A Castle Full of Cats

My first instinct when I loaded this up was to dismiss it as a cute one-trick diversion, but A Castle Full of Cats kept pulling me back in room after room. At its core it is a point-and-click hidden object game where every cat in a sprawling gothic castle has been cursed into a bat, mummy, skeleton, or some other spooky critter, and your job as calico protagonist Lily is to click them back to their fluffy selves. Simple on paper. Sneakier in practice. What elevates it above a basic seek-and-find is the Metroidvania layer stitched on top. The main hall features numbered doors that only open once you have found enough cats across the castle's 20-plus rooms, so exploration genuinely matters. Beyond the cat count, you are also hunting for items: keys unlock new passages, a crystal ball hints at a single hidden cat per use, a hidden map reveals secret corridors, and Cathulhu's Tentacle lets you teleport between rooms once you track it down. Backtracking to an old room with a freshly found dungeon key and discovering a new area is exactly the kind of small dopamine hit the genre usually skips. The two-tier HUD tracks visible cats and hidden cats separately, the latter tucked inside drawers, clocks, paintings, and suitcases you have to click to pop open. Finding that last cat tucked inside a clock you walked past fifteen times is genuinely satisfying. The art style is hand-drawn and distinctly charming: rooms are rendered in detailed linework and colorful backgrounds, and cats fill in with vivid color the moment you rescue them, which gives the whole screen a slow, satisfying bloom as you clear each area. The music punches above its weight too, shifting between eerie piano, melancholy vocals, and jaunty keyboards depending on where you are in the castle. For a game this compact, the soundtrack variety is notable. The castle references are also quietly clever, with Castlevania nods woven into the lore for anyone paying attention to the portraits on the second-floor walls. On the downside, the whole run lasts roughly one and a half to two and a half hours depending on how thorough you are. The map system could use a bit more polish for navigating the more labyrinthine sections. And the final tower sequence shifts into timed hidden object challenges, which breaks the otherwise chill pace abruptly. Whether that is a bug or a feature depends on your tolerance for sudden pressure. It is also worth knowing the game has received post-launch bonus content that adds new achievements, so returning players have a small reason to go back. This one is an easy call for cat people, hidden object fans, or anyone who wants a relaxing evening that asks just enough from your brain to feel like gaming rather than wallpaper. Devcats also channels proceeds toward cat adoption awareness, so the purchase carries a little extra weight if that matters to you.

Alex · Scout Team

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