Feline Fixer-Upper
Your Cat Rescue Story begins after your great-aunt left you in charge of a run-down cat rescue. From Tivola Games, fix up the rescue while taking in all kinds of stray cats. You’ll see typical breeds such as the orange tabby to special breeds like the rainbow tiger. Whether they get dropped off in a box or lured with catnip, cats come with their own personalities and needs. Keep them fed, happy and healthy to find them loving homes. The more you renovate and expand the rescue, the more cats you can house. Along the way, you’ll meet various people while learning about the small town. Unfortunately, taking care of a lot of cats can get frustrating after a while.
Cat Caretaker
All cats in Cat Rescue Story will require four different needs to be met. Grooming, play, healthcare and food need to be at full capacity. Providing food, along with water and fresh litter, is fairly simple. These are in the store and are sometimes donated by past adopters. Grooming and medical kits are the same. Grooming provides four kinds of brushes for removing hair, leaves, dust and dirt. Move the brushes over the cat to get them clean. Second, healthcare will vary. From disinfecting wounds to getting rid of ticks and fleas, there’s a cure for every ailment. At least you don’t have to deal with an unruly cat that wants to claw your face. Play is more interactive. Lead a cat around the rooms of the rescue by dragging your finger (as a laser pointer). The goal is to catch all the toy mice within a set time limit.

Of the four needs, I found play to be a bit challenging. Not only do you need to watch the time, but you also have to not steer the cat in the wrong direction. Plus, obstacles like boxes and tunnels can be tough to navigate. There’s a lot of planning and quick thinking involved. Something else I noticed is that taking care of the cats is very rinse and repeat. Their needs often require a few attempts to reach full capacity. This gets very tedious after a while as replenishing the kits and such really drain your funds. It would be more practical to use one kit per cat, otherwise this is a ploy to get the player’s money. I agree that with all real rescues there are going to be a few special cases, but this is a mobile game. It’s supposed to be fun, not an annoying chore.
The Purr-Fect Personality
In addition to maintaining the cats’ upkeep, you need to pair them with the best human possible. Like with the cats, every human comes with a set of requirements to fulfill. Examples include wanting a male or female, having a particular color or breed, and having a certain personality. You find out a cat’s personality randomly as you take care of them. Each cat has two different personality traits. These can range from adventurous to lively to easy-going to social and more. When pairing a cat with a human, similar attributes will be highlighted. The more a cat matches a human’s needs, the more rewards you’ll get. Coins, gems and hammers are all needed for the rescue. The hammers restore the rooms in the rescue, while coins and gems buy the cat supplies. A cat must match at least one human requirement before adoption. But there’s an issue with these.

Depending on the cat, personality traits can appear quickly or take a while. Sometimes both traits appear at once. More often than not, however, it takes quite a while to unlock more than one. No matter how many times a cat is brushed or healed, that second trait remains hidden. This can be very frustrating. You’ll often have no choice but to send out a cat with a still missing trait. I don’t know how the game determines when a trait is revealed. Though it comes off as harder than it needs to be. Which is incredibly pointless and unnecessary. The game developers should really do something to change that.
A Small Cat-Tastrophe
While Cat Rescue Story is adorable and entertaining, there are a few improvements to be made. Taking care of the cats, while rewarding, is very repetitious. It often takes a while to fill a cat’s needs which diminishes your resources quickly. And it’s tiresome to keep doing the same actions over and over. Not to mention you’ll need this repetition to try and find personality traits. Sometimes you only find one and give up on revealing the other. These frustrations could be easily remedied by the developers, as there’s really no point to them. I might like the game more if these issues are done away with.
Is It Hardcore?
Kind of...
A game about cats should be delightful to play, but until some pointless actions are taken care of, it’s only mildly entertaining.