Summer Paws

Exceptionally well made game. Love it! Playing with my 4yo daughter

Summer Paws, developed and published by Manic Hyena, is a gentle hidden-object game that fully commits to being a calm, low-pressure experience. It doesn’t aim to challenge players with complex mechanics or demanding puzzles; instead, it focuses on creating a relaxing atmosphere where the simple act of searching becomes the main source of enjoyment. From the moment you begin, the game establishes a clear intention—to offer a quiet, stress-free space where players can take their time and engage at their own pace. The gameplay is built around exploring a series of small, handcrafted island environments and locating sleeping cats hidden throughout each area. These cats are cleverly integrated into the scenery, often blending into the environment through color, shape, or placement. The act of finding them becomes a process of careful observation, where success depends on patience rather than skill. There are no timers, no penalties, and no pressure to rush, which allows players to approach each level in a relaxed and methodical way. While the core loop remains consistent, the game introduces small variations to keep the experience from feeling entirely static. Certain areas may requi…

The fumble of the century: the third installment of a series of hidden cats games that just can't reach the levels of the previous two in any way. Like, they genuinely managed to screw it up so incredibly hard, by pretty much completely changing or straight up removing what made the previous 2 "paws" games good. Among the issues: limiting camera movement (which means no cat is under benches or less visible without tilting the camera), less detailed and less pleasing environments, less realism in favor of a ugly cartoony style for the cats, less difficulty (no hidden cat or object is actually hidden or colored like its background, they're all in plain sight) and just a way shorter game in general, no hints or audio cues whatsoever, and yet a much more annoying experience, both due to how the camera behaves and to the fact that you're not even looking for cats anymore because the maps are actually filled with them, no, you're looking specifically for sleeping cats, which look barely different from the awake ones. Also, I get the whole summer thing, but why swap yarn for seashells if then it limits you to put them only next to the water? Just put them wherever or go back to yarns...

I've been wanting to play this game for a long time. And now it's finally here. It's a short game, only a couple of hours. With good attention, it can be even shorter.

Short, sweet, and adorable. It's like I Spy but in a video game form. I paid $1.24 for it when it was on sale and spent not quite and hour and a half finding cats, so I'd say it's a fair value. It's great for soaking in the summer vibes, and it would be extra fun to play with a friend or family member watching to help keep their eyes peeled for seashells and cats. I had a little trouble getting my controller to work with it, but booting it twice in a row seemed to be the fix, and after that, it was smooth sailing. I do wish there was some kind of hint function (maybe we could trade our shells for them?), as I tended to get stuck on every level with only one or two cats remaining that I just could not track down, which was a little disappointing. That said, it does give me a reason to come back someday if I ever need another hit, so I can't be too mad.

The graphics, the audio etcetera are fine for a mobile port. But the gameplay doesn't work for me personally. Everything about it on the page tells me to expect a standard hidden X game, which all adhere to the standard formula. That being, look at this image and try to find the cleverly hidden Xs. But in this game it's "find a couple of specific cats amongst all these identical cats" which is already not that fun. Add to that that the only thing different about these 'hidden' cats is that they are lying down instead of sitting or standing on four legs and well it's just annoying. The issue is further complicated by the fact that the cats are all basically the same low-poly model and there are dozens to a hundred of them on screen. It's like asking me to pick out a tree in a forest of identical trees where only some of the leaves are a slightly lighter hue. And finally to top it all off, they're not even cleverly hidden. There are a few in the open, a few behind closed doors and a bunch just among similar cats. Obviously it's a very subjective review and opinion, but it's just not what I feel like a 'find the hidden X' game should be. On the positive side, it looks and sounds de…