9 Lives to Defend Review

Loki’s owners are leaving the house and have told him to protect it while they are away. Our kitty is serious about this job and has his revolver ready to take out any incoming threats like insects and rodents.

Before we get into the main game, there are numerous choices to make, ranging from run time, character, stage, and power-ups like amulets. You select how long your run will be by changing the trip length between 12 or 24 minutes, or endless if you want to see how long you can survive the never-ending influx of enemies.

You will also need to decide how much of a challenge you want for your run. There are four different options available, each one upping the challenge. The easiest is Playful, followed by Snappy, Wild, and Brutal. If you manage to survive the round, you will be rewarded with kibble that can be spent on permanent upgrades for your kitty; the more difficult the challenge, the bigger your reward.

When you begin, you are playing as Loki the cat, but there is another skin (also a character): a kitten named Baby, which you can unlock. Every character has a collection of outfits to wear, each with unique attacks and stats. The options available are Loki, your base skin equipped with a revolver; Samurai, who's armed with a katana; and Viking, who uses an axe. There are others like Bionic, Wizard, Soldier, Boxer, Sheriff, and Count to unlock once the conditions are met. However, each costume has variations, like the Samurai, which can also be a Ninja, Pirate, or Cyber Ninja. So there is a massive amount of content to unlock here.

Some of the foes you will be fighting include rats dressed up in funky costumes, mosquitoes, a variety of beetles, and slugs that shoot slime at you. No matter the difficulty level you select, there are a lot of invaders that you will need to take out. It is rather unfair — the sheer number of baddies you have to avoid and dash are overwhelming because the cat doesn't have enough mobility to avoid them all.

9 Lives to Defend is a twin-stick shooter. The game auto-fires and aims at the enemy closest to you, but if you want a specific target, you can aim with the right thumbstick. Defeating enemies grants you XP, and once you level up, you will be rewarded with the option of four cards to choose from. As you defeat enemies, your Feline Instinct bar will fill: once full, you can unleash a powerful attack by pressing the right trigger on your controller. There is a cooldown period, so you won’t be able to spam this strong attack.

As you defeat enemies, the bar at the top of the screen will fill; once full, you will level up, rewarding you with the option of four cards to choose from. Some are cat-themed attacks that are really funny, especially as a cat-owner who has to deal with some of these on a day-to-day basis. Fur Scattering (essentially offensive furballs), Meowave (ear-piercing meowing), or Poop Bomb (mines but instead they're buried poop). The humour in these was a plus for me because it reminded me of my two feline pals at home.

Each of them can be powered up to increase the amount of damage they inflict, decrease the cooldown duration, or make the area it reaches larger. Other cards are items, like Card Player, which gives you seven chances to randomise the cards you receive; Hungry, which immediately refills your health; or Remember Me, which refills all of the food bowls you have on the map with kibble.

Defeated enemies drop kibble; collect this to level up and gain new attack cards. There are also bowls of food on the stage that you can pick up to replenish your health; these are refilled as you kill enemies and pick up the treats that are dropped. The problem is that the kibble will disappear if you don't collect it quickly enough, which causes you to take risks as you try to grab it in the middle of a swarm of enemies. The game does a good job of alerting you when the dish is full again.

Every four minutes, a boss will enter the fight: they are a lot stronger than all the other cannon fodder. Once a boss is defeated, a golden chest drops onto the stage. To open it, you will have to stand in the circle surrounding it as enemies come at you for the required amount of time. If successful, you’ll get a reward, like a max-level secondary weapon such as the Electric Fly Swatter, or a 30% cooldown reduction for your Flying Flip-Flop attack.
Our cat has nine lives and three hearts of health for each one. When you die, a headstone drops and inflicts 90 damage on enemies standing nearby. Once you are defeated, or if you manage to complete the run, you can go to the Hideout and spend your kibble on permanent upgrades, such as increasing your movement speed, reducing cooldowns, and boosting recovery time. You will also be able to purchase amulets that you can equip on your cat for additional perks.

9 Lives to Defend is a cute, cartoony-looking game. The cat characters have a lot of fun costumes to unlock, and the enemy bugs look like they walked right out of a children’s cartoon. The music isn’t particularly memorable, but it wasn’t irritating, so that was good. The sound effects for all the different attacks were done very well — the explosion for the Poop Bomb was especially satisfying.

I think that 9 Lives to Defend is an alright game, but it just doesn’t feel as addictive as other roguelike bullet-hell titles I have played. The cat-themed items were a lot of fun, and I love the variety of costumes for Loki, but something feels like it’s missing. I never had the feeling of being overpowered, like in Vampire Survivors when you pick up a ridiculously strong weapon. I was never mowing down a huge wave of enemies; instead, I felt like I was always on the run.

If you are looking for a challenging kitty-themed survival game with tonnes of things to unlock, 9 Lives to Defend is a title to keep an eye on. But I will warn you that just because it looks cute doesn’t mean it will be easy!