Many classic video games are based on incredibly bizarre premises. Super Mario Bros. has an Italian-American plumber fighting armies of evil turtles and walking mushrooms. Sonic the Hedgehog has a small insect-eating mammal running at high speeds and destroying robots with cute fuzzy animals trapped inside. Angry Birds flings wingless, spherical fowl at green, spherical pigs. But even with its unusual premise, Catball Eats It All is especially unusual. While it may not be to everyone's taste, Catball is so strange it absolutely has to be played.

There is no real story inherent to Catball Eats It All, which is probably for the best, because the content is so strange that it could have no sober narrative. Catball is, as his name suggests, a cat shaped like a ball. He rolls through levels patterned after animals, but shaped like objects of food. At first, Catball has to eat bits of food around the perimeter of the level, but after that's finished, he gets to devour the level itself. But this all must be done within the time limit, or else the level will wake up and take his vengeance upon Catball.

Thankfully, this is is all more fun than it sounds. While one would need years to understand the thought processes that lead a person to the idea of a Catball, the gameplay is intuitive and simple. Players hold their thumb on the screen to go in that direction, while tapping on the other end of the screen to make Catball float slightly upwards (a move that can be pulled off consecutively). This is an easy setup that won't take long to control properly. It also becomes increasingly tense when players are trying for high scores, because they have to plan the best routes for score multipliers as well as move Catball at high speeds. The closest thing you can think of to this game may be Katamari Damacy, but with its own twist.

Unfortunately, a few poor design choices hold  Catball Eats It All back from App Store greatness. Though the game itself is free, it only has three short levels, and each pack of three new levels costs ninety-nine cents-- not a bad deal in and of itself, but it's in fierce competition with all the great full ninety-nine cent games on the App Store. While Game Center support is included, it only covers leaderboards, without any achievements. High scores are the main reason for playing, which isn't a problem. However, ninety-nine cent games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja also offer more diverse objectives, and thus last longer.

Thankfully, being slightly below the best of the App Store isn't a damning indictment of Catball Eats it All. The game is still fun, unique, and oddly charming. Its world is incredibly bizarre, and it shows an inspired art direction that too many games lack. Catball is recommended for all iOS gamers, if only to grace the iOS dock with the spherical feline's App icon.

GameDynamo's Score for Catball Eats It All (Mobile)

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