Cat Rescue is the latest game from Ta-Te Wu and Sunrise Tornado. It's a deceptively simple fully co-operative game where players are working together to place out stray cat cards from their 'foster home' (hand) or from the facedown deck onto a 4x4 grid. Their aim is to get three or more matching cats in a row so that the cards can be flipped and the cats made eligible for adoption.
Where a card is added to the grid, the row or column is pushed along. This will put you in mind of those sliding tile puzzles that you will almost certainly have played with as a child. There was a knack that had to be learned with those games in optimising the lineup of the tiles. Likewise with the cards in Cat Rescue. Players score for the number of cats they succeed in rescuing for adoption but cats that get pushed out of the grid before they have been flipped are placed instead in the player's 'foster home' (hand). The game ends when the deck runs out or, sooner, if a player has three cats in their 'foster home'...
Cat Rescue plays well. It's a short (15 minute) family game that can be played and enjoyed by children. Nevertheless, there's still enough meat here to hold the interest of seasoned gamers. Sadly, the game doesn't come with a mat. With its invisible 4x4 starting grid, Cat Rescue does rather cry out for a game mat.
Like Ta-Te Wu's previous game, Kung Pao Chicken, Cat Rescue is an inexpensive pocket game. It's easy to learn and play, and the cute artwork adds to the game's appeal. Cat Rescue is live on Kickstarter right now and running till 20 April. The game has already funded, so it's now heading towards its stretch goals. You can check out the Kickstarter now at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tatewu/cat-rescue-the-game-of-saving-cats?