Pix the Cat

Pix the Cat

A fast-paced, top-down, arcade-action game where the eponymous Pix must race through multi-segmented levels and rescue flocks of little ducklings.

Overview

Pix the Cat is a score based arcade-action game where the player controls the title character Pix through a series of maze like levels. The goal of the game is to collect duck eggs which then hatch into ducklings and lead those ducklings into drop off points and achieving the highest score possible.

The game was developed by Pastagames and initially saw release in October 2014 on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita and later was released on the PC in January of the following year.

Gameplay

The main game takes elements of both Snake and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX . Similar to Snake Pix cannot run into walls or the ducklings following him as doing so will cause the ducklings to scatter and be lost. Once all the ducklings are saved or lost the next level in the maze opens up. Players can cause Pix to "boost" by timing their turns around corners and off walls and even the trail of ducks at the correct time. Later stages of the game introduce enemies, some of which can be destroyed by entering "Fever Time" which is achieved through raising the combo score multiplier. This is achieved by not dropping off ducklings before all ducklings have been collected and by not losing any ducklings.

Mazes are not randomly generated although there are slight changes on the layout of the eggs and drop off points although these variants are limited. Playing through this mode will unlock new game modes, art assets, new announcer voice packs, new difficulties, new songs to listen to and new challenges.

The additional modes are "Nostalgia Mode", "Laboratory Mode" and multiplayer mode.

Nostalgia Mode

In this mode the music and graphics change from the brightly coloured neon and pixel style to a classic old fashioned animation art style similar to that of early Mickey Mouse and Felix The Cat cartoons. Each stage is now stand alone and while the goal is the same there is an additional bonus to complete the stage before a timer runs out.

Laboratory Mode

In this mode both the art style is changed once again. The goal now is to collect and deposit off happy bacteria. One rule change to this mode is that all the bacteria must be collected before any are deposited. Levels are stand alone and there is an extra challenge to beat the level in a maximum amount of moves.

Multiplayer mode

In multiplayer up to four players take control of a Pixbot and compete in arenas, some of which are multi-level like the puzzles in the main game. Players collect eggs which can be used as projectiles and also to boost. The more eggs a player has in their trail the slower they are. There are three types of eggs available.

  • White: stun-shot
  • Green: mines
  • Purple: rocket

The goal in multiplayer is to knock the other players out and be the last Pixbot standing. If there are three or more players in a game, players who get knocked out get to play on as ghosts. If a ghost player hits another players Pixbot, they switch and the ghost player is now alive again.

Soundtrack

Shortly after the games release the soundtrack for the game was released via the bandcamp online music store (link). The majority of the soundtrack was written and produced by Xaiver Thiry although two of the ten tracks were written and composed by Sylvain Hellio.

The track list is as follows:

TitleRun TimeComposer
Pix The Cat Theme02:06Xaivery Thiry
Into The Maze03:42Xaivery Thiry
Good ol' Cats and Ducks01:44Xaivery Thiry
Microscopic Brainstorm03:18

Sylvain Hellio

An Egg Collecting Owl01:31Xaivery Thiry
Metal Maniacs02:38Xaivery Thiry
The Labyrinthic Lab of Madness01:43Sylvain Hellio
Faster Pixycat! Kill! Kill!01:12Xaivery Thiry
Fever, an Egg Hysteria03:13Xaivery Thiry
Endless Running00:30Xaivery Thiry