fine as you scour the land for cats, it’s a different proposition entirely when you start focusing on the variety of humans.
See, the Hidden Cats series loves to add further clicking opportunities, and here that’s focused on ticking off specific human characters. The problem is that Carnaval is such a large level, and the game enforces a baffling limit of just five target humans being available at any one time. This mechanic, which we’ve seen before, turns what should be a joyful exploration into a tedious, systematic grid-search. You are forced to scroll through the massive stage, zooming in, zooming out, over and over again, just waiting for the character you need to become active. I’ll be honest, once the cats were picked out of this Carnaval, I passed the controller to my daughter to let her younger, keener eyes focus on the human-hunting chore..
So what about replayability? Well, there’s not really much. Perhaps you may wish to go back through for a second play to ensure you can complete things with no hints (a requirement for an achievement), but Hidden Cats in Rio de Janeiro is reasonably straightforward. As long as you give things time, you will rarely need a hint or nudge in the right direction anyway.
It’s all simple in terms of sound, too; the game sticking to the series’ minimalist roots. The odd, satisfying meow here and there to signify a hidden cat is about all you get for effects.
An Enjoyable Waste of an Evening
To conclude, Hidden Cats in Rio de Janeiro is a welcome return to what makes the Hidden Cats franchise so appealing. By stripping away the narrative ambitions of Tokyo, it rediscovers the simple, zen-like joy that made us fall in love with the series in the first place. It understands exactly what it is: a low-stakes, high-reward evening of digital comfort.
Should you be a fan of the franchise, there’s no doubt that you’ll want to take this trip to Brazil. It’s not perfect, and the Carnaval level’s human-hunting mechanic is a frustrating blemish, but for a couple of hours of chilled-out game time, this is a purr-fectly enjoyable waste of an evening.
Important Links
The Hidden Cats head to Rio de Janeiro! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/the-hidden-cats-head-to-rio-de-janeiro/
Buy Hidden Cats in Rio de Janeiro on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/hidden-cats-in-rio-de-janeiro/9ng1hdp5kc5r
