Cat Poke is a freeware puzzle platformer developed by Squiddershins for The Independent Gaming Source's 2010 A Game By Its Cover competition. You play as Molly, a child who's stuck inside the house because of rain. She is so bored that she decides to poke all nine of her family cats in the butt, starting with nearby Bustopher Jones. Well, it's better than sitting around the house all day doing nothing, right?
You can find the game here
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Tropes:
- Blackout Basement: The attic is pitch dark and can only be safely explored with a flashlight.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: This game uses the WASD keys, but rather than for movement like usualnote they correspond respectively to opening the menu, jumping, performing actions (such as poking the cats) and using items. Expect to get confused the first time you play!
- Excuse Plot: You're a little girl who can't go out because it's raining. The most fun you can have at the moment is butt-poking your cats. Might as well!
- Guide Dang It!: For most objects that can be interacted with "S" the action is displayed over the "S" icon. For example, "Take" or "Open". But there are two places, where Molly needs to press "S" while jumping, the stove and the centrifugal dryer, and nothing is displayed there.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: There are nine cats to find in the house. Each one has their own unique quirks and/or predicaments (such as Mistoffelees's TV-watching habit, or Tumblebrutus being stuck in the dryer).
- Hilarity Ensues: In the ending, Molly's mom pokes her in the butt, just like the latter did to the cats!
- Hyperspace Arsenal: Molly is somehow capable of picking up and carrying around a ladder several times bigger than herself.
- Retraux: As expected from the chip-tune music and pixel graphics.
- Shared Family Quirks: Molly's mom also likes poking butts. As Molly finds out rather embarrassingly.
- Shout-Out:
- Who'd have thought Mistoffelees was a fan of Adventure Time?
- Some of the paintings found throughout the house reference other indie video games such as Cave Story and Spelunky.
- Shrinking Violet: Demeter gets easily scared and tends to hide from Molly. To poke her, Molly has to sneak up on her.
- Theme Naming: All of the cats are named after characters in the musical Cats.
