Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender DX

Game Info

The world has run out of milk and you’re a thirsty kitty.  Thankfully, full-fat milk reserves have been found underneath the ocean floor.  The only logical thing to do is to start a milk mining operation.  Alas, evil robot fish want that creamy milk just as much as you.  What to do?  Hop in your kitty submarine and turn them into scrape metal sushi, that’s what. The ludicrous yet amazing story is the basis behind Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender DX, an upgraded version of a PSMobile release from Tikipod that now appears on the PlayStation Vita.

Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender DX is retro inspired throwback that is most likely to remind older gamers of classic arcade staple Defender.  You and your kitty will pilot a sub back and forth in the ocean, blasting any and all robots that get in your way.  Occasionally, one of them will try to snatch your hard working mining kitten from their rig and extract them from the ocean.  If all your miners get taken, it’s game over.  Your ship comes equipped with two guns.  One is a single fire deal that will be your main method of attack, and the other is a recharging multi-fire gun that gets upgraded with every area you clear.  The board is a continuous connected oceanscape, so once you reach the end of one side of the map, you continue through to the other side.  The stages start off nice and simple with just a few baddies to blast away.  But things ramp up pretty quickly.  Even on Normal mode, things get very hectic about halfway through the second world, with bullets and enemies flying every which way.  Thankfully there are powerups that come floating by every once in awhile that provide additional firepower for your craft or health replenishment.  The controls are pretty tight as you pilot though the water, with the shoulder buttons reversing the direction you point.  You can navigate in any direction you want, but you will go noticeably slower if you try to go backwards.  It is fun cruising around trying to dodge everything in sight, and the panic that sets in when the kittynapping alarm goes off is real.  And while later levels bring more enemy variety and quantity, things can start to feel a little repetitive.

The game features easy, normal, & arcade mode options.  The first two let you replay a level as many times as you want after you die, but in arcade mode, once you die you’re done.  That means loosing all your level progress and you return back to the beginning of the map.  It’s a throwback to difficulties of yesteryear and a tough road to hoe if you plan on completing it.  Powerups work a little differently in this mode, as instead of individual, limited time use items, you collect gems that progress a meter on the bottom of the screen ala Gradius.  It’s nice to have a new way to play, and it was a kick to use the old familiar upgrade system again, but it can get frustrating to have all your progress wiped out when the screen inevitably fills with anti-cat projectiles.  It should also be noted that the easy and normal difficulties each have their own progression that can be switched to at any time on the level map.  So if you get stuck on level 8 on normal, you can’t just switch that level to easy.  You have to make it back to level 8 after switching.  Once you pass the first boss, you also get access to an endless mode, where you fight baddie after baddie until you can’t take anymore.  This is another fun little distraction if you’re into high score chasing, but it doesn’t add much to the overall package.

Aqua Kitty features a pixelated look that is quite beautiful on the Vita screen.  The background scenes above water are particularly gorgeous, especially when the sunlight pierces the surface and dances just below.  Underwater, some of the enemies can be hard to tell apart at times, but mostly work well.  There’s not much variety in the set pieces besides the above-water lighting/color swaps.  But, as expected, heroic cats are as cute as you would imagine submarine-driving, underwater milk-mining cats can be.  The soundtrack is a driving chip-tune synth mixture that works really well to propel the action and will definitely have you tapping your toes and fingers along.  It feels like a great update to game music of the past.

THE RECOMMENDATION

Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender DX is a pretty fun game in short bursts.  The repetitive nature of the levels doesn’t work well for long gaming sessions, which is a product of its mobile roots.  But as long as you aren’t expecting a deep experience, and if you like fun shooting, goofy premises, and pixelated art styles, you’ll have a great time with this game and I highly recommend checking it out.