Armed with a bright red watering can, Ms. Kitty's sole objective in this game is to water flowers. Tulips, precisely.
Armed with a bright red watering can, Ms. Kitty's sole objective in this 8-bit thriller from Japan is to water flowers. Tulips, precisely.
The flowers start out as empty pots, and, through the feline protagonist's tender care, progress through the stages of sprout, stem, bud, and finally, joyous red bloom. These are scattered throughout each level in varying numbers, and to reach them Kitty must jump, walk (she does not deign to run), and hitch rides on moving lifts, many of which carry her on circuitous routes past several flower pots in turn, so that she must devise an exciting strategy regarding the order of watering to get it all done.
Frequenting the environment are fuzzy squirrels, cute snails, and adorable flittering bats, all of whom Kitty must pound into a state of temporary unconsciousness by means of the other tool in her dainty repertoire: a large wooden mallet. Whether through prudence or physical limitation, Kitty cannot simultaneously nurture and vanquish, so often she must leave off watering to pound a pesky critter, lest she be doomed to repeat the level from the beginning.
Although no counters are displayed through which Kitty might gauge her intrepid irrigation, each level is timed, and points may be won through the consumption of evanescent fruits which hover above new blossoms.
As with most 8-bit games, this one is best played with the sound off. The music has the debatable advantage of being impossible to memorize despite constant repetition, and the high-pitched sound effects for the little successes and failures of the game are neutral: neither especially annoying nor essential to the game.
Except for the number of enemies, which increases with each level, the game-play remains the same throughout. There are no new powers to be acquired, no new objectives, no new enemies, no novel items to collect, and no changing appearance to the levels--even the flowers remain a monotonous red from beginning to end. So forget replay value--if you’ve played to level three, you’ve played ‘em all.
There are no exits or goal points: success can be claimed on maturation of the last tulip, whereupon stars erupt from nowhere and fill the screen with sparkly yellow triumph, causing all enemies to plunge to their deaths and Ms. Kitty to raise elated paws as high as her stubby limbs allow. Each level takes approximately two minutes to complete, and at 18 levels plus the occasional "bonus level" (consisting of play indistinguishable from the regular levels, but with a blue background of wiggling fishes) you'll be done in well under an hour.