Kimono Cats Review: Festival Time! (iPhone)

The people over at HumaNature Studios Inc knocked this one out of the park, and then it went over to say hello to the nearby park. Kimono Cats is too cute for this world. It is about an orange cat (or another cat of the player’s choosing) that wants to impress a companion cat. The game is pure adorableness…wrapped up in an extreme aw! Kimono Cats was released this year on Apple Arcade. On to the review that gets two paws up! 

Kimono Cats is available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.

Lots more side-scrolling fun is out there. 

Story – A Trip to the Festival

A cat takes a companion cat to a festival to wow that individual. While there, the cat will play mini-games to impress their companion cat. The game is tight in its delivery. Not really many gaps between what the player will do. I enjoyed this concept because the game tried to give the player a lot of stuff to do within Kimono Cats. A player can change their primary cats, as well as their companion cats, in the character closet. 

Gameplay – Build a Village, Play Some Games

The gameplay is simple yet effective. During the player’s time at the festival, they will walk alongside their companion cat down a road to try and win prizes. The player will shoot a dart, located at the bottom of the screen, and try to hit some bubbles with items inside of them at the top of the screen. This can be a little challenging because you will either hit a negative prize bubble that will harm your relationship with your companion cat or completely miss a prize bubble. If someone has no more darts in their inventory, they can go to their village and use a metal detector on the property to find some on the ground. All festivals have levels that one can complete. Once someone completes that level, you will get a completion gift. I had a blast trying to throw the darts at the bubbles to try to win prizes.

Shoot darts at the prize bubbles

Each level the player enters, will have different booths scattered throughout the road. This is where you will play mini-games in Kimono Cats. Some include a whack-a-mole style game, trying to stab apples with a sword, and grabbing fish in a tank with a fishing net. I found these mini-games to be entertaining. 

The settings can be found on the main screen, at the bottom. This is where one can change the language of the game, turn off and on the music and sound buttons, and enable or turn off vibration. 

A Village

Throughout the game…the player can go to their own village and begin to build stuff there, such as houses, decorative items, plants, trees, shops, and restaurants. They will be stored inside your cabinet at the bottom left portion of your My Village screen. The material a player will discover throughout Kimono Cats has a rarity ranking. So, some items are more challenging to obtain than others. A player can go to another person’s village and hang out there. While at the festival, sometimes mini-games will take you to a random person’s village to spin a wheel for prizes. 

Grab items for your village at the shop

Village Shop

While playing Kimono Cats, there will be times when you will need to go to the village shop to purchase items for your village by using coins that you have obtained at the festival. Some of these are buildings, and others are plants. The cost increases as the jars contain more special items inside them. When a player finds a discount coupon at the festival, this would be the perfect time to purchase something at the village shop. I enjoyed the discount coupons because they propel you to play mini-games and pop more prize bubbles at the festival. 

Audio & Graphics – Too Cute! 

What can I say…the graphics completely matches the element of feline charm. Bubbly, bright, and beautiful are the imagery in this game. The music per different screens and areas of Kimono Cats is well delivered. It feels really welcoming. 

Kimono Cats was reviewed on an iPhone.