Well, it's really happened. It's official. D_of_I has gone off the deep end. You could see it coming when he had eggs falling through a maze into a frying pan. Then came the bizarre Cat With Bow Golf, clearly the work of a madman. Now, in his delirium, he's paired that insidious cat with an equally pernicious dolphin to create an unlikely team in his latest release: Cat on a Dolphin.
Yes, it seems the cat has gotten bored shooting his bow and poling himself about and wants to travel across the ocean in search of new adventures. The problem is, he can't hold his breath for very long, so he enlists the help of a dolphin to provide the locomotion, while he hangs on for the ride of his life!
Each of the 8 levels in this excellent one-button game consists of 2 regions: a track of blue water surrounded by gray air. There is no "seabed", which can be confusing when you first start. The dolphin can only swim along the water, but the cat will run out of air unless it leaves the water from time to time. As a result, the dolphin must toss the cat up into the air to recover and then catch him when he comes back down — not always an easy task, considering the dolphin can only move forwards and never backwards.
Getting the hang of the purpose and of the controls is not very intuitive, so I'll go through a little primer here. As mentioned before, Cat on a Dolphin is a one-button game. In this case, the purpose of the button is two-fold: when the left mouse button is held down, the dolphin swims forward and the cat grabs hold of its fin, if it is close enough to do so. When you release the button, the dolphin stops swimming and the cat lets go, retaining whatever momentum it gained from the dolphin. Release the button when you need to fling the cat up into the air to catch a breath. However, you'll want to re-press the button to keep the dolphin moving forward in order to catch the cat when it comes back down. If the cat remains in the water for too long, his face will turn pink, then red, and eventually he'll drown.
You want to avoid that.
The dolphin will follow the path of the water automatically — there is no need to steer. However, you will need to take care sometimes not to overshoot the cat — it's impossible to go backwards to catch him. The difficulty arises with the various paths that the dolphin must take. Level one starts you off easy, with a series of wave-like peaks which make it easy to throw the cat. Soon, however, the path becomes the primary challenge — you'll have to figure out how to navigate the cat through loops-de-loop and how to throw him with very little topography to help you out.
As usual for D_of_I games, there are those jittery, jangly physics at work. And — also as usual — those physics are the star of the show, along with the gameplay. D_of_I does one-button games a service by breaking away from the rotate-to-aim-click-to-fire mechanism usually employed by the genre. The artwork takes second, fifth, extremely low priority, and the sound is non-existent. Still, it's not like we've been led to expect anything more from previous D_of_I games.
So join in the insanity, and play Cat on a Dolphin.
Will the madness never end?! I'm sure animal rights activists have a word or two for D of I. But it sure is funny.
Also, been a while zxo... welcome back :)
Man, Level 5 is HARD.
My cat always runs out of air the second before the dolphin hits the flag!
Any tips?
nice game.. struggling on 8..
btw Metanaito,
if the cat runs out of air but still gets the flag, you win anyway...
Haha,
my cat ran out of air right before the end of level 5, but still grabbed the flag.
booya!! finished!! :P
Gr8 game..
I can't wait for what I expect to be D-of-I's next project, Purple Monkey With Earwax ball, or maybe Salad Fork Adventures. Hey, Who even needs a coherent title? How about "Happy Money Meow Move, My Friend!"?
Wow, that is one very resilient cat. I wonder if the cat gets paid for doing all these crazy things just for our entertainment?
Metanaito:
I know what you mean about level 5. All I can say is try flinging the cat as far to the right as you can, making sure not to fling him downward by releasing too late; and leave a little bit of distance before rushing to catch the cat, so that you're moving as fast as possible when you catch him.
In case it's any help, I went back to retry level 5 and uploaded a recording of it here.
LOL @ Cayal!
Brilliant title. :D
COMPLETES ALL LEVELS!!
If you ever need a friend, you can always count on a kitty.
Game of the year.
I desperately await more poiny and click! Especailly from MSkutnik! Can you say Daymare Town 2? =)
Oh, i hate hate HATE being the first to say it, but someone was going to no matter what.
"We need to get these Cats off this dolphin!"
God, that was painful.
Very fun and quirky! FYI this is way challenging on a Mac laptop!!!!
this game is fun! i like not having to steer and the simplicity of only using one button.
Haha, i found it funny the way the cat moves after you win a level. Go on, try it. After you win, let the cat land on the platform below. He'll start dancing and spazzing about. Hilarity indeed.
Ahh. D_of_i (or Dofi), you are truly amazing. I don't always...well, I never TRULY understand your games (and doubt I would even sans the language barrier) but something about them is irresistible.
Great game. D_of_i is truly inventive. I love the one-button approach, which automatically helps with the "simple to learn, difficult to master" concept. I loved this game quite a bit. Level 8 was tough!
No offense, Zxo, but I don't think that's the cat from Cat With Bow Golf. It looks more like the one from Neko Breakout.
...When does the dolphin get to breath.
Dolphins breath air too.
And couldn't the dolphin give the cat an extra boost of air through its, spout thingy.
good game though, but highly unbelevable.
Ninjaz, since when has making sense been something to look for in a D_of_i game?
Besides, the levels are all well within a dolphin's breath, I think.
Cool game. Couldnt get past lvl 8. Checkpoints would be nice in this game (as well as tons of others). It just encourages people to play longer. I got tired of trying the same level 50 times and had to walk away.
Ok. I really need help with the fifth level. My cat is always running out of breath before he gets to the flag. Help!!
Why won't the dolphin jump out of the water?
watch the cat dance after it gets the flag LOL
Thanks! This is the only one of his games I just couldn't figure out at first. Love it.
Am I the only one who can't get past the first level? The cat runs out of air in a few seconds and it's impossible to finish in that much time.
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