Game / App Review: Galactikitties

How can you:

• Support the ASPCA,
• Celebrate Adopt a Shelter Cat Month,
• Encourage young entrepreneurs,
• While playing a game?

For 99 cents, you can download Galactikitties, the first game to come out of Drexel University’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio. With support from EGS, three students from Drexel not only developed the game, but also founded a new company, Sweet Roll Studio, to launch it.

Best part? A portion of the proceeds from each Galactikitties download goes to support the ASPCA.

The object of the game is to rescue cats who are floating in space, attracting them with an irresistible ball of yarn and sending them through a portal to safety.

Along the way, you must avoid asteroids, black holes and other dangers. 

You can collect even more kitties by catching space fish and flying catnip, that give your ball of yarn extra powers.

For those of you who like to dress up your cats (and I know you’re out there), Galactikitties provides. As you progress in the game, your cats can get a space suit, top hat, cape and more.

I admit it, I’m not much of a game player; in those rare few minutes of downtime I have, I’m more often on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, but I do appreciate a well thought-out and fun game. Which Galactikitties most certainly is.

I also had trepidations about what  happens to those poor kitties in the game, the ones who get zapped by asteroids, hit by space junk or sucked into black holes. I’m one of those strange folks (and I know there are others like me out there, too) who can’t stand the idea of dogs or cats or any animals getting hurt or (heaven forbid!) dying, not only in real life, but in books, movies or TV. (BTW, there’s an app for that too, called Does the Dog Die, which I’ll be reviewing soon, but I digress.)

Because Galactikitties is animated  and cartoony (with well-designed graphics) , it did not trigger my Weepy Susan reaction, which has been known to kick in during Sarah McLachlan videos, Budweiser commercials (the ones with horse and the dog) and middle grade novels (Old Yeller). [NOTE: I am not linking to these because just thinking of them triggered Weepy Susan. Sigh.]

The music is sweet, and the thocking sound of kitties attaching to the yarn ball is almost as adorable as the teeny mews that you hear when the cats go through the portal to safety. But the game plays just as well with the sound off–maybe better if you have three dogs next to you who want to investigate the tiny mewing animals they know are there somewhere.

Galactikitties is a cute game, somewhat addictive, which is indicative of it’s quality. It works well on both iPhone and iPad, though I haven’t tested it on Android. It’s the kind of game that both kids and adults can like, with great graphics, challenging but achievable goals–and the part I like the best, it supports the ASPCA, and thus helps real kitties.

And while we’re thinking of helping kitties, here are some other things you can do to help cats during Adopt a Shelter Cat Month

• Volunteer at a local shelter
• Foster cats or kittens while they wait for their forever homes
• Donate to your local cat rescue organization or the ASPCA
• And most of all, consider adopting a cat.

More information about the development of Galactikitties.

Glactikitties web site

The Galactikitties game is available at the Apple App Store and Google Play for Android.

I received no compensation for the review of Galactikitties. I purchased the app myself.

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