Every week, Marius Masalar gives us a rundown of the best new games of the week with iPhone Game Friday, and every week I read through the post, think about what a great job he’s done and go to the App Store to make a purchase. He’s good at his job.
It happened again a few weeks ago when he brought up Mittens, a game by Disney not based on any previous character or property. It’s about a cat, a girl cat, diamonds — there’s a lot going on here, but at the end of the day, it’s a puzzler. Is it fun? Well Marius said it was “addictive and wonderful,” so is he right or does he need to start looking for a new job? Let’s find out.
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The Beginning of it All
This is one of those games that has a story, but it’s a bit inconsequential to the entire game. You’re an alley cat named Mittens — natch — and you stumble upon this very attractive girl cat who you want to impress. Naturally, there are diamonds and other items floating around nearby, so you want to collect them to give them to her. Of course, it’s not just as easy as grabbing the diamonds and going, so you have to work your way through a puzzle in the process.
You’re a cat, she’s a cat. What’s the problem?
The gameplay here is fairly straightforward; the moving process always begins with some kind of action. Once you’re on the go, you don’t stop until you reach the goal at the end of the level. There’s always one distinct path you can take to win all the diamonds, but there are also alternative routes that are easier as well. The scoring here is similar to Angry Birds in that you have three diamonds that you can win during each level. But unlike Angry Birds, you know exactly how to score: get three diamonds, and you score three diamonds.
Moving Forward
So I mentioned that you always begin moving via an action, but let me explain some of your options. You can start on a piece of wood held up by rope. Cut the rope by slashing it, and you’ll drop down. Another option is starting in a cannon. Point the cannon where you want to go, wait for the fuse to pop and then launch out towards your target. Whether it’s sliding, rolling or shooting through the air, there’s always a prompt to get you going.
Bouncy, bouncy.
This mechanic is used throughout the game. You’re always either jumping, slashing lines or pumping up gorillas to move from A to B, and it’s quite fun to do so. Birds can carry you. There’s a roller coaster that you can ride, trapezes that fly through and old men to avoid. Mittens uses the iPhone’s touchscreen to its advantage, and that’s part of what makes the game so fun.
The Good and the Bad
So is there a lot of IAP to worry about? Do you have to pay to cross over to the next level? Nope. None of it. In fact, I never ran into anything like that and I made it fairly far through the game. In this new world of apps that use IAP to their detriment, Mittens does not suffer from that at all.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
The bad? Well, there’s not much of that, either. I didn’t burn through the game so quickly that I regretted my purchase, nor was the difficulty level so high that I couldn’t pass levels in more than a few attempts. I genuinely had fun playing this game, and I’m still not done with it after an embarrassing amount of time playing it. That’s better than Angry Birds in my book.
Let’s Bottom Line It
Here we come to the part of the review where we put the whole thing down to brass tacks. Is Mittens a fun game? Should you spend your money on it? Will Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch be in The Avengers 2?
Yes, yes and I don’t know, but I really want to. Mittens is a game that has replayability, uses the touchscreen in a way that makes sense and is difficult enough to keep me playing. But what’s probably the most important thing is that when I sat down to write this review, I realized that I was hoping that Disney would release more content for Mittens. Maybe a sequel — Mittens 2, perhaps. Something that could keep me going. It’s just that good.
Looks like Marius’ job security is intact.