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)