So, what is the most necessary and adorable thing in the world? That’s right, cats. Wake the Cat is the result of the Internet being obsessed with all things fluffy and adorable, compressed into a puzzler that revolves around physics. Of course, the temptation is too great to let a sleeping cat sleep–the entire premise of the game is based on this. As such, it is your solemn duty to send a ball of yarn spinning over to the precious feline and wake her up. No cats were harmed in the making of this addictive game.
Wake the Cat certainly seems like it was built with fans of LolCats and every click-hole corner of the internet in mind, by focusing on the internet’s lowest denominator: cat cuteness. It is the creation of Halfpixel Games and published by Chillingo, and can be purchased for both Android and Apple products. Credits to Andrey Galkin and Kirill Altunin for publishing and designing this adorable timesink. Art and animation were overseen by Georgy Notyag, while music is composed by Mikhail Kotov.
The graphics of Wake the Cat are a gorgeous variety of 3D graphics designed for maximum fun. Lighting and textures are well used, giving an immersive quality to a game that is meant to be played in as little as two-minute intervals. Because of consistent use of color schemes, it is relatively simple to understand what new elements are supposed to be used for, despite the limited instructions. This is, after all, a game that presses the player to be creative and explore on their own to see how things work and interact.

Speaking of interactions, this puzzler is far from a static game. Every few levels, new elements are introduced to ‘help’ you wake the cat. Naturally, this ‘help’ is usually a higher level of difficulty, but thankfully the hilarity of the game goes up when you are introduced to things like fans, slides, velcro (? What else would stop yarn in its tracks?), and various portals (through slippers, because why not?).

Wake the Cat does employ some level of achievement ranking, though not in a manner that makes one want to tear their hair out. There is a three-star award system that doles out stars based on how many tries it takes the user to successfully complete a level, and how quickly the player assembles their strategy to do so.

Unlike reality, this adorable kitten always seems pleased to be woken up, twirling and looking to the player with its big wide eyes. And really, mobile game player, what more reward do you need, other than to be invited to do that again and again?