Wish Upon A Cat review - "A heartwarming point-and-click guilt trip on missing my friends' birthdays"

I've been fortunate enough to play two short-but-sweet adventures on mobile lately, and while their themes couldn't be more different, they've got that same old-school point-and-click feel I've happily rediscovered lately. The first is about escaping a haunted mansion in the middle of a storm, and the second is about chasing after a wayward kitty across dimensions to save the multiverse - which is why Wish Upon A Cat instantly caught my attention from its premise alone.

But while you might think that an interstellar adventure about a dimension-hopping feline means it's an incredibly complicated affair, it's actually quite simple - you just need to find said cat and bring it back to save the world, after all. 

And it all starts fairly harmlessly too. You're in your room, you boot up your computer, and a mouse named Chief starts talking to you - which, for an Odencat game, is a regular Tuesday. What complicates matters is that today's your best friend Kelly's birthday, and wouldn't you know it? You just had a big fight - she's not exactly speaking to you, and all you really want is to wish her a happy birthday.

This is basically the heart of the whole story. It's hard not to spoil the adventure for you, but as you hop from dimension to dimension - each one representing Odencat's charming roster of games - it's always the shadow of your little squabble with your best friend that weighs you down no matter where you go. And that emotional undertone haunts you with each new place you portal into, which leads up to a lovely but incredibly bittersweet ending - not just for you but for the titular cat too.

And it's little adventures like this that really shine on mobile, in my opinion, especially with the touchscreen-optimised controls and the very, very colourful characters you meet along the way. Eagle-eyed fans of the studio will spot plenty of Easter eggs littered throughout, and each time you "clear" a dimension, you get to collect cartridges you can "play" in your room once you're back - kind of like a New Game Plus of sorts. And because the visuals are presented with crunchy pixel art, it all just adds to the nostalgic vibes from start to finish.

So while it's the initial premise that first drew me into Wish Upon A Cat, it's the humour that kept me going, and the heartwarming narrative that ultimately won me over - something you can expect from the makers of Meg's Monster. Even the mischievous cat here is called an "oden cat", because I suppose, much like the studio's name, there's always a lovely surprise to discover if you dig deeper into the broth (and this analogy is something the game officially makes, which is hilarious). 

Plus, they're very upfront about the ads - five of them, to be exact - that you're shown after every dimension. They're not at all intrusive, and even the banner ad below the screen doesn't feel like it's trying to hoard too much of your attention. I simply love how much the devs respect the player in that sense - and you can really tell how much they respect the format too.

I suppose it's obvious by now that I've got nothing but good things to say about Wish Upon A Cat. It's cute, it's heartwarming, and at the end of the day, it tells you how important it is to say the things we want to say and celebrate the things we want to celebrate before our very short lives come to an end.

And if something accomplishes that and still manages to squeeze in the obligatory fishing mini-game in the mix, then it's a clear winner in my book.

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Wish Upon A Cat