Oh, to be a house cat. Lazing around from sun spot to sun spot, fawned over by people who tend to your every need. Looking forward to long days where your greatest concern is where the most comfortable spot is to nap. Being told you have the sweetest, fluffiest, most perfect little paws by everyone you meet.
But one day it all goes terribly wrong. A toy is dropped on you from above that throws your calm, soft life into a frenzy. The toy dispenses treats, your treats, treats you have a god given right to, only when aggressively attacked. You must prevail. You bat it across the room, thrilling at the appearance of tasty bites that slip through the toy’s trap. You bat it again, flailing your fluffy body across the floor. More treats appear. You know what you need to do, now. All out assault.
At least, this is what I think my cat’s lives are like. Do they enjoy the treat toy, or is it an adversary in their life? If you’ve ever wanted to experience this turmoil for yourself, The Cat Mitt Game by McMiller is for you.
Gameplay Overview:
Made for 2-6 players, The Cat Mitt Game bills itself as a “hiss-sterically bonkers party game”, and also 100% plastic free fun. The goal is to earn points by batting a rubber treat toy across the table until dice come out of it. To begin, each player gets a Kitty Card score tracker. The 28 Treat Cubes are placed inside the ball. Each treat cube has the same 6 treat types, one for each dice face. An order card is flipped over, each card showing a different arrangement of treat types.
Players take turns putting on the provided cotton cat mitts, like shortened oven mitts, and rolling the treat ball around until cubes come out. The active player then has to drag or roll that cube onto their score tracker, matching how the cube faces are shown on the order card, while still wearing the mitts. As this is going on, the player to the left is rolling the two MEOW dice as fast as possible, trying to roll a matching pair of MEOW faces. When they succeed, they shout “MEOW MEOW” ending the active player’s turn. Any treats that the active player hasn’t yet moved to their score tracker are open game to be stolen by the rest of the players, and the cat mitts are passed to the left.
The round ends when one player has matched the order card with their own score tracker, shouting “MEOW MEOW MEOW” to stop play. Everyone scores their tracker, getting one point for each correctly placed treat, and 3 points for completing the order card. The player with the most points after 3 rounds wins. There are bonus Catnip and Poison treat dice with their own rules if players want to try the “Proficient Puss Edition”.
Game Experience:
The Cat Mitt Game will humble you. You think it will be a breeze, that you’ll retain your composure, but those treat dice are hard to get out at first. It takes aggressive, frenzied bating, all while the person next to is frantically rolling meows for your downfall. It gets easier to get dice out of the treat ball the emptier it is, picking up the pace of the game as the round proceeds.
Once you’ve gotten the treat cubes out, moving them to the scorecard without lifting them while wearing the mitts will try to break you. You will realize that after all that work you need to have the dead fish face up, not the mouse. The person to your left will begin to meow just as your cotton-swabbed hands finally manage to maneuver the tiny wooden die. You will resent them and their shouted meows. Fun will be had.
There isn’t a whole lot of dexterity or skill required to play the game, making it great for families. Young kids can play just as effectively as teen siblings, and both are just as likely to wrack up points as their parents are. Sometimes party games with dexterity elements start to feel repetitive after the first few turns, but there’s just enough going on here that it keeps you engaged without being overly complicated.
Even so, three rounds of this feels like it overstays its welcome a bit, especially when the treat ball is full and cubes are slow to release. The bonus poison and catnip dice make it a little more competitive if you’ve played it a few times, but most of the fun for me was watching grown adults meltdown while wearing hot pink cat mittens.
Final Thoughts:
The Cat Mitt Game strikes the balance of being just challenging enough to be entertaining while being simple enough to drive you crazy. The game works well for families or players of different ability levels. It’s good clean fun, and it will make you think twice next time you fill up your cat’s treat toy and laugh as they immediately whack it under a table.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars – Frustrating fun for all ages.
Hits:
• Plays well across multiple ages and skill levels
• 100% plastic free
• Expansion dice add an extra level of difficulty
Misses:
• Three rounds felt long to us
• At the full player count the turns start to feel repetitive
