Shield Cat
Preview

Shield Cat is a collecting adventure where you rush around an animal world to find all the treasures and save the king. As you spin and roll around the world you interact with puzzles, collect and uncover secrets, and even fight enemies. It's a game about using your momentum to get around while thinking fast enough to direct yourself to where you need to be. It stands out for the rush of endless sparkly things to collect but there's also great characters and a story to make it a game well worth playing.

You play Lance the otter, who wakes up one day to find the king vanished, his partner missing, and dark creatures appearing everywhere. It seems like his friends are responsible for the king's abduction, so you set out on a quest to discover the truth.

You explore the world by spinning around and collecting all sorts of items along the way. This treasure is then used to unlock secrets, upgrade your abilities and uncover new routes. There are moments of respite on solid ground, where you can walk more slowly, but much of your adventure is traversing large bodies of water or deadly drops, where the only way to progress is to spin. The challenge is to have enough momentum to get where you need to go without going so fast that you fall right off the edge.

The result is a game that requires an unusual kind of precision. Not only do you need to get good at controlling where you go, but also ensure you can use your spinning momentum to your advantage rather than detriment. It needs determination to master but as you do offers a unique challenge in a lush world inhabited by colourful characters.

Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Shield Cat 10 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 10 months ago.