Cast your mind back to the halcyon times of the Xbox Live Arcade. A time when Edmund McMillen was still a ‘flash game’ creator. A time when Meat Boy was just starting to break into the zeitgeist, and Isaac was just a twinkle in Edmund’s eye.
It’s hard to believe it’s been over 15 years since then, and in that period, Edmund has cemented himself as indie game royalty. Yet, with nothing left to prove, he’s back alongside Tyler Glaiel of The End is Nigh fame, with another dark, twisted, and intentionally stupid endeavor set to take the indie gaming scene by storm.
Playing god with your feline battalion, your job is to create a kitty gene pool that produces unique specimens, and use these freaky felines to conquer the turn-based realm of Boon County.
It’s one of the most ambitious, unique, and downright ridiculous concepts you’ll see all year, and as an owner of four cats (Bear, Winnie, Tina, and Pudge, not that you asked), I feel qualified to tell you whether this one is breaking new grounds or needs to be put down.
No Two Meows The Same
I suppose this will come as no shock to anyone that is familiar with The Binding of Isaac, but it needs to be said. Ed knows how to put together a roguelike where no two runs feel the same. Which is why Isaac still has such a strong player base today.
The secret sauce is an abundance of items, unlockables, boss variants, and character variants. But, somehow, Mewgenics has upped the ante on what was already a super ambitious framework, offering hundreds of hours worth of content.
This is through the ugenics/mewgenics slant the game offers, allowing you to take stray cats, breed them for success, and create an army of super kitties. Which ultimately leads to party members that all feel unique, and synergize in weird and wonderful ways to get through the perils that await you.
But beyond just cats humping and reproducing, the game comes jam-packed with over 900+ class abilities to mix and match, over 1000+ unique items to serve as boons in battle, and a variety of weather effects, boss variants, and random encounters to keep you on your toebeans.
In a lot of ways, it’s one of the most simple and straightforward turn-based roguelike formulas around, mimicking the likes of Into The Breach, or Slay The Spire, albeit with a tone more in keeping with South Park: The Stick of Truth.
Mewgenics is about the most enjoyable and addictive game I have played in years.
However, due to the sheer abundance of options, these simple, traditional turn-based RPG combat systems are stretched to their limit and feel insanely deep. After tens of hours and multiple successful runs, I have yet to see a situation, be it a boss encounter, a character build, or a run’s progression, that repeats. So, if you are looking for replayability, this game has it in spades.
These Kitties Got Claws
Having a wealth of items and abilities to mess around with is all well and good. But, ultimately, it’s the core gameplay loop that a game like this lives and dies on. Thankfully, though, Mewgenics is about the most enjoyable and addictive game I have played in years.
This might sound a little reductive, or like low-hanging fruit. But, I truly mean it as the highest form of praise possible. This game is, for all intents and purposes, turn-based The Binding of Isaac.
Aside from perhaps turn-based D&D Goliaths such as Baldur’s Gate 3, I have seldom seen a turn-based game with this much variety, depth, and moment-to-moment fun to be had
It swaps the run-and-gun nature of real-time, tear-based combat for a more methodical and tactical approach. But, unlike a lot of turn-based games, this one isn’t a daunting leap for those not that into the genre. Mainly because a lot of the Ed McMillen creature comforts are there.
The game’s tone allows for combat to have an inherent silliness, and a chaotic feel where even those not that strategically inclined will luck out more than they won’t. Essentially making this one of those quintessential ‘easy to pick up, tough to master’ games.
There’s a real joyous feel to working out how different enemy types behave and finding a countermeasure. It’s a blast to create clever builds on the fly as you work through various portions of the game, and even when it all goes wrong, there’s always that little twitching feeling inside that demands you go again.
Aside from perhaps turn-based D&D Goliaths such as Baldur’s Gate 3, I have seldom seen a turn-based game with this much variety, depth, and moment-to-moment fun to be had, which rewards experimentation and use of your surroundings.
The combat within this game is nothing short of a triumph, and it walks the line beautifully between casual fun and methodical strategy.
Forget Nine Lives, Live Forever
While the majority of your time in Mewgenics will be spent out in the big bad world fighting, exploring, and gaining your kitties’ experience before they retire. There is the other side of the coin where you will need to effectively see your cats as a means to an end, and in some cases, currency. In short, don’t get too attached.
This is the aspect of the game where I have mixed opinions on, as a lot of it is super, but a lot of it also leaves the player in the dark.
On the more positive side, the house/cat sanctuary management is quite compelling, allowing you to set up a home that facilitates top-tier breeding. Where you drag and drop furniture, throw your cats around akin to the old Flash game, Interactive Buddy, and clean up poop, because it’s not an Ed McMillen game without poop in excess.
Not to mention, the ‘cats as currency’ concept is superb, allowing you to hoard kittens, retried, injured or healthy cats and send them off to their unfortunate forever homes in return for upgrades and rewards. It means that players have to balance home life with action in a way not too dissimilar with Cult of the Lamb.
However, my gripe with all this is how obtuse these systems are, and how little actual input the player has on gene splicing.
You see, as you would expect, a lot of this occurs in the background, and as days pass your breeding happens at random. You can set up the environment as best as you possibly can, but you don’t truly have control of what happens beyond that.
The roguelike aspect of all cats getting a little stronger with successful runs means that breeding will happen naturally, in an upward curve, regardless, but I just wish there was a way to have a more hands-on effect on which cats put their dongs where. After all, this isn’t about love. This is science!
All in all, though, it’s commendable how engaging the non-combat aspect within this game is, especially considering how this game’s predecessor, Isaac, was all-action. Some may find it a bit laborious, but I appreciate the effort, however mildly flawed it is.
Grab ‘Em, Stomp ‘Em, Skin ‘Em, Crunch ‘Em
I’ve already mentioned poop, humping, and dark, twisted themes. Which perhaps gives you the reassurance that this, for a fan of Ed McMillen’s work to this point, is exactly what you’re after. Cartoonishly crude is the vibe, but with a bit of bite, synonymous with his past work.
From a presentation perspective, there’s very little to fault Mewgenics on here, as it has taken the Cartoon Network meets Newgrounds, meets nightmarish fever dream aesthetic that Isaac nailed and added even more production value.
Assets all feel familiar in a lot of ways, but tweaked to suit this peculiar new cat-focused setting, complete with bosses that would make your skin crawl, mangy cats only their brood mother could love, and all manner of bodily fluids taking center stage.
However, I need to give a special shoutout to the audio present in this game. My comparison, Isaac was a game that dined out on the success of its systems, and its god-fearing themes. However, with Mewgenics, you still have all the dark and sinister undertones, but accompanied by a little song and dance.
I won’t gush over every tune, but the end-boss theme for The Alley, the game’s opening gambit, has been stuck in my head for days. It’s a bop, and it’s not the only one you’ll encounter.
My only mild criticism of the themes of Mewgenics is that, at times, it feels a little surface-level and silly for silly’s sake. Cats are hilarious, poop is funny, monsters are scary. But, again, to compare to Isaac, this game’s tone doesn’t come from the same place of realism, as surreal as that sounds.
That said, it is indeed a very mild criticism, as the game doesn’t necessarily need to have a subtle, cutting narrative undertone at all. The surreal silliness carries the game on its shoulders, and it rarely falters.
"Mewgenics is a superb turn-based spiritual successor to The Binding of Isaac, offering Ed McMillen's signature brand of crude chaos and roguelike excellence. Combat, presentation, and kitty gene splicing all come together to create one of the most engaging and addictive gameplay loops in recent memory. We do wish there was more control over breeding, and the game perhaps lacks the same punchy narrative undercurrent as Isaac. But overall, this is a triumph, and could just be the sleeper indie hit of the year."
Pros
- Incredibly deep and nuanced roguelike systems
- 'Cats as currency' progression and management is clever
- Combat is accessible, addictive and fun
- Insanely replayable
Cons
- Sometimes silly without substance
- Gene pool management is very hands-off
