LifeisXbox’s Catie in MeowmeowLand review | I’m a big fan of Alice of Wonderland and I enjoy the occasional puzzle game, so that made the brand new game Catie in MeowmeowLand a very interesting title to me! Okay, admitted, I am more of a dog fan so maybe I would have preferred Woofwoofland, but I do love me some cats as well, so it’s all good! Anyway, let me introduce you to ARTillery’s latest release. Catie in MeowmeowLand is a classical and funny point-and-click adventure game based on the Alice in Wonderland story. In this game, you help a little girl called Catie to get back home after she finds herself in the bizarre cat world called Meowmeowland.
Most Memorable Moment
This is a very strange and peculiar game so there were definitely some memorable moments. However, thé most memorable moment for me personally took place at the beginning of the game. As you probably know from the Alice in Wonderland story, Alice falls down a rabbit hole and enters Wonderland this way. In this game, Catie enters MeowmeowLand in a similar way. However, the way she comes into MeowmeowLand is shown and it definitely made me go ‘???’. You see, Catie gets put into this bizarre world by crawling out of a cat’s anus… Yeah. That was a promising start of a very, very bizarre game!
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion of the writer.
What we Liked!
- Enter a beautifully bizarre world | If you like cats, you’re in for a treat. After all, Catie is in MeowmeowLand and that name does sound very cat-like, doesn’t it? But this is a bizarre game, and the cats will all look quite funny. However, if you’re not a fan of cats, do not worry, there are plenty of other quirky characters. With over 100 weirdos, like a big boulder head and a bunch of worms, it’s definitely going to be a crazy ride throughout MeowmeowLand. The land itself is also quite beautiful but no less than 24 hand-drawn 2D scenarios. They have plenty of detail and it’s definitely amazing to look around and play in these environments. The soundtrack is just some peaceful music but the sound effects include all the random creatures making cute little sounds.
- Point-and-click gameplay with a twist | The typical point-and-click games are well-known by now. You click various items in the environment in order to solve puzzles and continue the game. I feel like Catie in MeowmeowLand took the point-and-click genre to the next level with their game. Instead of just clicking items, you get to combine items with each other and the environment in the most bizarre ways. As mentioned before, there are a total of 24 scenarios that you have to solve your way through. Catie can only be moved once you’ve figured out the scenario you’re in, so you’re not walking through MeowmeowLand yourself. Items you interact with will have to be placed correctly right away or they will be returned to where you picked them up from. Nope, no inventory in this game. Everything has to happen right away. Don’t worry though, you get unlimited tries!
- Alice In Wonderland-inspired story | Catie in MeowmeowLand is filled with very clear Alice in Wonderland references. It is no secret that this game is heavily inspired by Lewis Caroll his famous story. It starts with the title of the game which already resembles it a great deal. Then we have the story: one day Catie sees a cat (not a rabbit this time) that seems to be late for something. She decides to follow this weird cat and falls down a dark hole, allowing her to enter a mysterious and weird world called MeowmeowLand. Just as Alice tried to find her way back home, you have to try and get Catie back to her reality as well. Throughout the game, there will be other clues that will definitely take you back to Wonderland, like a drink making things smaller and cake enlarging items. Or what about a big cat smoking from a pipe (clearly referring to the caterpillar). As an Alice in Wonderland fan, it was really nice seeing all these references and the developer’s take on this bizarre world that they, somehow, made even weirder.
- Word-free communication | Explanations, conversations and hints are never communicated using words. For a writer, this does not seem very interesting, does it? Well, I actually thought it was very refreshing. As the developers themselves say it: ‘Instead of reading traditional dull text boxes all characters communicate through comic bubbles filled with amusing line art’. And they definitely succeeded in creating a fun way to keep communication throughout the game interesting. Don’t get your hopes up too high though, there aren’t a lot of speech bubbles popping up! After all, the game’s focus is to solve puzzles!
Mixed Feelings
- A hint or two | While the game offers some hints at the start, you’ll have to figure out most of the bizarre puzzles yourself. I do not believe they are incredibly difficult, but if you’re really not good at puzzling, you might stuck. I’m always a fan of introducing a ‘give me a hint’ button in a puzzle game. Of course, not right away, but if you see that someone is stuck on a level for fifteen minutes, give them a break. Yeah, I’m one of those horrible puzzle solvers… I ended up randomly clicking a lot, and at one point I did consult a YouTube video. So, you know, a hint button could’ve been interesting.
What we Disliked
- A land filled with randomness | The random and bizarre world of MeowmeowLand is both a blessing and a curse, really. Because the puzzles didn’t really make sense or had a purpose, it was rather difficult to figure out what the goal was. Or how you had to solve it. I basically ended up clicking around a lot and trying a lot of stuff. This particular point-and-click adventure was definitely a whole bunch of trial and error. And even though sometimes this was fun, it was easy to look track of the overall picture. Add to that the the connection between levels was, and still is, quite unclear, Catie in MeowmeowLand becomes a big random mess sometimes. I can put it this way: the absurdness of this game often came at the expense of logical gameplay, something that might push players away.
How long to beat the story | 2 to 3 hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 5 to 8 hours
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Head of PC team. PC, Switch, and Xbox game reviewer. Also a marketeer, concert and animal lover, and photographer in training 🙂
Steam: Mauitje
Xbox: Mauitjexo
