The internet has entire data servers devoted to birds, and entire server farms devoted to cats. Why not add an Android game or five? Few things are cuter than a cartoon cat shooting a huge gun. Guncat gives you just that; a cute kitty with crazy firearms that really hates birds. In the course of the game, you teach a lot of birds not to be annoying, but you know cats – they’re kinda lazy.
Guncat is a one button action game that sets you as the killer kitty defending your sleeping perch from an overhead onslaught of birds. You don’t move or aim; you just tap the screen to shoot. In the beginning, birds fly by slowly, going faster the longer you last. Birds that survive steal your ammo, and if you miss, you break your point multiplier. The round ends when you run out of ammo or hit a crow (AKA bomb bird).
The birds themselves come in quite a few species, and shooting all of one species collection permanently increases your base multiplier by five. Some birds carry green ammo boxes, so they are high priority targets. Shoot birds carrying coins or treasure chests for the moolah to upgrade your gun, change your fur color, or buy your kitty sweet but-useless things like houses and hats. Better guns hold more ammo, making it easier to choose your shots when the birds start flying really fast. You can also spend coins on more ammo if you run out, on unlocking birds in those species collections to increase your base multiplier, or on keeping your round going by reviving your cat after you hit a bomb bird.
Since so much of the game depends on coins, the fact that you can simply buy them with real world money lowers the overall review score for Guncat. In the in-game store, you can watch a video ad in exchange for 100 coins, or spend up to $7.50 on 800,000 coins. If you don’t want to spend money to revive your kitty, you have the option to watch a video to continue, but only the first time you die. The next time you need to be revived you have to pay, whether you used the video the first time or not the option to just watch an ad instead of paying gold disappears.
And it’s worth pointing out it doesn’t explicitly say that buying one of these coin packs would negate the ads that pop up on occasion. This game is a fun time-killer, and I might be inclined to pay a dollar (though, honestly, no more than that) just to turn off the ads. Graphically the game is one of the most adorable things run on Unreal Engine 4, though admittedly Guncat’s scope isn’t very demanding. The sound effects are just enough to help time your shots, though the squawks of dying birds and the cash register cha-ching are satisfying as roast quail.
If only there were a little more to Guncat. The Google leader board support adds some replay value, but achievements aren’t as attractive or addicting as new or interesting gameplay mechanics. Guncat is simple fun, but it would be nice if the clothes and beds had in-game effects, and there should be an obvious way to turn off the ads.
Hardcore?
Almost.
Simple bird-blasting fun dampened by the annoying ads and in-game store.
