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Idea Software was an Italian company who produced little enjoyable titles during the heydays of the Amiga. Their product portfolio also consisted of digital adaptations of Italian comics which were not widely known: Lupo Alberto, Sturmtruppen and Cattivik. The game based on the Cattivik character was the best of the lot.
It is difficult to describe Cattivik: Mankind does not know much about him. He resembles a black droplet with little paws and an evil grin. He is a kleptomaniac and can be found burgling houses of the rich at night. Not content with collecting treasure, Cattivik also enjoys mucking its proprietors to a level of insanity. He is evil - that is for sure!
In Cattivik – The Videogame ten houses are waiting to get robbed by our black blob. The proprietors are expecting you, so guards, bloodhounds and grandpa in a wheelchair with a rifle at the ready are posting. Being evil, our black bean has fancy traps at his disposal: Motorized mice, slippery bananas, super-glue, oil stains and bombs to name but a few. In the houses also accessories can be found which can be (ab)used by you: Elevators move you to platforms, parachutes can be collected to prevent falling from great heights, grabbing a pogo stick makes you jump to higher platforms, roller-skates speed you up and pressing switches activate flamethrowers or disable floors. Each proprietor takes two hits before it disappears.
A level is cleared once you got rid of the proprietors leaving you a couple of seconds to collect treasure. Once you have cleared a house you are presented a bonus game. Here a small rat once and again pops up in one of sixteen holes. Moving arrows against an x- and y-axis and pressing the button at the right time throws a rotten egg at the rat gaining you bonus points.
When looking at the background scenery in the houses, the decorator must have had a day off. Grey and orange are the primary colours in each level. But Cattivik has one of the jolliest animations seen in an Amiga game. The Cattivik-character sneaks around in a cartoon-like way, smashes into walls and waves with his hands before falling down. It is a joy seeing Cattivik’s vicious traps working: A blowtorch heating up hair of a guard, the slip of a bloodhound on a banana peel and grandpa getting catapulted by a spring put many cartoons to shame.
The animation comes at a price, though. Precious seconds are lost when Cattivik steps onto one of his own traps and gets blown, stuck or slipped. Cattivik can also be difficult to control when he climbs up a ladder, slides down a pole or tries to drop accessories. Unforgiving collision detection finally moves this game to the ‘experts only’ league. There is a consistent pressure to be on your guard because the game keeps on throwing bullets, wheelchairs and bloodhounds at you.
If you have not teared your hair out at the unforgiving gameplay and actually sit out some gaming sessions, you will discover there is actually a nice game with strategical touches underneath. Some traps are more effective to proprietors than others and you can corner people by moving a safe in their way and let loose a grenade. But above all you do not often get a chance seeing so many comical animations and playing an ‘evil’ character in an Amiga game.
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Reviewed by
Tim Janssen on February 17, 2005
Read 3238 times. |
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Great animation of the characters with lots of comical touches. Background scenery is a bit dull using a palette consisting mainly of grey colours. Scrolling can be a bit slow.
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Jazzy title tune and in game tune. Lots of nice sound FX.
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Unforgiving gameplay makes Cattivik difficult to get into. Once Cattivik’s inventory of traps has been explored, interest wanes despite new weird characters appearing in each house. On the other hand, it is great to play an evil character for a change.
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| Despite difficult gameplay Cattivik is worth checking out for its animation and comical evil main character. |
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