It’s back to school time, which means no more time for games with long, sprawling storylines. Instead I turn to quick bite games to carry me through the semester, phone games, Flash games, games with levels I can play for two minutes and still feel satisfied.
Now for some reason I’ve never gotten caught up in the Angry Birds craze. Intellectually I understand the appeal, since it’s a perfect bite-sized game. Goddamn, though, it can be hard. Like throwing-wet-paper-towels-against-a-brick-wall-and-hoping-the-wall-falls-over hard. The last thing I want to do on my coffee break is get frustrated enough to throw my phone against the wall. I need my phone. Also, the story seems almost non-existent, despite the clamor to turn it into a TV show. (Is that idea dead? Please let it be dead. No? Goddamnit.)
What does a story-obsessed gamer like me do for a coffee break game, then? Solitare? Fuck that. I play SUSHI CAT.
As with all things Japanese-influenced that aren’t Takashi Miike films or tentacle porn, Sushi Cat is adorable both in design and storyline. The story follows a cat who wants to woo a girl cat he sees in a shop window. He eats sushi first to get heavy enough to open the weight-sensitive door to the shop, then to win a sumo competition to pay for bus fare to follow her, etc etc.
The gameplay itself is pretty easy. You drop the cat from the top of the screen, and he bounces and squishes and squeezes adorably on his way down to the bins, eating sushi the whole way. Some sushi offer power-ups or more points or extra cats to drop. Challenging? Not so much. Fun and adorable? You betcha. It’s pretty hard to fail a level, so if you’re really into getting angry at your Angry Birds, Sushi Cat might not be for you.
The replay value of this game is another weak point, but with the growing trend of constant expansions for phone games like this, there’s a good possibility that they’ll continue to expand the content. Already since I last played, they’ve added a second “honeymoon” storyline for Sushi Cat and his lady-love, and Sushi Cat 2 is available to play online. Maybe Sushi Kittens will be next?
Cats, sushi, romance, Japanese music, and more sushi. They had me at sushi.
Sushi Cat is developed by Armor Games, and is available for $0.99 in the iOS App Store and as a free Flash game on the web.
2 Comments
Cats, sushi, and Japanese music? Did Satan make this game?
Tentacle porn is adorable, I dunno what you’re talking about.