Meow Meow Happy Fight is an unusual celebration of Japanese archetypes, the dual stick shooter genre that is wildly popular on the iPhone and Big Pixel’s love for vivid colour palettes and feature-rich gameplay. The result is perhaps one of the standout titles in the genre; a game in which you’re not simply battling wave after wave of nameless drones but a motley crew that includes a ghost, zombies, machines and even a pot noodle.

The reason of course is that a giant Happy Cat is fed up with the future being so happy; so he’s travelled backwards through time from the year 2336 AD to bring happiness and destruction to the present day’s citizens.

Depending on the level (there are 24 of them, all set in Tokyo), you’ll do battle with two or more opponents using the left stick to move and the right to fire. You may also pick up power ups that can be activated by an onscreen button press at the right moment, but you can’t stockpile these to give yourself an unfair advantage. There are a number of items that will enhance your character straight away though; such as a damage, health or speed boost. When you kill another character in the game their avatar disappears for a few seconds, leaving behind a scattering of happy pickups; collect these for happy points which go towards unlocking new characters.

Happy points are accumulated over time and you are encouraged to spend them on new characters every time you start a new game. If you feel the game is too hard it’s probably because you’re using a weak character; fortunately you can play easier rounds over and over to get more points and therefore unlock the tougher characters. They’re all well balanced; some are tougher than others, some faster, some more powerful than others, but it is possible to win a round with any of them so long as the opponents are of a similar level.

Playing a round against the AI is really fun and challenging in the same instance; but the game’s interface is excellent and really guides you through the game effortlessly. Enemy icons and power up locations are displayed as tiny badges that circle around the screen as you move towards them, keeping the action feeling frantic and fresh. Indeed, the game is not about stealth or stockpiling weaponry but simply an all-out firefight; kill or be killed. Rounds are short too, thanks to the timer for each level.

Overall, Meow Meow Happy Fight doesn’t have many negatives for us; the dueling aspect of it makes it not just another dual stick shooter. The only omission that we can think of is that there’s no online/local multiplayer; it would be terrific if you could battle your friends like in Piyo Blocks 2, but the game isn’t ruined as a result; the AI is extremely competent. As you can see the title sports some excellent visuals that are really colourful and amusing, and overall the presentation is top-notch. We think you can’t really go wrong with this one, especially as the introductory price is so low; an easy recommendation.

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Piyo Blocks 2, C

Review by Ben Briggs, July 26, 2010

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