A Platformer That Is A Whisker-Away From Boredom
Today’s ‘game we didn’t know was a sequel’ is Mel the Space Cat. It’s a sequel to plain old Mel the Cat, which was released in late 2025. It really does show how quickly these budget platformers can get made.
Mel has gone up in the world, quite literally. She was strapped to a rocket and now she wants to come home, which is understandable. But that’s no simple journey. She has to travel through the cosmic zone, blue planet and purple planet before she can curl up in her cat bed.
In Space, Nobody Can Hear Your Cream
Being a space-cat does have its perks. Mel can blink-dash across platforms or over the heads of space-dogs with the press of an X button. That blink-dash doesn’t just move her horizontally: she can dash in any direction. Diagonal and higher platforms are suddenly within reach. These moves will be essential to reach the exit and scoot onto the next level.
The antagonist of the first game, Theo the dog, gets to come along for the ride too. He’s an alien dog now, traipsing backwards and forwards in an effort to stop Mel from getting home. He’s got friends with him. There are spark-things that circle round platforms, often in groups, and there are space-cannons, too. One level even has a bit of a Theo jump-scare.
Checkpoints form a halfway point to most levels, but you won’t be using them much. The difficulty-lever barely moves out of the green. We died a handful of times, mostly because of our own incompetence and those spark-things. If you’ve not got the patience for them to rotate round, then you will get killed. And we had no patience.
2000G: A Space Odyssey
That lack of challenge is par for the course with indie platformers like Mel the Space Cat. We would guess that the developers want to ensure their game is welcoming to achievement hunters. It means that hard-to-obtain Gamerscore is a no-no. But I can’t help wishing that things were different. It’s been a long time since a 2000G budget platformer really bruised me. I’m up for a greater sense of reward as I snag a final 200G.
Enemies are spaced out and move predictably. Platforms are close to each other. Checkpoints save everything halfway when you’d be hard-pressed to die anyway. Anyone with an ounce of skill will feel a bit short-changed.
To be fair to Mel the Space Cat, it does dodge potential issues with its controls. Blink-dash moves in video games can be a bit hit-and-miss. They’re often hard to predict, leaving you plummeting into spikes or holes. But Mel the Space Cat doesn’t suffer from this problem. The ability to blink diagonally means you can catapult high above a platform and then use a bit of aftertouch to land safely on it. The platforms are also cunningly placed so that overshooting is difficult. Mel the Space Cat is tight from a control perspective.
The blink-dashing also offers a bit of emergent fun, should you fancy it. There’s often a clear route to the exit, but it can be fun to bypass most of the platforms with the blink-dash. Try it yourself: attempt to skip half the level and you can set yourself a harder challenge.
I’m not entirely sure why Mel the Space Cat doesn’t offer stretch goals itself. Collectibles would have made each level a teensy bit more challenging, as they could be hung in deliberately hard-to-reach spots. But Mel the Space Cat is lean, perhaps too much so. There are no star rankings, no timed modes, and certainly no unlockables. For a low, low price that’s understandable, but it makes Mel the Space Cat harder to recommend, and harder to replay.
A Dash Through Space
Mel the Space Cat just about passes the ‘why does this exist?’ test. We find it to be a rude but useful question to ask after playing any of these budget games. What does it offer that a player needs, or isn’t out there already?
The answer is in the blink-dash. By making it versatile, allowing a player to blink upwards, sideways and diagonally, it opens the door to some emergent play. Players can complete levels the way they want, setting their own challenges. It’s an addition that – just about – counters the ‘why does this exist?’ question.
Mel the Space Cat isn’t a particularly special platformer. It’s easy, short, and the enemies are all recycled from a bazillion other games. But Mel’s blink-dash power, which lets her zip about the level at speed, just about saves the day. A bland 2D platformer gets the smallest sprinkle of interest. That might be enough to dash after its 2000G.
Important Links
Mel The Space Cat Launches On Xbox And PC – A Cosmic Dash Through Danger – https://www.thexboxhub.com/mel-the-space-cat-launches-on-xbox-and-pc-a-cosmic-dash-through-danger/
Buy from the Xbox Store, Optimised for Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/mel-the-space-cat/9N9MB354JFC0/0010
Grab an Xbox One version if you prefer – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/mel-the-space-cat-xbox-one/9NL36RNJD8H2/0010
Or take in the Windows PC edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/mel-the-space-cat-windows/9PGL47BZT6H6/0010
There’s even a Mel the Cat Collection bundle – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/mel-the-cat-collection/9N766KSM62ZC/0010
