Writings of Mass Deduction

I’m purchasing an Xbox Live Indie Game (XBLIG) every day, seeking out the quality titles that got lost in the shuffle and are not well represented in the top 50 lists on the Xbox Dashboard. Today is day #346, and today’s game is “LaserCat”.

“LaserCat, LaserCat, does whatever a LaserCat does.” C’mon, sing it with me.

There have been several attempts to reimagine console clasic “Pitfall!” (which I own for the Intellivision, but was really made famous by the Atari 2600). None have been particularly successful, but I think they could have been if they’d taken the approach of LaserCat. It takes the “navigate through one room at a time, across precipices, past enemies, using the environment to your advantage”-style gameplay of Pitfall!, but modernises it with the tropes of modern platformers and is an absolute must-buy at only 80 Microsoft Points.

First, from the developer (Dudefather):

“Jump, dodge and explore in the search for your Owlfriend who has been kidnapped by Wizzord the magic space frog! Playing as Lasercat, you need find all of the keys in the fortress to unlock Owl’s prison cell. A retro styled exploration platform game featuring 225 rooms filled with traps, creatures and deadly, deadly lava.”

LaserCat has 225 rooms, with a lot more variety than Pitfall! ever had. There are sometimes more than one exit to each room, so the game gives you a very strong sense of exploration. Don’t worry about getting lost, the game has a mapping function. You must navigate each room to collect keys as you explore this very sizeable game. Rooms have conveyer belts, wind tunnels, and other room-specific enemies, threats, and features that continue to surprise throughout the game. Tight controls, the mapping feature, and checkpoints help ensure the game is beatable, and not frustrating. Too many platformers are a linear run from start to finish, and LaserCat is a refreshing reminder that it doesn’t have to be that way. I can’t recommend it highly enough.