Kimono Cats by HumaNature Studios

Originating as an Apple Arcade offering a couple of years ago and now making its way to PC and Nintendo Switch, Kimono Cats sees ToeJam & Earl co-creator Greg Johnson put his spin on the mobile, social, and casual space.

Take My Cat to the Old Town Road

Set on the road to Kyoto for a festival, the game assigns you that most traditional of ancient quests: win a bunch of carnival games to impress that special someone you’ve got a crush on.

Boiled down to its simplest ingredients, this is a mini-game full of mini-games. As you and your date – both cartoon cats in traditional Japanese garb, as it so happens – stroll along the Kyoto road, you can toss expendable darts at the bubbles that float overhead, each pop leading to either a prize like snacks or money or an additional mini-game.

Clearly designed for touchscreens initially, some mini-games, like catching goldfish with a net or matching objects, make the jump to mouse controls better than others. Ninja stars and throwing balls at a target definitely made me wish I’d been playing on a tablet, as did the taiko drum rhythm game.

But these are minor complaints, and the mechanics are casual and forgiving.

More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

Prizes amount to cosmetic rewards, including new skins for your characters and objects to place in your home village. As in many social media games, you can visit friends’ villages, spend tickets to spin prize wheels, and share greeting cards and extra darts, though this is a minor element in Kimono Cats.

The cosmetics and visual effects are really the stars here, and unexpectedly, they’re reward enough. Despite the Japanese setting, I appreciate that the artistic approach to the cartoon animals is more Cartoon Network than Studio Ghibli – much as I love Miyazaki, he’s been ripped off more than enough – while still evoking Japanese rural life with traditional clothing and authentic street snacks.

The weather effects – some bubbles change the weather or time of day – and lighting are especially noteworthy, and I took way too many screenshots of fireworks, sparklers, and lanterns during night scenes.

I love the score, as well; its soft chip-tunes and electronic melodies unobtrusively allude to Japanese musical modes without the overt signaling of just looping a couple of well-worn koto-and-shamisen riffs and calling it a day.

The Verdict:

What impresses me most about Kimono Cats, though, is that as far as I can tell, it’s actually sincere and bereft of the usual cynicism. The Steam page description is full of phrases like “inclusive and uplifting,” and the original Apple Arcade description states that “Kimono Cats is designed to help you smile a bit more every day.”

I’m as cynical as anyone and probably more than most, and yet I believe that. It has all the hallmarks of mobile casual games – COLORS! PRIZES! COINS! JINGLING NOISES! FIREWORKS – and none of the grotesque monetization.

Run out of darts? There’s no option to pay real-world cash or watch interminable commercials to get more; you just go to your home village and get more with a metal detector mini-game.

Nor are there options to buy extra-rare village decorations or character skins; you can earn in-game currency playing the game itself and buy them or win them visiting other people’s villages, but you can’t just put them on your credit card.

Johnson really did make this one just to put something nice out into the world, and I admire that. I couldn’t ask for anything more (except maybe an Android version I can play on my tablet without getting out of bed).

Kimono Cats is available via the Apple Arcade, Nintendo eShop, and Steam.