Cat Astro Phi

Cat Astro Phi is a retro top down adventure game and asteroid shooter. The game emulates the style of the classic Game Boy games, from the four colors, to the classic midi music, to the outer GUI shell of a pixelated game boy mock-up. The story is ever-present, and some of the dialogue presents itself as both a satire and an homage to the games it emulates.

The game consists of two game types, a sidescrolling asteroid shooting game and an top down game not unlike the original legend of Zelda. I honestly didn't care much for the asteroids mode, but its thankfully short and you can purposely fail it if you wish. The main game involves finding your lost cat, and collecting 10 power cells to repair your ship. Each of the three levels includes simple puzzles involving bombs, boxes, keys and three types of guns. Its simple, but its fun as hell, and the game only gets better as it goes on.

The graphic art is nicely done, the animations are simple, but they work. Like the old gameboy, it only uses 4 colors, but nothing is muddled or hard to make out. The explosion sprites are a bit of an exception, as they seem to blend horribly with all the other ground textures.

I went into this game expecting a mediocre and tedious little town down shooter, and was pleasantly surprised. The writing is well done, the art design is iconic, and the game is a tad short of the perfect length. The only real problem with the game is the poorly done asteroids mode, but even that is more bland than it is bad.