The last time I saw a cat fired at high altitudes, it was during an unpleasant experience with the unfortunately popular and grotesque Kitten Cannon browser game. Fortunately, Loqheart’s Cannon Cat is here to clear that travesty by revealing how positive and adorable a skybound kitten should be. With some of the best cannon-blast gameplay since Donkey Kong Country, Cannon Cat is as entertaining as it is charming.
The last time I saw a cat fired at high altitudes, it was during an unpleasant experience with the unfortunately popular and grotesque Kitten Cannon browser game. Fortunately, Loqheart’s Cannon Cat is here to clear that travesty by revealing how positive and adorable a skybound kitten should be. With some of the best cannon-blast gameplay since Donkey Kong Country, Cannon Cat is as entertaining as it is charming.
In an alternate universe where fish have been granted the power of flight, the still-flightless emu and penguin team up for revenge. Powered by flight suits and propellers, they strive to imprison every flying fish that they can by encapsulating them in a bubble. It’s up to Cannon Cat (who has apparently abandoned the traditional feline-fish rivalry) to soar through the skies and free the fishes.
Alright, so it’s yet another take on the “Animal A vs. Animal B” Angry Birds approach to plot, but you’ve got to admit: it’s still pretty entertaining. Complete with the delightfully determinant expressions and cries from our hero, and it actually becomes an engaging adventure.
Control is so simple that even the elderly and infantile could play. If you are capable of tapping the screen of an iOS device with a single finger, then you know how to play Cannon Cat. One tap fires your flying feline out of his respective cannon, hurling him into the sky. Once you’ve hit each stage’s respective portal, you’re successfully transported into the next stage.
While controls might be simple, the challenging stages are anything but. With many stages requiring lightning-quick reflexes to succeed, Cannon Cat is surprisingly difficult. For players who aren’t quite so skilled, your trusty spaceship offers a slew of perks to aid you in your quest.
Powerups include slow motion, revivals from the last cannon fired, larger fish to free, and a shield for protection from penguins. You’re given a handful of abilities for free, but additional powers can be purchased through in-game currency (sparks). Luckily sparks are awarded generously, both as an award collecting every fish in a stage, and as a large present in return for rating the game in the app store.
If there’s one thing that makes Cannon Cat a memorable title, it’s polish. For the most part, bursting from cannon to cannon just works. Some stages require you to launch at the perfect moment. Others force you to think on your feet with moving cannons. By the time you reach the most challenging courses, you’ll likely find yourself caught in a trance.
The intense cannon gameplay is addicting enough to carry players through each mission, but it’s a shame that many stages are so similar to each other. Aside from a very small handful of enemies (flying penguins and rotating puffer fish are the only two obstacles you’ll face), there isn’t enough of a distinguishing factor between stages to make any of them really stand out.
Cannon Cat‘s greatest pitfall comes in the second half, Cedaria Reef. These stages feature the aforementioned puffer fish, whose soft underbelly is used as a trampoline. While most of the time it functions just fine, about 10 to 20 percent of the time it locks and launches cannon cat at a distance that defies physics. It would only be a minor issue if it happened from time to time, but all 40 of the game’s second area stages feature said inflatable demons.
It might not be purrfect, but Cannon Cat is still a great iOS title. It’s challenging, fun, and full of personality. It’s a little light on variety and a tad glitch toward the end, but that’s nothing a few updates can’t fix. With 80 stages (and 40 more coming soon), Cannon Cat is well worth a play.
