Let me start by saying I love games with bad ass chicks and this game is no exception. In this game published by Atari, you get to play as Kit Ballard, bounty hunter who also just so happens to be one of the last of the Felion race. She is part human and part cat. It is her cat-like skills that are the core of this game, making Kit super agile, quick on her feet, and able to climb walls and hang off ceilings. Kit doesn’t go off kicking bad guy butt all by herself though; she has her blade which floats around and follows her. She also has her companion Skiffy, who comes in very hand at times. You also occasionally get to ride a dino looking mount called a Noot.
At first glance this game is just a side scrolling action game but there is more too it. There are actually layers to the game. You can sometime see enemies or Hex (money) in the background or foreground. In order to get to them you either have to find a “telepop” or tell Skiffy to go get them. Also every level can kind of turn into a maze. You can run through a level and not try any of the side paths if you like. If you do though, you will miss the bonus items and lots of Hex. Hex is important in this game because that’s how you upgrade your blade, health, and stamina. Oh and of course get new cutie outfits. Even a bounty hunter has to look her best!
Throughout the game Kit is sent on small missions and of course things get in the way of getting her job done easily. The easiest of enemies would be the bugs, that if you don’t kill them will suck on your head. Some harder enemies will require the use of some of Kit’s special skills such as using her blade to pull a shield off an enemy so you can kill them. The hardest non-boss enemies would have to be the mech-suits and drones; this is because you have to attack them from behind. My favorite skill of Kit’s would be her powered up or Critical Move. When she gets all worked up she gets the ability to do an attack with crazy jumps and her glowing blade slicing through the air and enemies. When you activate this skill it goes to a cut scene like clip in slow motion. Also when you kill enemies with this special skill you end up getting more Hex from the kill. There are only a handful of boss fights in this game and they are pretty straight forward. It may take some time to get the pattern of attacks down so you can avoid them though.
This game uses a checkpoint system of saving so you won’t have to start the level over if you die. If you are going through all the side paths this could be problem as most of the checkpoints are only on the path that will get you to the end of the level. The controls seem a little too complex for PC to be honest. I later noticed that a PC controller is recommended under the system requirements. The game is still do-able with just a keyboard and mouse, however, if you have an XBox 360 or PS3 I would recommend getting Blade Kitten on XBLA or PSN. Also when you play this game on a PC and you have more them one monitor set up you might want to reconfigure them. Even though I was playing the game is in full screen mode I was still able to move my cursor to my second monitor and if I clicked my game would minimize. This happened a lot to me when I would run into large groups of enemies, so it was not ever fun but easy enough to fix.
I very much enjoyed this game. I’m replaying it to try to get all the bonus items I missed the first time as well as trying to get more Hex to get all of the outfits. I guess I’m just going to have to read the online comic to hold me over until the next game episode comes out. That’s right, this is only the first episode of the game. I definitely see Blade Kitten going places!
