Storytime Cats - Meows and Mistletoes

Not sure why an Xmas-themed puzzle game is released in early September. Of course, this is not a problem. I like HOGs and I am usually biased when it comes to the cat-based versions as I have 2 cats at home. I didn't like this game, however. First off, in the options I noticed there are many antialiasing settings. It took me a while to realise that the room we are in (with a fireplace in the background) is in 3D. This is, however, not really the playable area. You look at a book and you start turning its pages. They are the levels themselves but they appear in 2D only when launched. The cats we are looking for are almost completely invisible save for their contours. This requires that you zoom in but zooming in after a while makes the images very pixelated. So we have a 3D fancy environment for the main menu but for the actual playable area the creators were not able to make some decent, high-res images. As I didn't like the pixelated results I got, for the last dozen or so cats (there are also mice) I decided to use the hint feature. This also does a zooming in, but it actually points at areas where there is nothing. I even tried to blindly click left and right to see if I am m…

Lovely and cute, and the soundtrack is very cosy.

I initially didnt like this, but got the "trick" that in this version of this kinda game it helps a lot to zoom in more then i usually do. After that it was much better and i got all achievements. Gets a strong 3/5 from me. Could have some improved "map movements" tho, and i still dont like the "intro" and very slow reaction in the "lobby"... BUT..!!! THERES A BUG (or rather 2!)..!!! In the last room there are 2 mice outlines that cant be clicked & 2 mice that are missing outline "nearby" but that turn visible if you click on their "invisible place". Clearly the devs have mixed them up somehow. Ive put pics of this and where to click in a "guide".

I would let this run for the lovely Christmas music. Beyond that I could not recommend this as a game. The penciled outlines of cats and mice are too hard to see unless you are zoomed in really close to the image, in which case you can't enjoy any portion of the scene in which they appear. Using the hint button focuses on cats already found. Initially the screen jumped around when attempting to drag the scene after zooming in on an area. This seemed to fix itself after using the hint button. Usually these types of games are relaxing and fun, but this one misses the mark on both counts. It is free, though.

This game was not fun to play, and I LIKE these kind of games. 1. The outlines of the cats and mice you have to find are WAY to opaque. They are barely visible, and I had to squint at times to see the outlines. It felt like I was playing an Eyesight Test, and on multiple levels, my second look through started with me at 20-30 cats and mice combined. I should miss things due to not paying close enough attention, not because what I'm looking for is practically invisible. 2. On the final level, two of the outlines for the mice are in the wrong spot, and where those two mice actually are have no outlines at all. This makes it feel like the game was not playtested properly, if at all. I should not be missing things because they are in the wrong spot. I want to like this game. Genuinely, I do. However, these problems SEVERELY decreased the fun for me. Aside from putting outlines in the correct spots, I suggest making the outlines a little more opaque, at least enough to make it feel less like I need perfect vision to play.

Misaligned sprites, hints take you to random spots, objects are almost invisible without zooming in very far, images are pixelised.