Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow. Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow; meow meow meow meow meow. Meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow? Meow. Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow. Meow meow meow meow meow.
To paraphrase: Catto’s Post Office is a very short game. Its Steam page is upfront about this, estimating a completion time of just 1 hour. And yes, it’s absolutely adorable. Look I’m from Northern England, I’m supposed to be a bit gruff and miserable and blunt, but it still managed to tug on my heartstrings like a piece of yarn. But what does it actually do with the hour of your time?
What could pawsibly go wrong?
Dedicated feline postal worker Catto wakes up to discover that no one in his tiny town seems to remember his birthday. Instead he must spend the day working (I feel for you mate), delivering a parcel to each of the village’s main points of interest; and though he keeps his little head held high, he can’t help but wonder why his friends seem to have forgotten the occasion. You can probably guess why.
Along the way you’ll make friends with the inhabitants of this cat world, cute little critters going about their busy little day. Interacting with them, you get dialogue reminiscent of 90s RPG’s like Earthbound; brief but charming and filled with plenty of puns. You’ll let out a chuckle here and there, a small dose of serotonin will hit your brain, and you’ll never be patronised or challenged. There’s no ‘clever’ twist, no nauseating reveal that this is actually a psychological horror and Catto is processing the death of his wife. It’s exactly what it says on the tin. How genuinely refreshing.
Catrols, felinesuals and meound (I’m so sorry)
Mechanically it’s… exactly what you think it is. Catto can walk around the neighbourhood, knock most things he sees over and meow with a dedicated meow button (a selling point on the Steam page). Unironically, I had a more satisfying time controlling Catto than some AAA games. Make of that what you will. One button will enable you to interact with objects and characters, there’s no inventory management or sub menus and though there are some dialogue choices, they’re just for extra flavour. It’s going from point A to point B, with the current objective clearly displayed in the top corner and no time limit or pressure to complete. This extends to the ‘side quests’, simple distractions that boil down to collecting an item that’s usually in the immediate vicinity, but I would’ve appreciated perhaps a bit more depth. These kitties are so cute, I’d do anything to make them happy.
The visual language is as wholesome as its premise, with a simple cartoony aesthetic full of pastels and flat shading. It’s easy on the eyes and on your computer; this’ll apparently run on Windows 7 computers(!). As the story progresses, so does the time of day, bathing the adorable port side town in varying tones of sunlight, a highlight being the golden hour (I’m a sucker for a good sunset). The character models (in a nice diversity of cat breeds) wouldn’t look out of place in Animal Crossing, and the feline theming extends into objects such as chairs, groceries and written signs (“meow”).
This is all accompanied by appropriate sound design; menu clicks will mew at you, Catto’s little feets pitter and patter on the ground, and the soundtrack is largely bells and the soft tinkle of a basic piano melody. It’s all cohesive and satisfying but if I had to be pedantic: A. the street lamps are illuminated even during the day and B. I noticed a couple of grammatical and spelling errors in the dialogue boxes. Nothing egregious or immersion breaking.
Is it purrfect?
A rarity in the current industry, Catto’s Post Office lives up to all of its promises. But it doesn’t really go further than that. There’s little replay value or staying power beyond an easy list of achievements and some hidden rubber ducks to discover amongst the map. But maybe you don’t want that, maybe you want a short and sweet parcel of joy after a long day; Catto will deliver it straight to you. After recently ploughing through an enormous open world game, I greatly appreciated the brevity; though I perhaps would’ve liked to get to know these characters better and done a little more for them.
The devs clearly made it with love and good intentions, and if you’re someone who wants to spread love and good intentions, the game is currently 20% off as an introductory offer. That’s cheaper than a room temperature glass of lactose free milk. Meow.
