Game Reviews

Bombcats

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Bombcats
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| Bombcats

Physics-centric creature-flinging puzzle games are ten a penny on the App Store. That's primarily thanks to Angry Birds.

Most of these trajectory-based puzzle games are little more that flimsy cash-ins made by folks who don't even bother trying to add anything new to the well-established template.

Radiangames's Bombcats is a little different, though.

For one thing, the developer has got the flinging thing down to a tee. For another, the developer has dreamt up a raft of interesting new ideas and mechanics for Bombcats that make this game more worthy of your time than most.

It's not perfect by any means, but it's an engaging little game all the same.

Bomb flingity

The aim of the game is to throw explosive cats at other explosive cats who've become trapped in magical cages. Blow up one of the titular critters in the right place and it'll free its trapped comrade. That's not all, though, for you'll need to collect glowing yellow suns to progress to the next level.

Anyone who's played Angry Birds will be familiar with the slingshot controls of Bombcats. Rather interestingly, mind, you don't have any say over the power of your fling here; just the direction. This means you really have to consider where you need to fire your pussies.

You can fling your cats farther with extra flicks after the first one, and tap them to get them to explode early if they're already in the right place. This results in a more kinetic experience, for you're always tapping and swiping rather than just spectating.

The levels are well designed, and different challenges and cats are introduced at opportune moments as you play through. Sometimes, you need to polish off a set of bite-sized levels as quickly as you can to complete a challenge. On other occasions, you need to fling your cat as far as you can with a few flicks and bounces.

Tossing a tabby

There's a degree of challenge in Bombcats that you don't find in many games of this ilk. And while you can purchase power-ups and boosts, the basic Bombcats experience is tough enough to occasionally leave you scratching your head.

With clever features like replay sharing up its sleeve, too, Bombcats is a surprisingly compelling game. While Radiangames doesn't exactly re-invent the physics-based puzzler wheel here, there are enough new 'spokes' in Bombcats to keep you entertained for a long time.

Bombcats

Clever, brilliantly designed, and dripping with new ideas, Bombcats is a great addition to the animal-flinging genre
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.