If you or your child loves playing video games, and loves cats, here are a few games to keep you entertained!
Shelter 2
Shelter 2 is an adventure game from the perspective of a mother lynx. The player’s goal is to birth and raise cubs, while teaching them how to survive the cold tundra. A lynx is a mesopredator, which means they hunt animals, but other animals hunt them too. This game isn’t just about hunting prey, it’s also about avoiding predators. Playing as a lynx mom allows the player to experience life through her eyes. The game has maternal and hunting features, so the player can call her cubs, sniff out prey, drink water from rivers, and many other activities. It’s a beautiful and surprisingly emotional game.
Stray
Stray is a 3rd person adventure game, but this one also has puzzle elements. The game is from the perspective of a stray cat, and the player can interact with the environment in a variety of “cat-like” ways. At different times throughout the game, the cat you play as acts silly, stealthy, nimble, and even annoying at times, just like our house cats do! As a stray cat, the player traverses through an abandoned city, solving mysteries and avoiding obstacles, all the while, trying to make it back home to his family of other stray cats.
The Lion King
If you or your child are a more retro gamer, there are still lots of options that hold up today. The Lion King video game originally came out on the Super Nintendo (SNES) and the Sega Genesis, so if you have an old console lying around, you could break out this classic! But it was also later released for the Game Boy and PC, so there are options for what you might play it on. Players control Simba, the lion cub, as he journeys through various levels based on scenes from the movie. The game includes platforming elements like jumping, climbing, and fighting enemies such as hyenas and other predators.
Planet Zoo/Zoo Tycoon/Let’s Build A Zoo
Simulation games like Planet Zoo, Zoo Tycoon, or Lets Build A Zoo encourage a player to manage virtual zoos. Players can create their own zoos from the ground up, making design decisions about landscapes, enclosures, buildings, etc. Those decisions have consequences or effects on the animals that live in your zoo, as well as the people that visit. It’s not just about the zoo as a whole, though. You can interact on a more personal level with the many animals these games have to offer. You can look at and learn about the animals, get to know their characteristics and personalities, and manage and research different species in order to help them thrive. This goes beyond entertainment and uses video games as a medium to raise awareness about wildlife conservation issues. All three of these games have a component that would allow the player to focus on those issues if they desired. This can foster a sense of responsibility and promote real-world awareness for anyone playing those games. All three of these games also include cats, which are some of the animals you take care of and learn about. Tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars, snow leopards, cheetahs, caracals, cougars, lynxes, and more can be managed and studied in these games.
There are so many more fun games out there that showcase the wonderful world of cats and other animals in general that I didn’t include on this list. These are a good place to start, though. Have fun playing!