Psychedelic Fun with Puss! From teamCOIL

By: GeekyGamerGirl87

Disclaimer: The following game trailer contains a series of flashing lights and images that maybe sensitive to those who are prone to epileptic seizures. Viewers Discretion is advised.

Every so often you are giving a game to review or preview that makes you scratch your head, and ask the question “What am I playing?” I am happy to say that Puss!, which is developed and published by teamCOIL; is such a game. Puss!, is a psychedelic avoid em up casual game, that will literally leave you wondering what it is you are playing.

Before I go into the review I am going to take the time to reiterate the disclaimer. Puss! Does contain a series of flashing lights and images that maybe sensitive to those who are prone to epileptic seizure. Therefore, player discretion is advised.  Also, I would like to take the time to thank teamCOIL for providing me with a demo of the game, to play so that I could write this preview.

Puss! Is one of those games that gives me the adult swim games vibe. When playing this I was reminded a bit of Pony Island with some of the glitching the game does, which please reassure it is designed to do this. The main objective of the game is to get the cat from point A of what looks like to be an Atari style maze to point B of the maze, by using your mouse. This sounds simple enough.

At least this is what I believe, and I was wrong. Surprisingly, it is a lot harder to get that little cat from point A to point B with the mouse then one would think. Especially, if you do not have a steady hand.  Sometimes you are left with narrow passages, or passages that move and you need to be alert and paying attention as to not touch the sides or else the game glitches and starts you from the beginning of the level. You are supposed to be able to customize the little kitty that you take through the maze, but I was unable to customize him. So, I can only think that this is something to do with the demo, but I am looking forward to seeing what customizations will be available for the little kitty, once the game releases fully.

One of the things that makes the game so interesting is the use of multiple art forms. Some of the backgrounds look amazing and others leave you again feeling confused at what you are looking at. The background for some levels does flash crazy lights. Then other levels do random weird things that are meant to distract you. There was one level I played, and the screen was a bit fuzzy.  It wasn’t so much of the levels that distracted me that caused me to lose lives. It was more so my hand was not steady enough with my mouse.  Which I then found out later, that you can go into the game settings and change the speed settings for the mouse. The soundtrack is interesting  too. It ranges from what sounds like old school 80’s break dancing music to even some new age soundscapes music.

When it comes to scoring in the game you start off with a certain amount of points, and as you move the little kitty through the maze, your points click off from the time you grab the kitty, until it reaches the end of the level. You do obtain free lives at the end of the level depending what your score is. This all depends on how many levels your cat goes up though. So, the faster you complete the level, the higher your kitty levels, the more lives you get.

Each time you have depleted your lives and start the game over the levels do change; which I thought was neat. Although,  — and this could also be since it was just the demo—the  game offers randomization of levels at the beginning  of each turn; I ended up playing a few of the same levels. Although the game is fun, I did find it to become a little repetitive due to the same levels starting to cycle through. Perhaps, when the full game releases the levels will be randomize a bit more so that it doesn’t seem to  cycle through the same set of levels.

The game is said to offer a leaderboard when the full game does release. Which would be interesting as it would offer a reason to play the game. As of right now there are no achievements or trading cards for the game, although with the leader board; I don’t feel that the game needs to have achievements or trading cards. I think because the game is challenging and having the leaderboard to go after other scores; it really doesn’t need an achievement or trading card system.

Overall, Puss! Is a very entertaining game that does provide a fun but challenging experience. I am looking forward to seeing what the game does offer when it fully releases, as I don’t think the demo really does the game complete justice. If you are interested in playing Puss! You can obtain the demo for the game which is available now on steam for free. You can also add it to your wish list and purchase it when it releases on Jun 6, 2018.