April Fool’s Day brings many pranks every year, and WayForward Technologies has done some amazing jokes over the years. Back in 2013 they announced Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche, which was described as a game that was a puzzler, platformer, shmup, action, shooter, adventure, strategy, fighting, rhythm, arcade, horror, tactical, RPG, TPS, RTS, visual novel and more. It was a nice prank, but something like that couldn’t actually happen, could it? Fast Forward to 2016 and WayForward made the game a reality….sort of. The real Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche is a side scrolling shoot em up but manages to incorporate most of those genres by way of the various power ups you would get. The game was exclusive to Humble Bundle but April Fool’s Day 2020 saw the game get a surprise release on the Nintendo Switch.
To be quite blunt, Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche is completely insane. You play as Kebako, an intergalactic cat-eared bounty hunter, who’s accompanied by her faithful companion, Squiddie, as she flies and blasts her way through wave after wave of enemies. Kebako differs from the normal WayForward protagonists by being more than a little crazy, with the situation played for laughs. It works because the entire world of the game is insane, such as having years be swapped for random phrases, and complete with rock stars setting entire galaxies on fire. The story does not take itself seriously at all, befitting a game that began life as a prank, but this can be a downside at times. Kebako and the other characters can be very funny at times, but at other times they can start to get on your nerves. It feels like WayForward was trying a bit too hard at times, while hitting it out of the park at other times.
The powerups are the draw of the game, and they are very unique. The platformer gun will send out a spite based character to run at an enemy and can jump on them for additional damage, the arcade gun will send out a Pac Man-esque character to bite away at the foes and the RPG gun gives you multiple options such as attack with a giant sword, magic , run away or heal. There are weapons with rhythm minigames and weapons with attacks based on Puzzle Bobble as well, with matching colored orbs correctly dealing massive damage. My favourite was the sports gun, which sees you hit enemies with golf balls to defeat them.
I wish I could say it is all good, but there are some issues. For one, the game is very short, with only three levels. This is not to say you will be beating the game quickly though, as the game can be surprisingly difficult and the bosses will hand you defeat after defeat, You will not get discouraged, but when you will be left wanting more when you finally beat the game. The other issue is more of a technical one, as there is a surprisingly large amount of slowdown and some frame drops that occur when too many enemies are on screen at once. Fortunately, the slowdown and frame rate issues do not cause problems with the boss fights, but they are something I hope WayForward addresses going forward. The only other issue is that sometimes the HD rumble feels awkward and causes the joy cons to get a little too loud. Again, this is something that can be addressed, so I am not worried.
In conclusion. I rather liked Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche, even with its shortcomings. It is a title worth checking out and manages to do the impossible at times, and blend so many genres together. It really needs to be played to be believed, and I urge you all to play this at least one time on the Switch.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided.
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