As a kid, building forts was arguably the best thing to do on a rainy day. Grab some pillows, a blanket, anchor the blanket to the couch and drape it down to the pillows, and boom: makeshift living room tent. I always built the fort because it gave me a cool place to do homework, or to read a book, or play Pokemon Blue on my Game Boy Color.
In Fort Meow, I was tasked with building a fort of household items for a much different reason: because of cats.
I never had a cat when I was growing, and it wasn’t until very recently that I was introduced to life with a cat lurking around. As I discovered, cats love to sit in your lap and nap. They also like to sit in your lap and paw your arm until you pet them. It’s really hard to sit on the couch and play something on my iPad when my roommate’s cat is trying to high-five me constantly.
So with that said, I get the struggle that the young protagonist in Fort Meow is going through. She just wants to read her book in peace, yet the cats will have none of that. They want their lap-nap and are willing to go to great, and destructive, lengths to acquire just that. While a quick scoop and a toss is enough to deter my cat from badgering me, the cats in Fort Meow are not so easily dissuaded.
As you probably just saw in the Fort Meow trailer, the cats are quite energetic in the game. So much so that it warrants the player to surround the protagonist will all manner of household items that you would traditionally not need to use to deter an invasive feline.
The entire game revolves around using these household items to withstand barrage after barrage of incoming cats. Think of it as an inverted Angry Birds, except you’re building the fort before the cats come flying in. Protect the girl by surrounding her with the right sorts of materials (different cats do different things) and ensure her lap remains cat-free, to progress onto the next level.
Complete each level and gradually unlock the story of the girl’s grandfather, who happens to be quite an interesting character to learn about.
Fort Meow’s charm, combined with the game’s interesting spin on physics-based gameplay mechanics, give it enough horsepower to garner a recommendation from me. While it isn’t a game I see myself playing for much longer, I don’t regret the time I spent with the game one bit. It’s silly, it’s challenging, it’s fun, what more could you want from a little $8 (or $4 on the iOS App Store) indie game?
A review copy of Fort Meow was provided to Epic Brew for the purpose of this review.
