She Wants Me Dead Review

The endless debate about whether you are a cat or dog person has been raging for years. But in reality, a lot of people love both. I have a dog but still love cats, even though they get a bad rep; selfish, unloving beings.

In the platform game, She Wants Me Dead the whole premise focuses on an evil cat who is trying to kill their human owner. It’s an evil James Bond villain of a cat which has laid multiple traps for the human owner – it’s up to you to try and get them out alive. 

This is one of those games which has seemingly been designed for mobile first and foremost. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing as there are lots of games that have made the easy transition from mobile to console with relish. But there is a big difference between games that encourage you to play a quick level on the bus between stops, rather than when sitting down for an evening on your console. That quick-level play is great for one format, but not quite so good for the other. 

That’s the case for She Wants Me Dead, even though a nice little setup features a naughty black cat with evil villain vibes – Lula. Max, her owner, has annoyed her so now she is out to get him. She has set up a gruelling gauntlet for Max to traverse, complete with deadly traps around every corner. That’s probably it concerning the story,  but that’s all you need because ultimately this is a hard 2D scroller; it’s there where the action is. But the setup of the little cutscene at the beginning tells the little story efficiently and pleasingly. 

The game plays out over just ten levels with each of these taking just a couple of minutes – at least if you’re a game genius. For us normal folk, She Wants Me Dead will see you dying – a lot – pulling your hair out and generally thinking about how to beat these levels in your lunch break. 

The 2D platforming action puts you in the shoes of Max, left with jumping as your only skill. Sometimes there are things to bounce off, but mainly it’s all about using your insanely good platforming skills. As your progress through the later levels, the difficulty ramps up, getting extremely tricky, especially as you can’t even stop to think as there is fire chasing you. It’s all about keeping on the move.  

There is some good checkpointing in place throughout the levels, but you only have five lives to play with. If you use all the lives on offer you’ll be left to start the level again or use some gold coins to buy back five more lives. You get coins by completing a level, more depending on how quickly you reach a conclusion. You can also use these coins to buy cosmetic attachments for your character; standard stuff in the shape of clothes, hats, and other mad items. They do feel a tad pointless though.

The visuals use a monochrome style that is most definitely in fashion and it’s delivered via a rather nice design template that works well throughout the levels. I like the menu design and the little comic book cutscenes as well. The music is great; a jazzy track that plays to add as a perfect accompaniment to the action. There’s not too much wrong with She Wants Me Dead in fact, aside from that overly familiar mobile feel. 

She Wants me Dead is a hard platformer, but it’s a very engaging and quite addictive one; something that is always a good hallmark for a side-scroller. The level design is decent, and the challenge builds well, so much so that as you complete a level you’ll feel extremely well rewarded. However, there isn’t enough content for the asking price, even when you factor in the replay value; going back to perfect your time and score for achievements.

But there is certainly enough to like here, especially if you’re a fan of evil female cats. Just be aware, she wants YOU dead. 

She Wants Me Dead is on the Xbox Store