Cats & Seek: Kyoto – PS5 Review

Cats & Seek: Kyoto is the latest from Silesia Games, this time developed by noobzilla. Sharp eyed readers might remember this dev also did Cats & Seek: Dino Park and this is very much more of the same in that regard. As it happens that was the first hidden cat game we reviewed here at PSC.

This is very much more of the same mechanically, though somewhat sparse in terms of implementation. You get a mere two levels here. A hundred and nine cats in the first level and a hundred and fifty five in the second. That’s so few cats that you’ll come up short for the finding three hundred cats trophy.

Thankfully the time trial mode counts the cats again so it’s possible that you’ll have bagged all the trophies once you’ve completed that mode too.

As well as the cats there’s easter eggs to find, though when they are referencing something we and many others are no doubt unfamiliar with, they seem even more self-indulgent than our including song lyrics in our review text. Don’t worry, not this time. Flopsy from Mirth Island for example. No idea but apparently it’s a rhythm action game that looks a bit like Animal Crossing to our eyes. Looks cute though.

In addition to the obscure easter eggs, there’s keys and hence treasure chests to find. Some are empty, others have cats in them. It’s all very whimsical and before you know it you’ll have done all there is to do.

The twenty-five puzzle pieces across the two levels proved more challenging for us, but once they found, they stay found. You can then do said puzzle via an option in the main menu. It’s all quite cute and over in a jiffy.

As before, each cat has its own bio, but when you’ve less than two hundred and seventy in the game, that’s probably the devs Discord members cat names alone. Heck, this writer could contribute five more if they need them. Yes, we have five bloody cats.

So yes, Cats & Seek: Kyoto is a sparse confection of a game. The jukebox where you can play the four music tracks is a nice touch and was playing while we typed this review out. So far, so cute. OK, it’s only £2.49 but even with taking screenshots for this review, we were done in just over an hour. It beat working at least, but when a game is so slight, you feel like it could’ve amounted to more.

Especially when you consider the likes of Vampire Survivors being £3.99 and gave us countless hours of pleasure, you begin to question quite what the value proposition is. It’s one step above the pay for platinum dross that clutters up the PSN store at least, but still less than a cup of coffee in any café outside of the golden arches. Man, we could go for a milkshake from there, but the machine would probably be busted. Plus we’d have to leave our flat. Maybe not then. We might be lazy, but we’re not going to Deliveroo it.

In conclusion, even for a hidden cat game, Cats & Seek: Kyoto is a sparse affair.  Very much a case of blink and you’ll miss it. Never mind the easter eggs you’re asked to find likely won’t mean much to you. Mirth Island looks cute though. So perhaps our curiosity warranted their inclusion after all. Huh. You’ll be done inside ninety minutes regardless, so it’s up to you whether you deem that value for money or not. £2.49 is a bit more than a large banana milkshake from McDonalds plus it won’t give you brain freeze. Oh, we discovered our local BP garage does amazing Reeses Pieces flurry things. They are amazing, seek them out.

Cats & Seek: Kyoto, you know the drill, find cats for an hour or so, platinum. Job done. During our playthrough, we patted 374 cats, so that’s 0.66 pennies per cat, plus you get a twenty-five-piece jigsaw. So OK we guess.