For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Meow Kingdom: Cute Cat Idle RPG, also known as Meow Kingdom, on my #iPhone 14 Pro.
As well as how good the game looked from the screenshots and how frequently it had been updated since i downloaded it, i was also interested to try out this game because i wanted to see how/why it's download was over 1GB in size. many of the Idle Games i've tried out as part of this series are a lot smaller than Meow Kingdom. But after playing it for an hour, i have a good idea why it's as big as it is.
It's a little unfortunate that Meow Kingdom starts with such a compressed introduction video as everything after it looked much better. i was pleasantly surprised by how much artwork there was for each character and it really helped portray the emotions of each character. i thought the main characters had so much that it really stood out when it came to the introduction of Gong and their lack of artwork.
The game has a decent tutorial that takes things, mostly, one step at a time and even has videos for some things too. But there are times when it feels like the game has forgotten to mention something. the first example i can think of is when the tutorial mentions increasing game speed but never mentions what the "A" button next to it does. there was also an example late on in the video where the game wouldn't let me install a building because the game's tutorial was going to do it. but for the most part it does a great job for new gamers and Meow Kingdom feels quite accessible.
The idle mechanics of Meow Kingdom feel a little older than some other aspects of the game. as well as collecting gold and experience from buildings in our town, there are other things we can do to interact with the world, which isn't something i've seen that much in games i've played as part of this series. for example, if you don't touch the screen, the game enables a screensaver of sorts that'll follow cats around. you can interact with the cats by picking them up and getting them to do some things or you can zoom in and pet them or take a photo of them. the cats have wants that are telegraphed by bubbles above their heads, much like the Theme Park/Rollercoaster Tycoon/Two Point games do. around the town, there are items you can touch that'll give you more gold and help keep the place tidy. these little interactions give Meow Kingdom an older feel as i associate these menial tasks with the games i mentioned before. but i think they work well with the game.
The combat in Meow Kingdom is what makes this game feel modern. like the rest of the game, the combat looks great with the enemies looking very distinct and the boss enemies looming bigger over us. at this point in the game we're only able to have 5 characters in our team but it was unclear if we're going to have more. each of those cats can be placed in a grid, or you can ask the game to auto assign the best cats in their best positions. once that's done, your team sets off after the enemies. there's a choice to do the combat at normal speed or to speed it up, but if you press the "A" button, combat will be automated. even tho it's tempting to speed up the combat, i'd suggest doing it sometimes at normal speed because of how flashy some of the attacks are and how well animated it all looks. once the fight is over we're greeted with another cool looking victory screen.
If you're a fan of idle games, a fan of cats, or you're after a good looking game, i'd recommend giving Meow Kingdom a go. there's more to it than just it's cute exterior with solid idle mechanics, solid battle mechanics, and a story that's been simple yet fun so far. there's plenty to do in this game, there were aspects of it i'd yet to unlock in this video. but with it's relaxed pace and feel, there's little pressure to race to the finish.
Version 00.15.01 Played.
