Holy meow!
There is this undying, unique charm to millennial-esq “random humor” siphoned through . . . um, cats. Our feline friends (or fiends) are just so expressive, borderline unpredictable, and most importantly inseparable from us humans, as they are one of the most commonly owned pets in the world.
Going back to the early 2010s, there was the Nyan Cat: a kitty, pop-tart hybrid flying through space emitting rainbows. Oh, so random! Then, the unforgettable Exploding Kittens came out years later, and remains popular. That game is basically total cat chaos filled with gaffs and destruction. There is also the Steam game Catlateral Damage . . . which is exactly how it sounds.
We are becoming a bit tame in the cat craze department nowadays. Releases like Stray or Little Kitty, Big City prefer the lost cat storylines while still remaining fun and adventurous. Cozy games have been dominating the gaming space as well, with cat-centric titles like Cat Cafe Manager, and even back in 2014 there was Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector.
But, in July of 2024, developer Prikol Team and publisher ESDigital released Cats on Duty. If you had been missing that cringe but charming cat craziness – this is it. An action-based, real-time strategy game that is all about admiring goofy kitties wielding weapons and slaying incoming baddies.
Play Cats on Duty on the PlayStation 4 and 5, the Xbox Series X/S, PC, Steam, and the Nintendo Switch.
Purrfect Pandemonium
Cats on Duty is an interesting blend of Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled. It is puurrfect for thise who enjoy both match-3 and tower defense games . . . at the same time! Do not fret as it is not an overwhelming process. The tutorial is thoughtful and forgiving. Tips and tricks are given by this mega random, heterochromatic cat adorning a wizard robe. Their blocky look reminds me of Unikitty from The LEGO Movie.
There is no plot. Players simply develop a cat army to defend their homes against random monsters, like zombies, skeletons, bugs, and witches. Players get access to a variety of feline characters: the tabby Desperado with a sawed-off shotgun, the white cat Scout with the long-ranged bolt rifle, the plump fencer Lord Junior, an explosive litterbox saboteur, among others.
Kibble Crush
Cats on Duty operates a lot like its Plants vs. Zombies inspiration, where you must defend your territory against waves of mobs. Each wave and stage gets progressively more difficult. However, as the game says itself: it is “nothing difficult. The game is designed that way.”
Before starting, there are two difficulty settings. The “Kitty” difficulty is like easy mode, granting you more resources and slows down enemies. The “Cat” difficulty is a fair step-up, for those who “prefer to KILL.” You can change the difficulty at any point in time, even mid-game.
Before each wave begins, players get several freebie swaps at the match-3, which takes up the entire left half of the screen. As it can be inferred, you have to match three of the same color resource in a row or column to obtain it. “Resources” are cats for your army, or doors and litter boxes and such. You unlock more abilities and upgrades as you progress through the stages. Each color represents something: red tokens (the meat stick) are the little shotgun tabbies, and the blue fish tokens are the black cat gunmen, for example. Match as much as you can, but do this wisely. Once the monster-killing begins, for each enemy you slay, you gain extra swap attempts, but the wave will keep going simultaneously.
Kittens Exploding
You can’t do much at the start, but eventually players unlock the ability to move cat soldiers around the gridded battlefield; remove cats you accidentally place or do not want via a cruel squirt bottle; and if you line three of the same cat in a column or row, the kitty will upgrade and become beefier. Unfortunately, this is an automatic reaction. Cats will upgrade in that manner whether you want it or not, so place them down smartly. Anyways, resources are essentially unlimited as long as you strategize correctly.
if either a monster or cat dies, it becomes quite bloody. Players are able to adjust the pixelated blood and corpse volume to loads or none at all.
The Cat’s Pajamas
Cats on Duty has that classic, pixelated, almost Flash Player kind of look. The kitties are cute and a bit anthropomorphized. All the enemies look kind of weird, though. Overall, the art style is lowkey ugly but in an appealing way.
The setting continues to shift from suburbia to forests to deserts, and they each have their own quirks. It keeps it interesting. As for the soundtrack, it is pretty much a repeat of the same tunes but it’s quite catchy and dynamic. I never got bored of the sound.
You eventually unlock the encyclopedia to all the monsters and kitty soldier types. It gives adorable descriptions of their homicidal prowess.
Final thoughts
Cats on Duty is a breath of fresh air for tower defense fans. It captures that chaotic magnetism that cats have been associated with for decades, and is overall just a silly and bloody joyride. Of course, the game gets a bit redundant at times, some of the unlockable cats are a bit of a let down, and there’s also occasional and unusual difficulty spikes. However, I don’t think there has ever been a perfect tower defense game. Ahem, purrfect.
Cats on Duty is cheap, easy to get a hang of, and can be played in short bursts. I recommend this game to fans of the genre. I cannot really say that it would reach an audience beyond that though. While I have never been a tower defense fan, I did find appeal and enjoyment with this title.
