KinnikuNeko SUPER MUSCLE CAT Review

Running the Tavern, we are fortunate enough to get access to a lot of games each week; many of these we know about, but equally we’re often surprised with the kind of games that pop up in our inbox. It’s the latter that I enjoy about doing this, getting to see games that I would have otherwise never even known about. The latest such title is KinnikuNeko SUPER MUSCLE CAT and man, what a riotously fun game.

KinnikuNeko SUPER MUSCLE CAT (and yes, I will be using the full title every time because how could I not?) is a 2D action platformer in its simplest form. We run about the levels smashing enemies, collecting items, and moving in a linear precession of levels until the end. The platforming is pretty solid if a little floaty at times, and the combat is simple but gets pretty tough by the end. The titular KinnikuNeko has basic punches to fight off enemies, a jumping knee dive and a crouching slide. We can find gyms throughout the game to upgrade their power, but other than a special move built up by defeating enemies (which amounts to a version of invinvibilty stars in Sonic) that’s it. It’s fun enough to play with, and levels are well designed to encourage exploration to find secrets and extra collectibles. If you’ve played a single 16-bit game before you’ll be right at home here.

But! It’s the presentation and style that comes with KinnikuNeko SUPER MUSCLE CAT  that impresses.

The anime styling is endlessly cool, with bright and bold designs and colours that pop off of the screen. Our main heroes Lemon, Keita, and Neko are all expressively drawn, as well as the variety of enemies and background detail. We even get full anime story sequences at certain points, complete with brilliant animation, voice work, and music. 

Neko is the main star of course. A cute blue cat soon transforms into a beefed up muscle man (though retains the cat’s head) when Lemon puts a pair of pants on him, and this factors into the gameplay too. At certain points in each level we come across Lemon and can change forms, letting us either go ahead beating enemies into the ground, or using cat Neko to jump and climb otherwise inaccessible areas. I’d have liked to see a bit more freeform use of this though, as typically if there’s an opportunity to change that likely means we’ll need to to complete the next section. 

The world ending plight of Keita’s home planet of Earth by the invading alien race is an enjoyably told one, again bolstered by the anime sensibilities of it all. Once the game is beaten we can go back and watch all the cutscenes and I can absolutely see myself doing that down the line, enjoyable as it was. 

We get 17 levels all in all, with a handful of boss fights and a couple of variations too, such as turning from a platformer into a scrolling shooter. These parts fare slightly less well, our flying mounts attack needing charging by defeating enemies but I found it a bit too awkward at times to gauge incoming damage and background detail, as well as keeping my attacks charged enough. The boss battles are a highlight though and a real challenge too – the second to last one kicked my ass more than I’d care to admit. The patterns and designs of the fights are brilliant even when they’re beating me down, and are simply a lot of fun to play.

Conclusion

It’ll be over in a few evenings, but what a few evenings it’ll be with KinnikuNeko SUPER MUSCLE CAT. The anime styling is very cool, and only enhances a solid set of levels and abilities that we have to play with. A few more opportunities to switch between buff and cat Neko at will would have been great, but as it is KinnikuNeko SUPER MUSCLE CAT comes very highly recommended indeed.