Chowdown Kitty

No significant progress in gameplay as you move forward. Or any interesting gameplay elements in general.

Game crashes. Playing on Steam Deck.

My first Match 3 game, played up to the end of the second island. Charming game, played well on my laptops touchpad. The cats are cute.

2 out of 5 | C Tier

Level 10-8 is broken. impossible. no buy !

its a fun puzzle game. like a phone game but no annoying ads which is really nice. steam deck verified.

Very cute cat-themed 'match 3' game, would recommend on sale. This game is best suited for young children who are just learning to play video games but still playable by adults. Extremely easy gameplay, some rounds were finished by me in just a couple of moves. It's a bit unsatisfying as an experienced match 3 player since you just play until you hit the goal. If you hit it fast with good combos, you get a Purrfect score. Each cat is very cute, you collect one of 100 cats each round by feeding it until it is huge. This is presented as the cat going from a kitten to a (morbidly obese) adult. And you are also rescuing these lonely cats on a series of islands. Yeah I wouldn't think too much about the logic here. Most people could probably finish the game in less than 5 hours so take your time to enjoy it. There is also a freeplay mode but I haven't tried it yet. Only a mouse and even a very small monitor is needed for this game.

I love me some match-3 style games. This one promised me a buttload of content for its price, like 1000 stages of content. There's also loads of cute cats on the islands and IN SPACE. The music is pretty boppin' and I loved decorating the room and my kitties. Sadly, however, that's where the good ends. I cannot currently recommend this game in it's current state. It mainly comes down to the fact it is pretty buggy. You'll want to get use to it erroring and forcing you to quit after what feels like every 3-5 stages. There's another major bug that irks me. Let's say you don't get the rank you want on a stage, so you click to return back to your home, because there isn't a repeat stage button. Well, once you click on the stage again, the ice blocks aren't in the same formation as they originally were set, instead, placed in such a way as to make the stage impossible to beat. The only way to set the ice back into the intended locations for the stage is to beat the stage PRIOR to that one. It's so dumb and it creates a very frustrating experience when combined with the crashing issue I spoke of above. There's a few other minor bugs as well. None of this has been addressed and the game has been out for months now. My review could change if things get fixed up on this end. This is also a pretty strict time based game, where if you want the P-Rank (P for Purrrrrrfect) score on a stage, you have only 45 seconds to get it on EVERY STAGE. I don't recall this being stated to you. Catherine, your co-worker and guide NPC kinda tells you that feeding lots of treats that they like is the best strategy. It misleads you to think points or combos are what to go for. There's a score system but it literally doesn't mean jack squat and doesn't figure at all into your ranking on a stage. Anyway, it can get very difficult if you're wanting to top rank all the stages. The issues I mentioned above become especially apparent on smaller boards that chuck a bunch into the mix. You see, you don't have any power ups in this game that you can choose to use. There are powerups, but not all stages will have them. When you do have powerups, they are locked in ice too. You make a match next to them and then unleash their effect. Typically this'll clear a bunch of blocks either in a 3x3 explosion effect, line or row clear, or a big diagonal X clear. Powerups actually are really great in this game on any stage they happen to exist. They drop like candy and it's fun watching the craziness happen on the screen (if the game doesn't crash too with it). To fix issues about the rank system, it I wanted to keep it time based, would be to have the time requirements differ depending on the stage. Because right now with how it's implemented the best strategy has you mindlessly make as many matches as you can in the 45 second window and hope it'll be enough to get a top rank. I know I'm making a big deal out of this ranking thing when the game doesn't even provide any special rewards for trying to do so. You can continue playing through stages no matter your ranking as long as you finish them within 5 minutes. A little more time in the oven to iron out some of these issues would have made for an easy to recommend game. I would have been fine with a 100-ish stage game of this nature at this price point if it also meant a less buggy experience. Truly a reminder that quality > quantity in the indie game space.

If you need a break from high-stress games, Chowdown Kitty is the ultimate cure. On the surface, it’s a therapeutic experience—the art style is adorable, the physics are satisfyingly 'chonky,' and the soundtrack is an absolute vibe. It’s the kind of game that’s perfect for winding down or playing on the Steam Deck before bed. However, don't let the cute exterior fool you! There is a surprising amount of depth here for completionists. Getting those Purrfect-ranks and unlocking every skin requires genuine strategy and sharp reflexes. The progression feels incredibly rewarding, and you can tell the developers put a lot of heart into the animations and the gameplay loop.