Preview – The Wacky ‘Hackycat’

I must admit, when I first heard about the upcoming release Hackycat , I was a little sceptical.

, I was a little sceptical. How could you possibly have fun by juggling a bunch of cats in the air? Trust me when I say it didn’t take very long for the game to prove me wrong.

Hackycat follows the concept of the well known sport of Hacky Sack, in which you juggle a small footbag or ball between a number of people in an attempt to keep it off the ground as long as possible. Here the ball is replaced with a collection of various cats, with the aim of keeping them aloft so as to avoid them exploding upon impact with the ground. It’s all about having some harmless fun in the face of a cunning challenge.

Like I said before, it didn’t take very long at all for the game to really grab my attention. Keeping the cats in the air is but a small part of a much more entertaining whole, what with deadly birds who will explode on impact or the cute sound effects and animations as the cats fly here, there and everywhere. It’s also very easy to play, you just tap on the screen to keep the cat(s) in the air or swipe in a particular direction to send them the way of collectable bonus cheeseburgers … sorry, cheezburgers.

So far I’ve put a few hours into my time with Hackycat and I can tell you now, it takes a lot of effort to put it down. At first I was laughing aloud at the reactions by the cats as they flew into the air, until the competitor in me started to sink in to better my high score. Still, I always had a little smirk on my face as a new cat unlocked to play with. So far I’ve found a cat with a mo, a zombie cat, the cheeky unicorn cat and my personal favourite, the taco cat.

Hackycat comes to us from the talented digital artist and illustrator Ken Wong , who’s resume features an Art Director credit for American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns . This is his first independent title and you can tell a lot of love has been embedded in every colourful frame, inspired by the lo-fi aesthetic of Wes Anderson movies … but hopefully not inspired by actually kicking a cat.

Hackycat bounces its assortment of cuddly felines to the App Store very soon. You can find out more via the official Facebookpage and keep an eye out for our full review too.