Cat Girl without Salad is a joke game (if you couldn’t already tell from the name). From what I’ve heard, it was based on an April Fools’ Day announcement by WayForward, but around 2016, they decided to make it into a real game. So it isn’t meant to be anything mind-blowing. That being said, there’s a ton of promising ideas here on display that I think could’ve made this game truly fantastic had they been fleshed out more.
The main gimmick of this game are the shot types that are meant to play like different game genres, ie. rhythm, platformer, puzzle, etc. This is such an insanely cool idea in concept and is a really clever way of integrating different genres into a shoot-em-up like this. In execution, however, well, it’s kind of a mixed bag. While a few of the shot types (particularly the puzzle and arcade ones) work really well for this type of game and happen to be pretty efficient as well, about 60% of them just kind of end up being really inefficient to use. Which is disappointing, because these aren’t exactly bad ideas. Like the rhythm game one. It’s actually a decent idea in concept, but it really needed some more time on the drawing board because not only is there not much of a reward for getting it, but it ends up being distracting as all hell too. You’re really just better off sticking with your peashooter as opposed to using this, and honestly, the peashooter is pretty boring with not much depth to it. While there’s a lot of potential on display here with all of these shot types, a lot of them definitely needed some time in the oven before being brought out.
Speaking of things that needed more time in the oven, the stages. Overall, they’re pretty boring. Because you’ll be using the peashooter most of the time, you’ll pretty quickly find that it doesn’t really do that much damage to enemies, so oftentimes you’ll just be dodging enemies that are just going to try to run into you. They don’t even really shoot that many bullets at you, so this is most of what the stage is usually going to be. However, I do have to say that the bosses are definitely the highlight of this game. Not only do all of them ooze personality, a lot of their patterns reflect this and are pretty fun to dodge at that. However, all of this comes with one major flaw that makes this game pretty hard to recommend. This game is three stages long. I’m not kidding. You can beat the entire game in about 30 minutes, MAXIMUM. You don’t even really get any extra content for beating the game. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind short games (in fact, I actually kind of prefer shorter games over games that drag on for too long), but three stages is just way too little for a game like this, especially since you don’t really get anything for beating the game. That, combined with the game’s easy difficulty and repetitive levels, means that there’s not much incentive to really revisit this game.
With all that being said, however, I can’t bring myself to criticize this game but so much. The charm and absolute chaotic energy of this game absolutely carried it for me. You can tell the developers had a ton of fun making this game, from the enemy designs to the boss patterns and ESPECIALLY the dialogue. I had a smile on my face nearly the entire time I was playing. To me, Cat Girl without Salad was carried by its presentation, and how much it relishes itself in being a joke game, and for what it’s trying to do, I think it works out pretty well. Because even despite its many problems, I still had fun with the game. I do think it’s a shame that its ideas weren’t fleshed out more, as the base of a great game is definitely here, and I really hope that WayForward decides to make another game like this. As it stands though, Cat Girl Without Salad is a pretty cute joke game, but not really anything more than just that. (6/10)
The main gimmick of this game are the shot types that are meant to play like different game genres, ie. rhythm, platformer, puzzle, etc. This is such an insanely cool idea in concept and is a really clever way of integrating different genres into a shoot-em-up like this. In execution, however, well, it’s kind of a mixed bag. While a few of the shot types (particularly the puzzle and arcade ones) work really well for this type of game and happen to be pretty efficient as well, about 60% of them just kind of end up being really inefficient to use. Which is disappointing, because these aren’t exactly bad ideas. Like the rhythm game one. It’s actually a decent idea in concept, but it really needed some more time on the drawing board because not only is there not much of a reward for getting it, but it ends up being distracting as all hell too. You’re really just better off sticking with your peashooter as opposed to using this, and honestly, the peashooter is pretty boring with not much depth to it. While there’s a lot of potential on display here with all of these shot types, a lot of them definitely needed some time in the oven before being brought out.
Speaking of things that needed more time in the oven, the stages. Overall, they’re pretty boring. Because you’ll be using the peashooter most of the time, you’ll pretty quickly find that it doesn’t really do that much damage to enemies, so oftentimes you’ll just be dodging enemies that are just going to try to run into you. They don’t even really shoot that many bullets at you, so this is most of what the stage is usually going to be. However, I do have to say that the bosses are definitely the highlight of this game. Not only do all of them ooze personality, a lot of their patterns reflect this and are pretty fun to dodge at that. However, all of this comes with one major flaw that makes this game pretty hard to recommend. This game is three stages long. I’m not kidding. You can beat the entire game in about 30 minutes, MAXIMUM. You don’t even really get any extra content for beating the game. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind short games (in fact, I actually kind of prefer shorter games over games that drag on for too long), but three stages is just way too little for a game like this, especially since you don’t really get anything for beating the game. That, combined with the game’s easy difficulty and repetitive levels, means that there’s not much incentive to really revisit this game.
With all that being said, however, I can’t bring myself to criticize this game but so much. The charm and absolute chaotic energy of this game absolutely carried it for me. You can tell the developers had a ton of fun making this game, from the enemy designs to the boss patterns and ESPECIALLY the dialogue. I had a smile on my face nearly the entire time I was playing. To me, Cat Girl without Salad was carried by its presentation, and how much it relishes itself in being a joke game, and for what it’s trying to do, I think it works out pretty well. Because even despite its many problems, I still had fun with the game. I do think it’s a shame that its ideas weren’t fleshed out more, as the base of a great game is definitely here, and I really hope that WayForward decides to make another game like this. As it stands though, Cat Girl Without Salad is a pretty cute joke game, but not really anything more than just that. (6/10)
A cartoon style shmup much like Parodius that centers around a goofy and lightheaded space bounty hunter going around defeating enemies in an absurd manner. From the title alone it's not meant to be taken seriously so I had quite a few chuckle at the dialogue between the mc, her companion robot and the bosses she's pissed off by being funnily dumb.
Also, huge props to the sprite department for having so many animations and variations between the enemies and the bosses for a 3 levels game. On the other hand, I was not a huge fan of the playability, specifically of some of the more "experimental" temporary wepon upgrades one is able to obtain.
Also, huge props to the sprite department for having so many animations and variations between the enemies and the bosses for a 3 levels game. On the other hand, I was not a huge fan of the playability, specifically of some of the more "experimental" temporary wepon upgrades one is able to obtain.
Funny short bullethell game. I don't usually like bullet hells but I liked the gimmicky/referential power ups and I'm fully aware a lot of the dialogue can come off goofy or cringe but I found it entertaining since it seemed like the leaned into it well.
It certainly feels like a wayforward game. I couldn't tell you what it was but it reminded me of shantae and river city girls at times (which I LOVE)
I liked it a lot but I could see people being annoyed at the gimmick powers and the dialogue! Again to each their own. I have no idea if you'd like this if your thing is bullet hell games. They are almost never my thing.
It certainly feels like a wayforward game. I couldn't tell you what it was but it reminded me of shantae and river city girls at times (which I LOVE)
I liked it a lot but I could see people being annoyed at the gimmick powers and the dialogue! Again to each their own. I have no idea if you'd like this if your thing is bullet hell games. They are almost never my thing.
super funny but way too short bullethell game filled with many creative gaming references, I really hope we get more of this franchise someday.
jueguito gracioso y divertido pero el sistema de powerups está un poco moñe
This game I always confuse with the Australian Hit Cartoon Kitty is not a Cat. Anyways this game does what Nier Automate failed so desperatly to do. It combines different genres together in a cohesive way.
Your weapons also represent different epochs in Gaming. You have your Microsoft Pacman, Megaman and even Bust-A-Move 2. Even Mario Golf made an appearence in this peculiar little game.
The banter between Kitty and Squiddy reminds me of Micheal Scott and Dwight Schrute. Similar Energy to be had here.
This game may just be an April Fools prank by WayForward but better than Nier Automata
Your weapons also represent different epochs in Gaming. You have your Microsoft Pacman, Megaman and even Bust-A-Move 2. Even Mario Golf made an appearence in this peculiar little game.
The banter between Kitty and Squiddy reminds me of Micheal Scott and Dwight Schrute. Similar Energy to be had here.
This game may just be an April Fools prank by WayForward but better than Nier Automata
Name is funnier than the game tbh
ahahahahaha they added assets shouting out the cutting room floor to this game that NO ONE EVER SAW!!!!! BWWAAAAHAHAHAHA
This review contains spoilers
I went into this expecting it to be a pretty bite-sized game, but I did not expect it to be as short as it is. There's only three stages. Honestly, it could have been even shorter for me if I didn't have to retry a few levels due to losing. I suppose that isn't necessarily a bad thing, just rather surprising to me. Cat Girl Without Salad is one of those April Fools games, released as a sort of "joke game" where the game announcement seems like a joke but its actually a real game. As a result, these games tend to be rather small scale and aren't meant to be taken seriously at all. With the context in mind, Cat Girl Without Salad is good at serving its purpose as a one-off gag, but you're not getting a game with much substance here. I'm kinda shocked that it has only had one other review, considering the Switch version of this game is 5 years old (8 years old for the original PC release) as of writing this review and it was made by WayForward, a decently well-known developer. I guess the novelty of being an April Fools joke didn't really give this game any more time in the spotlight.
With the way this game was marketed, you might think its some sort of genre mashup game. I know I initially thought that, anyway. The truth is, it's not; it's actually a very straightforward arcade style side scrolling shoot-'em-up. The main thing that distinguishes Cat Girl Without Salad is that the powerups are parodies of game genres, which is where the whole gimmick of it being a genre mashup comes from. You have the default Pea Shooter, then all the other powerups are parodies of the following game genres: Platformer, Puzzle, Sports, RPG, Maze (Pac-Man clone), and Rhythm. All of them were pretty fun to use except for the Rhythm powerup, which just felt counterintuitive to the game design since its difficult to focus on dodging enemy fire when you also need to follow a rhythm to be able to shoot at all. Unfortunately its pretty easy to get hit, and you lose your currently earned ability after only taking one hit with no way to get it back until the powerup pops up again after an enemy death. Considering these are pretty much the main selling point of this game, the sheer ease of losing it and having to rely on the mindless Pea Shooter was a little odd to me. Otherwise, yea, this is a standard arcade shooter, and its a little hard to screw that up.
There's no real story, so I'll just cover the characters and art style. The main character, Kebako, seems to be a goofy self-aware parody of the typical oblivious hyperactive girl you'd expect to see in an anime or something. Her design alone would probably clue you into that with how much of a purposeful mismatched mess it is, full of bright oversaturated colors and contrasting ideas. She has the memory of a goldfish, she likes food and loves to remind you of that, she is a terrible problem solver, etcetera. I have to admit, I found her character to be pretty charmingly moronic. Her assistant essentially plays the straight man to her absurdity, just trying to steer her the right way. Every other character pretty much feels like a loving parody of anime and RPG tropes, some more goofy and others more self-serious. The villains love to monologue at Kebako about their tragic past or how she ruined their lives, but she is utterly baffled by it all and barely even remembers these weirdos. I could see the jokes falling flat for a lot of people, especially considering how tiringly cliché some of it feels, but I had my brain turned off the whole time playing the game so I thought it was fine. It's just delightfully absurd.
Overall, Cat Girl Without Salad is way too barebones to justify really playing much in my opinion, but that seems to be the intention. It's a one-off gag game you play once, chuckle at a little, then probably never touch again. Still, though, its not a bad game by any means, and it serves its intended purpose well. I give this a three stars, not bad in my book but pretty unremarkable and way too short even in the context of what kind of game its meant to be (The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog for instance is another April Fools joke game that had way more content to it than this does).
With the way this game was marketed, you might think its some sort of genre mashup game. I know I initially thought that, anyway. The truth is, it's not; it's actually a very straightforward arcade style side scrolling shoot-'em-up. The main thing that distinguishes Cat Girl Without Salad is that the powerups are parodies of game genres, which is where the whole gimmick of it being a genre mashup comes from. You have the default Pea Shooter, then all the other powerups are parodies of the following game genres: Platformer, Puzzle, Sports, RPG, Maze (Pac-Man clone), and Rhythm. All of them were pretty fun to use except for the Rhythm powerup, which just felt counterintuitive to the game design since its difficult to focus on dodging enemy fire when you also need to follow a rhythm to be able to shoot at all. Unfortunately its pretty easy to get hit, and you lose your currently earned ability after only taking one hit with no way to get it back until the powerup pops up again after an enemy death. Considering these are pretty much the main selling point of this game, the sheer ease of losing it and having to rely on the mindless Pea Shooter was a little odd to me. Otherwise, yea, this is a standard arcade shooter, and its a little hard to screw that up.
There's no real story, so I'll just cover the characters and art style. The main character, Kebako, seems to be a goofy self-aware parody of the typical oblivious hyperactive girl you'd expect to see in an anime or something. Her design alone would probably clue you into that with how much of a purposeful mismatched mess it is, full of bright oversaturated colors and contrasting ideas. She has the memory of a goldfish, she likes food and loves to remind you of that, she is a terrible problem solver, etcetera. I have to admit, I found her character to be pretty charmingly moronic. Her assistant essentially plays the straight man to her absurdity, just trying to steer her the right way. Every other character pretty much feels like a loving parody of anime and RPG tropes, some more goofy and others more self-serious. The villains love to monologue at Kebako about their tragic past or how she ruined their lives, but she is utterly baffled by it all and barely even remembers these weirdos. I could see the jokes falling flat for a lot of people, especially considering how tiringly cliché some of it feels, but I had my brain turned off the whole time playing the game so I thought it was fine. It's just delightfully absurd.
Overall, Cat Girl Without Salad is way too barebones to justify really playing much in my opinion, but that seems to be the intention. It's a one-off gag game you play once, chuckle at a little, then probably never touch again. Still, though, its not a bad game by any means, and it serves its intended purpose well. I give this a three stars, not bad in my book but pretty unremarkable and way too short even in the context of what kind of game its meant to be (The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog for instance is another April Fools joke game that had way more content to it than this does).