Cats may not have taken over video games like they have with the internet, but they are still veritable rock stars when it comes to gaming. Certain games feature felines as the main character, like the amazing Stray title did last year. Even titles that are not specifically about cats, like Baldur’s Gate 3, often feature interesting encounters with our furry friends to make things just a bit more interesting. And a few games, like Quilts and Cats of Calico, are all about cats and the crazy things they get up to in their day-to-day lives.
As you can probably expect from the name, A Tower Full of Cats on Steam is one of those games where cats are fully in the spotlight. Specifically, it’s a hidden objects type of adventure where players are tasked with uncovering hundreds of cats hidden to various degrees. They are spread out across several levels connected by a mysterious tower that seems to span time as it reaches ever skyward. In terms of gameplay, it’s very similar to the fun and free 100 Asian Cats game from developer 100 Cozy Games that we reviewed earlier this year. However, where 100 Asian Cats featured just a single level (plus a second if you paid for it), A Tower Full of Cats is much more detailed, with an interesting story, several levels to explore, different hidden object mechanics and even an enjoyable and highly detailed soundtrack that automatically changes as you move between different eras of time.
The premise of A Tower Full of Cats is that cats are basically time travelers and mythical beings, although with all of the peculiarities that make them so lovable. As such, they tend to get distracted by butterflies fluttering nearby and things like that, which can lead to disaster when it comes to performing tasks that require deep concentration or other boring, work-like activities. And so, the time machine used by the cats in A Tower Full of Cats was likely not well-maintained and has thus exploded, spreading parts across the ages along with hundreds of cats. The displaced cats don’t seem to mind, as they are all happily integrated into whatever era they landed in, but the spaceship-based cat in charge of this failed endeavor would like the player’s help in setting things right. That means “rescuing” the missing cats as well as collecting all the nuts and bolts of the broken time machine.
The playing field for A Tower Full of Cats is configured as a giant tower that spans across time. The prehistoric era sits at the bottom level of the tower, and you advance in time as you climb ever higher. The Egyptian era, which was a very good time for cats as they were worshiped as gods, is the next era up, followed by the classical and renaissance era, the industrial revolution and on up towards modern day. You will need to perform certain quest-like tasks or rescue a certain number of cats in order to unlock higher levels of the tower.
Each level consists of a hand-drawn landscape that represents the era it’s from, which is generally done in a monochromatic style to help hide the objects you will need to find. Hidden in that panorama are cats as well as the nuts and bolts from the broken time machine. There are also a few special objects you will need to locate that act as keys to special areas of the map or tools to help make your searching easier. Whenever you uncover a cat, clicking on them will cause them to light up and fill in with a bright color against the background. A counter over on the side of the screen will also tick down one notch so that you know how many cats still need to be found. The machine parts by contrast disappear when found, but there is also a counter for them, so you know how many more you need.
In addition to just having cats hidden in plain sight, A Tower of Cats also introduces the concept of “spy cats” which are fully hidden behind, under or inside objects. The only way to uncover a spy cat is by clicking on the object. For example, in the prehistoric times, you might click on a giant ham (who knows how it got there) in order to trigger the hidden cat behind it to burst up and take a bite. Or cats might be hidden in baskets in later eras or even behind secret passages that must first be opened up to discover the mischievous feline hidden inside. The title keeps track of the number of spy cats separately compared to the normal ones, so you always know how many are still truly hidden in any given level that will require careful clicks within the environment to uncover.
There are also bonus levels within the main ones, the openings of which are designated by purple-colored portals on the map. Clicking on them takes you to other rooms set during the current era of the main level, and each of those new rooms have more hidden cats and machine parts to find. Some of those bonus areas require a key to access, which can often be obtained by performing quests for some of the NPC cats you meet along the way. Generally, those quests involve finding a new kind of object or a set of objects that the cat needs. Once you gather them up, talking with the NPC cat again will unlock the special area, or provide you with the key to do so.
The soundtrack for A Tower Full of Cats is really amazing. Each level has a different theme song, including the hidden or bonus rooms. That original music helps to set the mood for the era, and also adds to the relaxing nature of the gameplay. And out on the main tower, the soundtrack will seamlessly change as your scroll up and down the tower to match the era that is currently in focus, a really nice touch, and not something one would expect from a $5 title.
There are also a ton of visual gags and jokes to keep everything lively, like seeing a generic Scrat from the Ice Age movies cradling a nut in the prehistoric era, a cat using the sand in Egypt as a litter box or a cat dressed as Robin Hood scaling castle walls in medieval times. All of that speaks to the quality and care that the developers put into A Tower Full of Cats.
A Tower Full of Cats is currently on sale on the Steam platform for under $5, which is an incredible value for everything you get here. This is basically a full-fledged hidden objects adventure that really is top of the line in terms of quality for that genre. And if you want to check out the developer Devcats other amazing work, another one of their titles called An Arcade Full of Cats has many of the same mechanics and is completely free to play on Steam.
There is a ton of high-quality, hidden object gameplay in A Tower Full of Cats that is worth way more than its budget price. Anyone who has a fondness for cats or hidden object gameplay should definitely add this one to their must-play list.