I have a confession to make.  I hate cats.  I can’t stand the way they have this degree of cuteness that only masks their rebellious, independent nature.  I also hate the way they climb things with their claws and become demons in the presence of yarn.  This is why I avoided downloading Neko, a game where you play a kitten who climbs things and plays with yarn. 

However, Neko has made a cat-lover out of me. This game has everything you would want out of a Mario-style game: cuteness, action, and lots of special moves. When I say cuteness, I mean little kitten cuteness.  The cuteness that dies when a kitten becomes a self-loathing, self-loving cat. I am assuming that the game is named after the main character, so let’s call him Neko.  Your job is to take Neko through these worlds and help save his caged cat friends.  On the way, you encouner snakes, hedgehogs, and other non-cute animals who will try and stop you.  You can stop them with yarn balls.  (That’s right, yarn balls, and I’ll explain more later.)  You also collect little bottles of milk which are kind of like the “coins” of this game.  You can also collect the yarn balls that are used to beat your enemies, and they serve other purposes too. 

This game has a lot of special moves that can be activated using the Shift Key.  For example, you can roll yourself up in a yarn ball and bowl over your enemies, kind of like Sonic the Hedgehog. You can also use your yarn to create ropes that can take you to new heights. It’s kind of cool when you do this, because Neko will play the flute as the rope flies into the air like an Indian rope trick. You’ve got to see it to believe it. Neko is so cool that I could have easily played it all day, if not for my responsibilities. If Neko had been released in the late 80’s for NES, it would have been a runaway hit that would have beat out Mario like Sonic the Hedgehog did in the early nineties.  It is a family game that I highly recommend. 

I would have given this game five stars except for one thing: control placement.  The arrow keys to move and spacebar to jump are fine, but Ctrl lets you throw the yarn. Unfortunately, the Ctrl key is far from my spacebar so it is difficult to hit it when you truly need to hit it. Maybe that’s just my computer, though. 

For more cat fun go here.

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