Blade Kitten is a side-scrolling platform game with quirky cell shaded 3D graphics and a catgirl as its protagonist. Not a combination that inspires a whole lot of confidence after the dismal failure of that other anime-inspired platform game, X-Blades, but I decided to give the demo (Steam) a whirl anyway. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
This demo includes the first level of the game in which Kit Ballard, bounty hunter / catgirl, sees her ship destroyed and missions details stolen by a mere human. Kit gives chase and a few cutscenes along the way try to expose some sort of story. It doesn’t appear to be a particularly compelling tale and the voice acting is mediocre, but all that falls away before gameplay that is surprisingly fun and varied.
Blade Kitten is a standard platform game at its core, with a lot of climbing, (double) jumping, puzzling, point collection and fighting to be done. What sets it apart is that these elements all flow well into each other without an overabundance of any platforming element. It’s never too heavy on combat, jumping or puzzling and these aspects are all accessible to a degree that the game proceeds at a breakneck pace. There are no overly lengthy tutorial segments and the how-to-play guide in the menus can easily be skipped altogether.
A floating sword follows Kit around and provides her with some devastating combat moves. She can use it to fight in melee, throw it into enemies to pull them in for melee finishers or jump into the air and land with a crushing blow. These need to be used against both enemies and the environment, because the blade is involved in solving numerous puzzles. A frequently returning puzzle is where the blade needs to hit a certain touch stone to disable environmental hazards like giant wind turbines.
There is variety in the actual platforming as well, with hazards that need to be weathered by grabbing hold of the environment, hidden stashes that can be uncovered by destroying parts of the environment or jumping onto floating stones, segments that require clever sliding or sprinting to survive and objects that need to be activated in order to proceed.
Well-timed hints explain everything you need to know
Blade Kitten isn’t particularly innovative or impressive, but it has an enduring charm and engaging gameplay that’s prompted me to buy the full game anyway. The demo level lasted nearly half an hour and the game comes with 12 levels, so it’ll likely provide several hours of entertainment. It also introduces more enemy types, blade types, characters, outfits, puzzles and entirely different kinds of levels that involve riding a moa-like creature.
Give the demo a go on Steam, which seems to be the exclusive PC distribution platform. I’ll have a proper review of the full game up sometime soon.
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