Cat Chi Cat Review – Tell your cat I said ‘pspspsps’

Another day, another game in the Punchboard Japanese Game Festival (日本のゲーム祭り). This time, though, with a bit of an Anglicised twist. Cat Chi Cat made its way to the UK and beyond via Mark & Co at Bright Eye Games. It’s a short and sweet two-player trick-taking game with a really clever twist.

Inside the slim little box, you’ll find a deck of cards with 3 suits of five cards, a first player card, a joker/wild card, the titular ‘Chi’ the cat card, and a score tracking card. Oh, and a couple of cute little cat meeples to track the scores with. Three cards form a kind of track between the players, which Chi sits alongside. You play single-card tricks and try to bring Chi to your side of the track in order to score points. The player who played the highest value card (while following suit) wins.

Well, sometimes they win.

This is where we get to the crux of what makes Cat Chi Cat different, and where the cunning play and the fun really rear up like a stretching moggy.

If you’ve ever owned a cat, you don’t need me to tell you they’re fickle creatures. One minute they’re rolling around on their back, demanding belly scritches like some kind of attention-seeking feline exhibitionist. The next, they’ve sunk every claw and tooth at their disposal into your flesh and are trying to liberate you from your skin. Chi is no different.

While Chi is on the red side of the card, he will move one step towards the winner of the trick. However, when he’s on the blue side of the card, he moves towards the loser instead. This means if you’ve got a hand of low-value cards, if you can get him to the blue side, you can try to lose intentionally. The problem with this is that Chi always starts on the red side. To get him to flip to the opposite side of the card, both players have to play an odd card. The first time he flips to blue, then to red, and so on.

You can see where this is going. Three suits of cards, each with values 1-5. There are more odd cards than even cards, meaning the likelihood of him flipping is higher each trick, but because two of the in-play cards are face-down on the table (the third dace-down card is the first player card), you cannot be 100% certain what your opponent is holding.

Final thoughts

Cat Chi Cat is so much more than it seems when you see it on the table. After just a couple of plays, it becomes the sort of duelling game where the game itself disappears, and it turns into a mind game battle instead. It’s a terrible comparison mechanically, but it reminds me of Mr Jack Pocket in that respect. You both know what’s available, you both know the obvious moves, so instead, you try to juke the other person into making a mistake.

I taught it to strangers at a convention, game night attendees while we waited for others to arrive, and my own family. Everyone gets it quickly. It’s a really simple premise which plays out in ten to twenty minutes, and I love the moment when people truly get it. When they realise they know what they have in their hand, which means the other person must be holding the rest, but – oh no! – two of those cards might be on the table…

For a game which will set you back around £10, it’s hard to see a reason not to buy Cat Chi Cat. I bought one of the first batch of 100 games from Bright Eye at UKGE, and I’m really glad I did. I’ll leave you with an interesting factoid – in the original version of this game, Catchy!, the cat was called Alex. There you go, wow your friends, and pick up a copy for yourself when you get a chance.

Q&A with Mark Cooke of Bright Eye Games

I was fascinated with Bright Eye Games choice to pick up small games from Japan and both localise and distribute them in the West. I reached out to Mark from the company to find out a little bit more.

Me: Hi Mark, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions. First of all, what made you choose Cat Chi Cat in particular?

Mark: The simple ruleset with interesting decisions the more you play. It has a hidden depth that doesn’t immediately reveal itself. Also, the theme helped!

And roughly how long did it take between you deciding you wanted to publish the game, and you actually selling English copies of the Cat Chi Cat?

Roughly ten months or so, we were able to turn SUMO and Tokkuri Taking around quicker as there weren’t as many changes. With Cat Chi Cat we wanted to add some new art that matched the theme, so it took a little longer.

When will it (if at all) get a fuller release like Sumo and Tokkuri Taking did?

We’re hoping in time for Essen Spiel, so around late October.

Is there anything else from Japan in the pipeline for Bright Eye Games?

Nothing confirmed yet, but we’re always looking and returned from the recent Tokyo Game Market with around 30 titles that we’re still working through!

Thanks to Mark for taking the time out to answer my questions. Watch this space!

How to buy it

Thanks to Bright Eye Games, UK trick-taking fans can pick up Cat Chi Cat later this year. Otherwise, you might need to look at import shops or convention stands.

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