Mewgenics Review

Mewgenics is a title that I have been interested in ever since it was announced back in 2012 as the follow-up game released by Team Meat after Super Meat Boy, with a planned release date in 2014; to say it has seen development hell would be an understatement. The game was cancelled, and I was quite certain it was never going to see the light of day…
That is, until Edmund McMillen reacquired the game in 2018, and it was announced that it would be developed alongside videogame designer Tyler Glaiel. The game design of Mewgenics is said to have gone through a complete overhaul and has now finally been released. I was shocked that it was actually coming out! I can’t wait to try it and see if it was worth the over-a-decade wait.

The intro to the game has a great hand-drawn look to it and a silly sense of humour. The first thing you will do is meet Professor Thomas A. Beanies, a scientist who claims that cats are a science, and that he invented it. Since you are there, you are obviously a Felineologist, and he believes that by working together, the two of you can change the world with cats!
He has been conducting research and experiments with felines and wants to show off three of his latest specimens; these cats are straight out of the biovat. Debra, Frumpkin, and Clawd are his feline creations, and they are definitely strange-looking, especially when compared to the Professor’s own cat, who is quite adorable. You have to select two of them, a boy and a girl. If you move your cursor over a cat, it will meow; move it away and back again, and it will meow differently. Each kitty has its own unique-sounding voice, which is really cool, rather than using the same basic sound for all of them.

Mewgenics is a roguelike tactical role-playing game set on a procedurally generated grid. With the two felines you selected, you have to learn how to battle, with your first opponents being a cat and a rat, and your goal is to kill them. A paw print appears over the cat whose turn it is, and their basic attack is shown in the bottom-left corner. Each feline character has its own unique attack that is either ranged or melee. You can play using a keyboard and mouse or a controller. I played on the Steam Deck, using the thumbsticks to move the cursor and make selections, and it worked quite well without feeling annoying.

You have multiple actions per turn, such as moving, attacking, or using a spell, before ending your turn and passing control to the next character. When you select movement, you can see where your cat can travel. If you decide to attack, the targetable area is shown. If you want to use a spell instead of a regular attack, you will need mana to cast it. The amount you have is represented by the blue bar under your active cat’s portrait. At the end of each turn, you gain more mana, so you’ll have some ready when it becomes that cat’s turn again.

When you finish a battle, you receive coins and food, and one of your cats, selected at random, will level up. The chosen cat learns a new active ability. You can also check their passive move to see if it complements the active attack for an added bonus. Some of the abilities you can learn include Lick, which heals an adjacent teammate by two HP; Sunburn, which inflicts Burn I and Bind I at infinite range; or Dump, which lets you spawn a poo on an adjacent tile.

You will follow either the Alley Path or the Desert Path. The Alley Path can take you to the Junkyard, the Sewers, the Caves, or the Boneyard, whereas the Desert Path leads to the Core. When you begin, the path you are on has four stops followed by a boss battle. If something blocks your path, you must choose how to get past it. For the first one, there’s the option to Attack or Outsmart Butch. You can see the stats showing which option is more likely to succeed. Get past the obstacle, and you may receive a reward, such as a small catnip baggie that gives you seven mana. Other stops reward items, such as finding a stick in a log that you can equip and use for a melee attack four times.

If, during a battle, one of your cats runs out of health, they aren’t dead, just downed. They become injured, and one of their stats is permanently reduced. If their body gets hit too many times, they will die, and the remaining cats must finish the fight on their own. When you view your team between stops on the route map, they will look visibly injured, which is a nice touch.

Enemies aren’t the only thing you’ll be fighting against in Mewgenics; the weather also plays a role. Clear skies are ideal, but you may have to deal with Acid Rain, which damages your cats and breaks down equipped items; Fog, where your abilities and attacks have a 10% chance of missing; Heavy Wind, which moves anything not attached to the ground; or a Heat Wave, which prevents cats from healing between battles and makes enemies immune to Freeze. If you’re lucky, you might instead encounter a Butterfly Swarm, which grants all your allies an extra two points of luck.

When you return home, Mr. Tinkles is waiting for you. Cats that have already been on an adventure will retire once they get home, meaning no more journeys for them. He tells you to take them inside so they can relax comfortably. Once placed in the house, you can end the day and see what happens when the lights go out. Chances are, it’s exactly what you’re thinking, although there is a chance of a quiet night with no “extracurricular activities” or you just see two cats fighting. At the end of all this, each cat eats one piece of food, so it’s important to keep your supplies stocked.

As expected, as soon as the lights went out, there was action. Clawd got it on with Debra, and they had a kitten! The baby is too small to go on adventures and needs to grow up first. Fortunately, it only takes about one in-game day for kittens to grow, so you won’t be waiting long. You can also supplement your team with stray cats that show up around your house looking for love. The stray kitty I adopted (or catnapped) was named Beau.

The game automatically names all felines, kittens and strays included, so you don’t need to worry about being unique or creative. My favourite generated name so far has been Senator Marshmallow; it’s absolutely perfect! When your cats have a kitten, one of mine was named Lunya, you can check their stats to see what traits they inherited. This kitty got her mum’s melee attack and the Dump active ability. Don’t be surprised to see some inbreeding here, which can result in kittens with odd mutations and other deficiencies.
Once you hoard enough strays or raise enough kittens, it’s time to send a team of four felines out on their own adventure to gather more food and supplies. Choose four cats that have never been on a journey before, and place them in the Adventure Box outside the house. The game assigns a team name automatically, and these are quite entertaining. My first team was called the Spell Slingin’ Kitties.

Before heading out, you need to equip Class Collars. There are four available at the start, one for each cat, and no two cats can share the same class. Each class alters stats, such as HP and strength. The available classes are Tank, which absorbs damage and pushes enemies around; Fighter, ideal for strong melee attacks; Mage, which excels at spellcasting and elemental damage; and Hunter, who attacks from a distance to stay out of danger. As you progress, new classes become available, such as the Cleric, which focuses on healing. If someone goes down, all you can do is pray for them.

While travelling, you may encounter a merchant where you can spend your hard-earned coins. I was surprised to see Rare Candy (just like in Pokémon), which immediately levels up one cat, costing ten coins. You can also buy cat food to heal 24 HP for five coins, or a large catnip baggie that grants 12 mana, also for five coins. Only one of each item is available, so you can’t stockpile them. If you buy the Rare Candy, the game randomly selects which cat levels up.

The route you’re following may fork, forcing you to choose your path. You might decide between fighting a boss and heading home or taking a detour for food. Some of my cats were low on health, so I chose not to put them in extra danger. I fought the Radical Rat boss and headed home. Just in case, I saved my progress by clicking the lined paper icon at the top of the screen, ensuring I wouldn’t lose everything if my team was defeated.

The game has a terrific hand-drawn, cartoony art style. That said, many of the cats look very strange. I understand there’s a lot of inbreeding going on, but I would have liked to see more adorable cats like the Professor’s or those shown in the trailer. The music matches the game’s silly and quirky tone and never feels out of place.

There is so much to do in Mewgenics, including a staggering 259 achievements. Fully completing the game will take a very long time. Both sides of the experience are enjoyable: the turn-based battles are challenging and strategic, with a huge variety of attacks and spells, while the breeding system is hilariously unpredictable. Watching events unfold at night, like when the male cat Zeb tried to mate with Beau, the other male, who was completely uninterested — was genuinely funny.

Mewgenics is far more fun than I expected. After so many delays, I assumed there was no way it could live up to the hype, but its quirky humour, silly characters, and bizarre inbred cats make it incredibly hard to put down. I couldn’t stop wanting to see what strange traits the next batch of kittens would inherit. Make sure you check this game out, when my only complaint is that the cats aren’t cute enough, you know it’s something special.