Spacecats in Space is the game your Saturday morning cereal wants to play. A 90s-ish 2D space fighter featuring wise cracking anthropomorphic cats dueling dour German dog villains. Players zoom through crags in asteroids and elaborate space bases with plenty of power ups and special attacks lighting up the screen. All the while a killer action rock soundtrack riffs in the background. Most games in the genre feel very Japanese-inspired, but Robotic Potato Games Studio CEO Alexander Lau said Spacecats in Space source material is classic cartoon Americana.
“ SWAT Kats . We’re inspired by SWAT Kats ,” he said.
He also cites Archer and Tailspin as sources of inspiration for Spacecats in Space , and gives a nod to Star Fox despite his disappointment with the current release. Nintendo's loss is his gain, and he's confident any fans of that franchise will find something to like in Spacecats in Space .
“People were really excited about Star Fox Zero , but then the controls and the reboot just disappointed them. People who hated Star Fox Zero will probably love our game because it's 2D, the controls are simple and the story is coherent,” he said. “And it's new, so it's not a rehash of what you've played like 10 years ago.”
The game itself is fun enough. I played through the Indiecade East 2016 demo and enjoyed myself. Spacecats in Space feels like a diet version of 17-Bit’s recent space shooting roguelike, Galak-Z . I'd played Galak-Z at this same festival in 2013 and remain a fan to this day. Lau is a fan too, but like me he suffers at the yoke of its tyrannical difficulty.
“This game is for people who Galak-Z is too hard for. It's too hard for me, It's a great game but it's really hard,” he said. “We're going to have ‘really hard mode. This demo was originally configured to challenge me, and no one could get past the first level. So we decided to cut everything in half and suddenly it was a lot more playable.”
Spacecats in Space is heading to Kickstarter in August, with plans for a full release three to six months later on Steam, OSX, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. A Nintendo platform release is also possible but the introduction of the NX could complicate things, said Lau.
Still, if you found yourself aching for a funny spacefighting game involving animal pilots you’ll be happy to know there are other signs of life out there. Spacecats in Space doesn’t take itself too seriously, but anyone looking for a Star Fox alternative really should.
Also, for no reason, here's some SWAT Kats:
