Blade Kitten - The Game Journal Review

Title: Blade Kitten

Developed By: Krome Studios

Published By: Atari

When I first sat down and started playing Blade Kitten, I was a bit underwhelmed. In spite of the protagonist, Kit Ballard's, bubbly personality, all I could make sense of was that I was chasing some woman across the game world for what looked like a futuristic home pregnancy test. The graphics, which looked so great in the preview coverage, were hard to appreciate with the camera being, for the most part, pulled far back from the action. Kit's running animation seemed a bit "off" to me and the combat seemed overy simplistic and the level design appeared to lack depth.

As I played on, my initial disappointment started to fade away. Blade Kitten does have a story to tell, and though it's one I won't spoil here, I will say that it does involve a bit more than chasing a girl around for your stolen property. The characters are well realized due to the excellent voice acting and lip-synching. Kit, in particular, exudes a bubbliness, and a cheeky, devil may care attitude, even in the face of danger. It's a nice contrast to either the uber-serious dude protagonists in most games or the joke characters who mock the aforementioned bros in other games. Though she may laugh things off and the story is full of whimsical moments, Kit, in spite of her overuse of "leet" speak, isn't a joke character, and I appreciate that.

The more I played, the more I'd take time to look at the backgrounds of the levels in which Kit was running around in, and I began to appreciate why Krome pulled the camera back so far at times. The world in which Blade Kitten takes place is a pretty well realized one. As you play on the game shows a lot of variety in its settings and the background artwork is very impressive. Once I took my focus off of Kit and, literally looked at the bigger picture, it all came together for me.

As I progressed the combat, which I initially found repetitive began to show a little bit more depth, but still not as much as I would have liked. It's not the most elaborate combat system in the world, with short and long range attacks getting their own buttons, and a special attack being available when you fill a meter. Balanced is attempted by throwing a stamina meter into the mix as well, and you can block attacks as well, but this is frustratingly achieved by holding down the melee button. Ultimately the combat  end up being pretty average. It has some unique ideas, the sword itself is a character, but ultimately the combat ends up being neither offensive nor exemplary.

Thankfully there is more to the game than just combat. Kit has the cat-like agility and the ability to climb most surfaces. This leads to some light platforming which I found pleasant. Though you're always relegated to a 2D plane, the game promotes exploration of the levels by offering up Hex, which is the in-game currency in every nook and cranny of each level. You can use the Hex to buy upgrades for Kit's attributes and weapons as well as new clothes. You'll also encounter level mounts, which add more variety to the mix. It also should be noted that the game is fairly large by downloadable standards.

By the time I'd finished Blade Kitten the game had almost won me over. My initial disappointments were, for the most part, pushed aside as I played. It's not a genre defining experience, but it is, by no means, terrible. If I had to describe the game in one word in would be 'pleasant.' The game world, characters, voice acting, story and artwork all coalesce to make a whimsical action platformer with a lot of character, but the gameplay itself relegates the game to merely average status.