Developed by Hit-Point in 2014, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector is a simple game. The goal is to fill your yard with cats. Its essentially a cat watching game. As the player, your task is to put out food and go back to refill it when its empty. You lay out toys and play-things for the cats. What happens next? You sit back and wait. In the real world, you turn off the application and go about your normal life. When you have a moment, drop by again and voila! There are cats sitting in your yard playing with a rubber ball or rolling around a ball of yarn, maybe they are scratching on the scratching post or maybe they are taking a lovely nap.
This game is simple and yet what makes it better is that there are various features to it. One of the main ones is that the cats that visit and leave will drop “fish”. They can be silver or gold and this allows you to accumulate and exchange it for food or toys for them to play with to enhance it. The player starts off with one yard, however, if you save up enough it can be expanded to a room in the house also. Just like I did below. Aside from dropping fishes, each cat will eventually give you a memento. It can be broken little things or random little objects.
Another fun feature is like you own these cats and you can take their pictures. It can be a singular photo which saves in the individual cat albums for their profiles showing their temperament and favorite toys, just like this:
Or you can take a picture of the whole yard and that goes directly to your photo album on your phone, like this one from my yard:
While Neko Atsume might not seem particularly exciting, it actually is, especially if you are a cat person. The joy of the game is having the surprise of seeing that we have a constant companion. They are our cats and we learn their little features and their names. They all have different appearances and quirky names and each will have their own little toy they play more than the others. We have a big glutinous cat called Tubbs that drops by and always eats the whole bowl of food, or you’ll see them sleeping on a cushion you laid out and sinking inside it. Sometimes, you’ll have the mega condo complex (like I do) and they are peeking out from their little cat naps burrow holes or sitting around. There are currently 49 cats available to be found and 17 of those considered “rare” making them harder to catch in your yard unless certain items are there. I always miss some of them but know that they’ve visited while I was away. It creates a motivation to keep going to make sure they are fed and having fun while hoping that you’ll see some new furry companions also.
Overall, Neko Atsume channels the inner cat lover. The player can enjoy the perks of having a yard full of cats without the actual real life aspect of it. It has upbeat music in the background and lovely cats that drop by. Sometimes, that is what a game needs: simplicity. Simple gameplay and attractive features and perks that allow the player to be immersed without having to take up too much time. It’s what makes us go back to enjoy the experience and hopefully make some new friends.
