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Cat Me If You Can turns finding hidden cats into a gentle puzzle adventure: explore a mostly monochrome town, photograph cats with an in-game camera and watch colour return. Emina Zulic’s September 8, 2026 review for AltChar rated it 8/10, praising its hand-drawn style and satisfying search loop while noting occasional camera-response delays and hard-to-spot quest items.
What you do in Cat Me If You Can
The central task is to search each environment for cats and photograph them. The game’s noir-inspired town is mostly black and white; when you find a cat and take its picture, the cat regains colour. Colour also helps signal interactable objects, giving players a visual clue about where to look and what may be useful.
The adventure is arranged across several stages, with three levels in each. The review names settings including Land of the Rising Meow, the Meowdieval Era and Purramid Kingdom, with themed environments and different cat designs providing variety as you progress.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsRegular cats and special-cat quests
Regular cats are hidden around the levels and reward careful observation. “Epic” cats add a quest layer: finding one may require locating associated objects, photographing certain objects or carrying collected items to a particular place. That distinction matters because the search is not always simply a matter of scanning for a cat-shaped silhouette.
#1 Best Overall
- BUILDS PLANNING & SEQUENTIAL THINKING — Cats & Boxes develops five STEM-connected cognitive skills with every puzzle: planning, logic, spatial insight, problem solving and concentration. Because you move the box pieces one at a time — and each must fit back on the board before the next move — you have to think several moves ahead and picture the whole sequence, the multi-step reasoning that underpins mathematics, coding and logical thinking. It's so much fun to play, you'll forget you're building real skills.
- DESIGNED FOR AGES 7 TO ADULT — 60 CHALLENGES TO WIZARD LEVEL — Starter challenges solve in just a few moves; Wizard challenges make you cover a cat with a box only to move it again later, and genuinely test adults. Early challenges welcome a 7-year-old; the hardest push seasoned puzzlers. One game the whole family puzzles through together, each at their own level.
- MOVE THE BOXES, HIDE THE CATS — These cats are dying to get into a box! Choose a challenge and place the cats and box pieces on the board as shown. Then move the box pieces around — one at a time, each fitting back onto the board before you move the next — until every cat is tucked snugly inside a cardboard box. Plan the order carefully, because you'll often need to cover one cat, then shift that box later. One solution every time.
- THE PERFECT TRAVEL BRAIN GAME FOR EVERY GENERATION — Everything packs into the compact case with a lid — just close it and go. It's ideal for planes, road trips, restaurants and grandparents' houses, with no loose pieces to lose. The same puzzle that builds a child's planning gives adults a satisfying screen-free challenge and offers older adults an engaging mental workout that helps keep the mind sharp and active — a purr-fect, thoughtful gift across generations.
- AWARD-WINNING BELGIAN DESIGN — Cats & Boxes comes from Raf Peeters, one of SmartGames' most celebrated designers, who set out to create something complex from very simple rules. From SmartGames, the worldwide leader in multi-level logic games, with 30+ years of award-winning design from Belgium, trusted by families, educators and puzzle lovers in 80+ countries. Portable case included, plus a free companion app with hints for the trickiest challenges.
How the search tools help
Radar
A radar helps guide you toward cats, and its cooldown can be adjusted. It is a useful aid when a level’s visual details make searching slower, but it does not solve every quest: according to Zulic’s review, it does not locate the objects needed for special-cat tasks. For collect-and-deliver quests, it points to the destination instead.
Journal
The journal keeps track of objectives, quest items, photographs and collected relics. That record can help you make sense of what you have already found and what a stage still asks you to do, particularly when a special-cat objective involves several steps.
Rank #2
- Trusted By Families Worldwide - With Over 50 Million Sold, Thinkfun Is The World'S Leading Manufacturer Of Brain Games And Mind Challenging Puzzles
- Develops Critical Skills – Gameplay Provides A Stealth Learning Experience, Where Players Learn Critical Reasoning And Logical Deduction Skills As They Solve The Increasingly Difficult Challenges
- What You Get - Components Are Well Made And Durable, Includes A Game Board, 6 Cat Pieces, 6 Crime Tokens, 40 Challenges And Solutions For Players Aged 8+, With A Fun Theme And Hilarious Artwork
- Clear Instructions – Easy To Learn With A Clear, High Quality Instruction Manual You Can Start Playing And Solving Right Away
- Skill level: intermediate
What works well
- Distinctive presentation: The hand-drawn art gives the black-and-white town a clear identity, while the return of colour makes finding a cat feel like a visible change to the world.
- Useful visual signalling: Colour draws attention to interactable objects without discarding the monochrome look that defines the setting.
- A rewarding search loop: Exploration, spotting a cat and taking its picture form a straightforward cycle that the review found enjoyable.
- Varied puzzle settings: The themed stages and different cat designs help the adventure feel less repetitive than a single environment repeated level after level.
- Challenges built around observation: Zulic describes basic movement options such as running, jumping and crouching, but characterizes the game as focused on searching and observation rather than demanding platforming.
Where the experience can snag
Camera input may need another try
The reviewer reports that the camera sometimes does not take a picture immediately. Because photography is the core interaction, a missed input can interrupt the otherwise simple find-and-photograph rhythm.
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Quest objects can be difficult to spot
Items tied to special-cat quests may be hard to distinguish from the surrounding scene. The radar’s limits make this more noticeable: it can guide you to a cat or a delivery destination, but it will not search for the quest objects themselves. Players may need to inspect an area carefully rather than rely on the radar to reveal every step.
Rank #3
- Cat vs Mice: Strap squeakers to your feet and steal the cheese from the blindfolded cat without getting swatted. It's one of the silliest halloween activities and party games for kids around.
- The Big Cheese: Bank 5 small cheeses on your Home Base first, then make your move for the Big Cheese to win. These physical games for kids and movement games for kids keep them active and off screens.
- Built for Chaos: Gather the kids. From birthday party games for kids to summer games for kids, indoor recess games, and family game night, this is the game they will be begging to play over and over.
- How to Play: A bildfolded cat guards the cheese while the sqeaky mice try to steal it. Bank 5 small cheese and the big cheese to win. Family games for kids and adults don't get sillier than this.
- What's Inside: Every box includes 20 small cheese, 1 Big Cheese, 4 Home Base Cards, 1 Blindfold, 1 Inflatable Paw, and 4 Squeaky Paw Pads. A kids gifts and fun gifts pick ready to play out of the box.
Is Cat Me If You Can worth playing?
If you enjoy relaxed exploration, visual puzzles and the satisfaction of finding hidden objects, the review suggests Cat Me If You Can has a lot to offer. Its strongest ideas work together: the monochrome setting makes colour meaningful, photography supplies a simple goal, and themed stages give the search a sense of progression. The main caveats are practical rather than fundamental: occasional camera delays and quest items that can be easy to miss.
AltChar’s 8/10 “Great” rating is Emina Zulic’s assessment, based on a PC review copy supplied by the publisher. It is one reviewer’s evaluation, not a score derived from multiple reviews.
Rank #4
- PUZZLE MASTER: Turn snack time into playtime with this cat food puzzle that challenges your furry friend's brain and keeps them entertained as they hunt for treats
- LEVEL UP: This cat puzzle features five different compartments and difficulty levels that keep clever companions challenged and coming back for more
- SLOW & STEADY: This puzzle feeder turns mealtime into a fun challenge, encouraging slower eating habits and helping manage your cat's weight naturally
- STAYS PUT: Non-slip rubber pads keep this food puzzle securely in place while your cat explores and searches for treats without chasing it across the floor
- EASY CARE: After your cat's adventure with this treat dispenser, cleanup is quick and easy with handwashing or top rack dishwasher placement
Platforms and release timing
AltChar’s review states a September 8, 2026 release date and lists the PC version on Steam. It described Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series S/X versions as expected in Q4 2026. That console window is the review’s dated forecast; it does not establish whether those versions are available now.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- THE WORLD IS FLAT: Cats know it!! To prove it, they are going to knock stuff off the edge of the world.
- OBJECT OF THE GAME: In this light family strategy game, use your cards to move cats across the Earth and knock your opponent’s houses over the edge.
- MORE CATS: Every time you shuffle the draw deck, another cat is added to the board.
- BEWARE: Special cards can cause more chaos than just cats themselves.
- WINNING: The last player with any houses left on Cat Earth wins the game.
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