Catz (PlayStation 2)

Catz on the PlayStation 2 is a single player adventure game and not the virtual pet game one might expect based on the plethora of games in that genre which share the same name.

The story behind the game runs as follows:
Once upon a time there was a young cat, the player, who lived on a magic island. They lived with Arvin and Ione in a pretty little house. Arvin was an important cat because he had a Magic Hat which he used to keep the peace, ensure order prevailed over chaos and generally protect everyone.
Now it just so happened that there was an evil wolf, Ivlet, who did lots of really bad things. He got caught and was locked up in the local jail on the magic island. The young cat and his friend Victor sneaked in to see Ivlet in the night and he tricked them into letting him see the Magic Hat which he snatched in his big strong jaws and put on his head. Using the Magic Hat’s powers he destroyed houses, turned the wild beasts against the cats, broke bridges and did all sorts of damage.
The young cat was in lots of trouble now and was thrown into jail but was let out so that he could help the cats on the island who had suffered as a result of his foolishness. Now the Magic Hat was no ordinary hat, besides being magic it had a mind of its own. Along the way the young cat meets Beat who was the good half of the Magic Cats mind who gave him lots of advice, a magic encyclopaedia and other information.

So this is a ‘save the world’ adventure game with quests, money to be earned and shops to spend it in. There are characters to interact with but no voice acting, the characters all make catlike noises while the relevant text is displayed on screen. There are enemies who may or may not attack depending on their status which is clearly displayed in a bubble above their head. As the player progresses through the game they will learn new skills, there are eleven in all, such as fishing, catching insects, and pushing rocks.
The game claims to have sixty mini games. When these are unlocked by playing them in Adventure mode they can be accessed from a separate game menu to be played separately