MagiCats Builder — [PC] Review
All-ages creative fun with a side of programming logic
Visuals 10/10: The style is very cute, everything from the character graphics to the UI style ties together really well for a cohesive environment.
Audio 7/10: The background music while building is nice and unobtrusive, but I can see it getting annoying after an hour building. I’d love to see more varied background tracks on a playlist.
Controls/Movement 8/10: Buttons didn’t always have tooltips or easy-to-understand icons. The movement of the characters themselves seems to be a little slippery. Coding UI and navigation around the menus is spot-on.
Difficulty 3/10: The difficulty of the levels is entirely dependent on the creator of said level. There is no place to mark how difficult you believe your level to be, so it is a bit of a gamble based on the title of the level.
Replayability 10/10: There is no real objective or story, and the game asks you to come back to play more levels to earn currency to purchase more assets for your own levels. You can play and replay as much as you’d like!
Overall: 7.6/10
I hadn’t heard of MagiCats Builder before the opportunity to play it for review came up, but after watching the launch trailer and checking the game out on Steam, I was very excited to play it! This game is right up my alley. Adorable graphics, sandbox-style creating, and coding logic to boot? Sign me up!
The game is very Mario Maker-style, where users create their own game levels for other users to play, and test them by completing the levels themselves. There are a ton of objects and enemies you can place, and behaviors you can “code” in yourself by using the interface. You can make an enemy jump twice every two seconds, a platform move in circles, or mines explode on a timer, for example. You can hop in and out of build-mode and play-mode as you’re working through your creation, so if you find that you made a platform just a bit too hard to reach, you can nudge it a block or two down on the fly. That kind of flexibility is how I approach my coding projects at work, so it really appealed to me.
There is a lot of room for creativity in your levels; there are options for different terrain types, weather, and NPC dialogue. You can create epic boss battles, challenging platform puzzles, annoying enemy patterns, simple exploration levels…anything you can think of for a 2D side-scroller, you can build it!
Graphically, it is adorable! I’m in love with the thick-lined art style. Your player avatar is a cat, but customization options mean you can be a black cat, a tabby cat, even a pink cat! There are cute outfits you can dress your avatar in, mix-and-match style to create your own look, so you can create and conquer in style! The enemies are even cute, from little hedgehogs to armored rats (very Redwall) to a magic-wielding crow. The music is charming, just pleasant enough to make you smile while you’re spending hours perfecting your levels — oh, that’s just me? Right, then…
When I started playing, there was a little “Adventure Mode” that took you through some pre-built courses to let you flex your building prowess. That was removed in an update shortly after I got the game, however, and the tutorial is now the only way to test and learn functions before you’re pushed out of the proverbial nest and sent to unleash your creations on the general public. This is okay, except that when I went through the tutorial stages it was a little frustrating; tasks often had to be repeated once or twice for the next step to trigger, and button functions weren’t always readily apparent.
The inclusion of microtransactions is something that may also make some buyers turn away; the items you use to build levels are found through randomized loot chests, which you can buy with Coins earned from completing other players’ levels. Higher quantities and rarer items can be obtained in chests purchased with Gems, which are obtained with real money transactions. You can earn smaller quantities of Gems for free by having other players play your levels and through completing achievements. I found that, while present, the microtransactions were not intrusive at all. It felt more like an option that was there if you wanted it, but none of the content was gated behind it and I didn’t feel limited by not purchasing any Gems.
That being said — the Infinite Pack is the way to go on this. Trust me.
All in all, MagiCats Builder is a charming, solid experience for all ages, with a robust system for creating your own levels and a very creative community of players. I enjoyed playing through many different types of levels, from the simple to the challenging, and had a lot of fun building my own levels (which you can find if you’re so inclined). I would purchase this game on my own for casual, light-hearted fun play. Children can also find a lot of enjoyment and enrichment in this game, as it promotes problem-solving and some basic coding logic skills.
MagiCats Builder was provided to me for review by GirlStreamers Inc.
