Nippy Cats Review

Cats can be a little scary when there’s catnip around; any cat owner can attest to that. My cat, Harry, is now deaf and blind, but when he can smell catnip he’s still dangerous. Nippy Cats captures that vibe quite well, being a frantic one-touch game all about trying to keep the catnip away from hordes of cats for as long as possible. It’s overly shallow and could urgently do with Game Center support, but it’s a cute idea.

The location for each session looks a lot like a living room in a house. The catnip is in the middle of the screen with the game beginning once you grab it with a finger. That’s when the cats start running onto the screen, usually at speed. Those numbers grow steadily and it’s down to you to keep moving in order to dodge them. Nippy Cats doesn’t make it easy because there’s no suggestion of where they’re about to come from next. An indicator arrow giving you a heads up would have been helpful here.

It’s frantic but kind of fun; at least for a few minutes. After a while you’ll get a breather as the cats flop on the ground for a quick nap, before it’s all go again. You’ll need it too, as Nippy Cats really does require fast reactions.

The problem is it never really evolves past that simple idea. Some kind of focus such as a mission-based system here would have been great, or power-ups to balance things out. Nippy Cats instead keeps it very simple, much like mini-games we’d see on the App Store years ago. Lack of Game Center support means you can’t even compete with friends very easily, outside of sharing via social networks.

Nippy Cats is a free game and there are certainly worse options out there, so it’s fun for five minutes but don’t expect it to captivate you for as long as you’d like. It’ll remain a nice idea for a while longer.