"Cat Scratch Fever"

2004 was a rough year for Catwoman. Every one has something nasty to say about the lady with nine lives. Except for me.

I loved this game and had a great time playing it. Developed at the speed of light, "Catwoman" was still a solid effort that only suffered from a negative image. Graphically I found this game to be fabulous. The character model was dead on and look and moved wonderfully. The environments were also pleasing to my eyes. Dark and dingy and oh so dirty.

The game attempted to do a lot in the control department--and for the most part succeeded. Catwoman has a lot of tools to work with, and it must have been a minor nightmare to affix all of them into the game. Upgrading on the way, players could whip, shimmy, and smack the living daylights of the enemy (but never kill-Catwoman does not kill). The game itself didn't have a huge fighting element. Most of the time was spent crawling here and whipping this in a effort to proceed in the level. Depending on what catty feat you accomplished you'd be rewarded with bonus points and could use the kittenish karma to upgrade Catwoman. Some of the upgrades were cool (anything with the whip) and some just seemed worthless. The game was responsive and only in one area did I feel the need to smash the controller!!!

The sound of the game was a bit of a mixed bag. The voice of Catwoman was seemingly provided by a cast of thousands. But the sounds effects and score was decent.

So what didn't work at all? The camera! It was obnoxious and seemed to have no sense of coordination. There's a bit on the game were you have to jump from point to point high above the floor. The game wasn't very accomodating to this task and you'd basically have to blindly fail around. A big misstep on the developers agenda.

"Catwoman" is just one of those things. It would have to cool if this game got more development time. With that extra time and effort I feel "Catwoman" could have been a superb game. It's unfortunate that the game and movie suffered so badly. A complete pariah but a fun time for those who feel the urge and aren't afraid of it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/05