What is it?
One might think that after more than thirty years of computer and video games (if you start counting with Pong) all the basic ideas for simple arcade and puzzle games have been used up, so that every new game will be a variation or combination of the existing ones (or something really weird like Keibot).
One might be wrong.
If I haven't missed something essential, then Catast is a completely new concept in this category. And it is not an oddity but a highly addictive if somewhat frustrating game.
I have deliberately taken a screenshot not in midgame, but before it actually starts. As you see, you are confronted with a 20×8 random array of tiles. You control the little Mirmy at the bottom, a character from K. Shimizu's Pastel Fantasy. The Mirmy can shoot along the green line. The tile that is hit will fall down. If it has arrows on it, the tiles the arrows are pointing to will fall down too. This effect is cumulative, hitting one of the two center tiles in the screenshot would cause no less than 17 tiles to fall.
The bar in the bottom left is a timer. When it reaches zero, the bottom row of tiles will fall. Every tile you hit adds again to the bar, the more tiles you hit with one shot, the more. You have to take care to steer your Mirmy clear of falling tiles, they will drag it down, and if it leaves the screen, the game is over. That's what I meant with frustrating: it would have been nice to have a couple of lives and only to have to repeat the current level, not start from scratch.
The colored squares are items. If they fall down and the Mirmy catches them, the following things will happen:
- Quakes (brown) cause the whole bottom row to be activated. Of course this is very dangerous in the beginning, you shouldn't use them before you have cleared an entire column.
- Flames (red) will turn the green line red, and the next shot will then penetrate a whole column.
- Storms (blue) speed up the Mirmy and the bullets.
Apart from the text on the screen, the game is in Japanese, but you will hardly have to configure anything, so it won't matter. Mercifully, BGM is off by default. There aren't even any midis in the archive. So, if you are into this kind of game at all, treat yourself to this gem!
