Let me get something clear right off the bat: I am not a cat person. It’s not that I don’t like them, in fact I’ve really enjoyed visiting my friend to see their new kitten. However, I enjoy dogs a bit more because you don’t have to win them over. You have to put in a lot of effort to get a cat to pay attention to you. With a dog? You just give them a treat and they love you immediately. Where am I going with all of this? I’m reviewing a cat game this week. It’s called Fancy Cats for iOS devices. It’s about cats.

The Basics

Like I said, despite my overall preference for dogs, I find cats to be pretty adorable. And this game takes that idea and runs with it. All of the various cats are very well animated, emphasizing their overall cuteness. So, even if you’re not having fun, you can still go “awwwww”. And I’d say that’s worth it.

The Gameplay

When I first downloaded Fancy Cats, I expected it to be one of those relaxed games where you take care of pets like Neko Atsume, the cat game absolutely everybody played earlier this year. Well, while Fancy Cats has elements of that, it adds its own original spin on the genre. And by original spin I mean you have to play a Candy Crush-like game in order to win any prizes such as new cats and accesories. So it’s an original-ish spin.

Is It Fun?

Fancy Cats is an interesting mixture of Neko Atsume and Candy Crush. You take care of cats and give them new accessories with the option to match three similar items to continue the flow of the game. While I’m not particularly a fan of either type of gameplay in general, I really like the fact that the two are intertwined here. If you get bored of watching your virtual felines, you can switch to the puzzle game and break up the gameplay a bit. By including both, they avoid monotony and make the experience as a whole lot more enjoyable.

The Bottom Line

I’m not going to lie, I did not have high hopes going into Fancy Cats. I thought it would simply be a game that wanted to be the next Neko Atsume. And, while it probably does, this game succeeded in one major area I found fault with Nekoo Atsume: engagement. While Neko Atsume had a lot of waiting around, Fancy Cats lets you kill some time by playing a simple mini game on the side. Is it revolutionary? No. Is it good enough for me? Yes.