I can’t get Fish Sticks out of my mind. Not the food, but the stray cat with a flat face and short legs I brought into my dwelling in Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel’s upcoming roguelite strategic game, Mewgenics. His presence lingers, haunting my thoughts wherever I go.
I sent Fish Sticks on a perilous adventure, even though he was suffering from gastritis and swallowing strange green goo that bulged his eyes. He might have made it back, if not for an enraged frog that dragged him into the jaws of a floating demon. And just like that, my hopes of passing down his unique soul-sucking abilities to future cats were dashed.
For the past month, thoughts of odd cats like Fish Sticks have consumed me. From chubby cats to those with outlandish traits and even those with bizarre giant eyes instead of heads. McMillen and Glaiel consistently create engaging gameplay infused with dark humor and a touch of macabre. While I’ve enjoyed their previous titles like Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, Mewgenics, with its mutant cat squads, has etched itself deeper into my obsession.
Mewgenics offers a chaotic blend of genres, merging elements of roguelites with turn-based combat reminiscent of Divinity: Original Sin, along with dungeon-crawling and an intricate cat breeding simulator. Its systems fuse into an addictive experience that leads to hours of gameplay, where “just ten more minutes” quickly turns into “oh no, I have to wake up in four hours!”
Starting off, you wake up on the examination table of Doctor Beanies, a quirky genius in felineology. His main goal is to round up the stray cats of Boon County for experimental purposes, including time travel. You begin your adventure with two starter cats, embarking on treacherous journeys filled with challenges and loot as you aim to feed the hungry cats back at your shack.
As you progress, you’ll shift into deeper gameplay mechanics involving cat management. Each cat only participates in a single adventure before retiring, necessitating continual breeding for new cats. Once your cats return, managing their traits and abilities becomes vital. With each run being randomly generated, Mewgenics offers endless replayability and complexity, guaranteeing that no two adventures are ever the same.
