Chowdown Kitty is match 3 puzzle game where you feed hungry cats. Developed by a team of five at Lunar Peace and published by indie.io, Chowdown Kitty was released on February 12th, 2026. Featuring thousands of cats to collect, furniture to deck out the Cat Lounge, and outfits to dress up your kitties, Chowdown Kitty is a simple and whimsical game. The cats are cute and I enjoyed dressing them up in the different clothing options. I also thought the gameplay was quite expectedly simple from a match 3 game.
However, I do think it might be a bit too simple. Chowdown Kitty takes a very basic approach to their core match 3 gameplay. There are only a few power-ups, obstacles and challenges to make things interesting. This feels like the type of game I would play on my phone during a commute, rather than something I’d sit at my computer playing. Whimsy, charm, and cute cats carry the game for a while, but they eventually give way to monotony and some hard‑to‑miss flaws. The low price softens the blow, yet I still believe it needs a few key improvements before I can recommend it broadly. So, call up Catherine and Gramps, because it’s time to discuss Chowdown Kitty!
Hungry Cats Galore!
Gameplay can be summed up quite simply. Make matches of three to fill up the cat’s food bowl. Once they’re full, they are added to your collection. As a cat dad myself, I know how food motivated he can be, so initially the charm of feeding cats had my attention. There are thousands of different cats to collect, with a book containing 1008 pages with 10 cats per page. As you feed the cats, they will grow across three stages, from small baby to extreme chonk. For most cats, this evolution was pretty cute. Others looked a bit uncomfortable with their hefty bodies and bulging eyes going in different directions.
The objective is to fill the Happy Cat Meter and to get decent scores. Each cat has a favorite treat. Players can focus on them to achieve better scores. Players will also encounter a few power-ups and obstacles. Power-ups are either bombs that blow up a small area of the board or arrows that go vertically, horizontally, or in all four diagonals. Power-ups, as well as some spaces on the board when starting a level, will be frozen. Players must make matches next to these areas in order to break them open. Frozen blocks can have different thickness, requiring more adjacent matches. When you break open a block containing a power‑up, the game uses it automatically. This might come in handy or hinderance if you are aiming for a new high score.
As you play, cats will eat food from their bowl. This will eventually lower the happy cat meter over time if you are not actively making matches. In later stages, cats will eat faster and require more food. In my time of playing, I only noticed a slight difference. The game takes a pretty relaxed approach to increasing difficulty. After each stage, the game shows players a scorecard and a grade. When it comes to the core gameplay of Chowdown Kitty, this is pretty much it. Some stages feature challenges, such as limited moves or more obstacles, but these come much later on. Overall, the match 3 gameplay here is not introducing or inventing anything new to the genre.
Catherine, Gramps, and Lost Cats
Chowdown Kitty has two game modes—adventure and free play. In adventure mode, we are traveling with our friend, Catherine across 7 islands to rescue lost cats and bring them back to our Rescue Center. With the help of her grandpa, Gramps, and his boat, players can travel to each island, each with 10 cats to rescue. As you progress, different story bits will pop up, mostly Catherine giving the players some little information about the islands. Once you’ve rescued all the cats across the 7 islands—spoiler alert—an alien guy will ask you to rescue cats across 3 space ‘islands’, featuring some space themed cats. These 3 stages also have ten cats each to rescue, resulting in a total of 100 cats.
Free play is the same as adventure mode, just without the actual ‘adventure’ bit. It is a continuous loop of collecting cats, occasionally interrupted every few stages by a bonus game. Bonus games are simple mini-games such as following a card as it gets shuffled around. They reward players with new furniture items or cat clothing. It is a simple little break of pace from the endless loop of stages. There are achievements for winning 1000 stages of free play and befriending 1000 kittens. Free play feels intended to keep players busy, collecting cats as they aim for the achievements.
Playing Dress Up in the Cat Lounge
The Cat Lounge at the Rescue Center serves as the home screen for when you aren’t matching 3. Here you are able to display up to 5 cats, dress them up in outfits, and decorate the room with furniture. Gato Bazaar sells cat clothing and furniture, refreshing its stock every 45 minutes. To make a purchase, you will need mewcoins, a currency rewarded to you after each completed stage. I will say, I did have some fun here dressing up my cats and decking out the room, but I do find some elements to be very limited.
First off, to only be able to place up to five cats when you can collect thousands feels a bit underwhelming. I do believe this is due to the limited space in the room. Though I can appreciate the appearance of a second room and the depth perception when placing items, the space feels super cramped. There are only 6 pages of furniture items, further limiting the actual variation allowed. Also, moving items around the room feels a bit clunky. Items can’t be placed on top of each other, such as a small plant on a table. Cats can go on only certain chairs but not all. Oh, and there seems to be no way of rotating things to face the other way. All of the cats end up facing towards the left, in the same way they do during stages.
It feels hugely uninspired. I wish there were more furniture items and multiple rooms. Afterall, this rescue center has to be quite big if we are containing thousands of cats in it. Why can’t we create a whole house of cats, displayed in different rooms? I would love if the cats moved and interacted with the area, or at least had more things to sit on beyond just some of the chairs. My cat climbs all over the place and chews on plants he knows he shouldn’t. I really wanted to enjoy this “fully customizable playground of your own making” as the steam page states, but instead I feel a bit lied to as a player. Still, I did enjoy dressing up my cats and putting mustaches on them, so I will give the developers a golf clap for this at least.
Cat-clusions
I don’t typically like to discuss price in my reviews, but I think it’s relevant in this case. Chowdown Kitty has a low price point of 2.99 USD. For this price, I do think you are getting a decent game and its difficult to ask or expect more. Still, the game leaves several things to improve, including simple quality‑of‑life tweaks that would make decorating the room much smoother. When it comes to match 3 gameplay, I admittedly am not a fan. Yet, I still am aware of plenty of free match 3 games that do what Chowdown Kitty does, if not better. Unfortunately, though I love the idea of a match 3 game where you feed and collect cute cats, I sadly think it misses too many marks in execution for me to be able to recommend this to everyone.
I do wonder why this game was not made to be on mobile, outside of if you are using a steam deck. This could be a free, match 3 mobile game with ads/optional ads—a casual game to play during a commute. I would be a bit more understanding of the limitations. Regardless, I hope small quality of life updates are made to at least improve on the decorating aspect outside of the match 3 game.
I need to go give my cat a treat now, thank you for reading!
