This short top-down 2D adventure game is styled like an original Game Boy title. You play as the eponymous Cat, as it tries to brighten the boy’s mood following his parent’s divorce. It’s clearly a very personal tale to the solo developer behind the project.
The Cat, called Midnight, wanders around the house and interacts with objects, collects items and deals in some very, very light problem solving. There’s even time for a bit of perspective change into some rudimentary 2D platforming. The whole thing took me about 45 minutes to complete but is designed to be replayed. There were a few things I missed the first time, despite making it to the end.
So far, so good, but I couldn’t help but think the experience was all too fleeting. AC&HB is so light with its touches, as it needs to be to fit into a 45 minute runtime. Unfortunately, this means it doesn’t get a chance to say much more than that divorce can be difficult for both young children and adults. It’s great to see these themes touched on in the gaming medium, but I think more time was needed to sit these characters. More specificity was needed to connect with Leif, the boy. It’s a difficult thing to say, as I think this was a personal story for the developer to tell.
I’m not quite sure the layers of abstraction help the game, either. We don’t play as Leif, but Midnight, the cat. And the presentation separates things further, running in what looks like a Game Boy emulator. It all serves to separate the audience from the emotion rather than connecting them to it.
Eschewing so close to traditional Game Boy conventions hurts the game in other ways. It’s not always clear when an item is available to be interacted with, and the 2D platforming is shoddy.
All in all, I didn’t feel that AC&HB was a success. I’m all for more cheap, short experiences that can consumed like a TV episode, but AC&HB feels too small, too constrained, and too airless. As an experience, it’s barely there and it comes and goes before you’ve really had a chance to engage in it. The entire thing lacks impact, which is a shame, because there’s a core of something here. The problem is, that it’s only a core.
RAWRLAB Games’ A Cat & His Boy is out now on Switch. Developed by Howdy Riceball.