Review: Neko Atsume

Neko Atsume is a free-to-play app available for Android and iOS devices. Released in 2014, it still maintains a devoted player base and still receives regular updates that add new content. Neko Atsume is a game of Japanese origin - Neko Atsume literally translates to “Cat Collection,” which is a pretty accurate description of the objective of the game - which is to collect cats.

You begin the game in an empty yard, and must lay out food and treats to attract stray cats to visit you. You can also lay out toys, cushions, beds and various playthings to entertain the cats and encourage them to stick around for longer. Cats who enjoyed their stay will subsequently reward you with either silver or gold fish, which can be used to buy better quality food and treats and new items for your cats to play with.

Neko Atsume is the epitome of casual gaming - the majority of the time you “play” it, you're setting out food and items for the cats - then leaving for a while to wait for them to assemble. This literally involves exiting the app and doing something else. So as you periodically check your yard, you may find cats have appeared and are playing, sleeping or just hanging out.

This is where the collection part comes in - you can snap photos of the various cats and fill up their respective photo albums. Once and cat has visited several times and feels a friendship with you, he or she will present you with a memento - another collection you can slowly fill up.

Eventually you will be able to expand your yard to allow for more items to be placed and more cats to visit - and this larger yard can then be customised in various styles, such as remodelling it into a Japanese zen garden.

In addition to the regular cats of varying breeds, there are also a handful of cats that are considered rare, and will only be attracted to certain items. These cats tend to parody pop culture and celebrity icons, such as the cat who wears a baseball jersey, Joe De Meowgio or the cowboy cat, Billy The Kitten.

The art style is adorable - one of the most recognisable features are the cute little crosses the cats have on their bums - and the way cats squeeze inside glass vases or nestle comfortably inside cardboard shopping boxes is sure to warm the heart of any cat lover.

For a game that is severely lacking in actual gameplay and interaction, Neko Atsume is bizarrely addictive. You'll find yourself compulsively checking your yard, experimenting with different combinations of food and toys to attract the rare cats and bragging to your friends that you actually managed to snap a photo of Frosty.

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R.I.P. Ruby

Yesterday evening we learned that our cat Ruby had been found dead on a main road not far from our house. She had been missing for almost 48 hours and we'd been searching non-stop, posting on social media and posting missing flyers through local letterboxes.

The way the story played out is as follows; Jet and Ruby both escaped through an open window in the middle of the night. They were both seen by neighbours and even captured on a neighbour's CCTV footage between the hours of 6AM and 7AM. Jet came back home around lunchtime - I heard him howling at the door; he'd made such an effort to force his way in, he'd ripped half of the seal off the door actually. We now know some time between 7AM and Jet coming home, Ruby was ran over and her body was found by council wardens on the 24th of May.

We only learned this fact because we posted a flyer through the door of the mother-in-law of the man who picked her body up. He had thought it had been her cat, as they too had a small all-black cat. As soon as they realised it was Ruby, they phoned my mam - whose number we'd put on the flyers, as well as mine. Mam came over and told us as soon as she could. So the whole day we'd been searching on the 25th, Ruby was already dead.

But I'm glad I know. I'm glad I found out. If I hadn't, I would have been left wondering forever.

Shelly wanted her body to bury, but we weren't allowed it; as she was killed on the road, she was classed as roadkill and thus was a biohazard. I didn't want her body, I didn't want to have to see her in that state. Shelly is one of these people who doesn't fully believe something until she can see it for herself, however.

Another issue we currently have is Jet. I don't know if he was there when Ruby was killed, or if they separated before it happened - but he is very sad. He's constantly looking for her and going around the house howling and crying for her. He's also being a lot clingier than usual with us - wanting way more cuddles and attention. Because we haven't had Queenie that long, she didn't know Ruby long enough to form an attachment to miss her. I'm sort of glad of this, as she's not sad like Jet is. I wouldn't want both cats to be sad.

I don't blame anybody. It's nobody's fault Ruby was killed. Admittedly I'm most annoyed at her for going onto the road in the first place - but I don't know the full circumstances; she could have been chased or frightened and unknowingly ran into the road.

Gallery: Ruby & Jet
(Click to enlarge)

We got Ruby around two weeks after we got Jet - so they have both grown up together from being kittens. We celebrated Christmas with them and both of their 1st birthdays in March. They were always a pair - it's going to be hard on Jet himself probably more than it is on us.

Everybody liked Ruby because she was small and cute, as a result of feline dwarfism. She was smaller than an average fully grown female cat - and was part-Persian, so was very fluffy and soft too. She had a very fussy personality and had no problems with meeting new people. She was quite bold too - several times she'd wandered into next-door's when they'd left the kitchen door open.

It makes me quite sad that we have way more photos of Jet than we do of Ruby - but Ruby hated her photo being taken. She knew when you were trying to take one and would move - so we'd get a lot of blurry pics. Being all-black, she was also a less photogenic cat, often it could be hard to make out her features. But we do have some great photos, funny videos and most importantly - awesome memories.

Gallery: Ruby
(Click to enlarge)

Here's some things I'm going to remember most about Ruby:

• On a night, she would lay in the crook of your back or on your bum cheeks and fall asleep.
• When she was in a good mood, she would lick your lips, giving lots of Ruby kisses.
• After making a sandwich, she'd beg for the spoon to lick the mayonnaise off.
• Her favourite tidbits were ice cream and yogurts - God help you if you wanted to eat those in peace with Ruby around.
• She liked to climb to the top of their cat tower and stare down at you like a queen; at the top she'd be stood at around 5"10 off the ground, almost as tall as Shelly.
• Ruby reacted in a really funny way to catnip; she'd nibble on the plant we had in the kitchen then roll around on the floor for hours, acting silly.
• If the litter box wasn't clean enough for her, she'd let you know by peeing in front of it.
• Despite being best friends, Jet would often bully her as he was bigger; stealing her food and sitting on top of her in their hammock.
• When you came back home, she would sit in the bay window and smack her front paws against the glass, trying to reach out at you.
• She was amazing at catching insects - she made mincemeat out of spiders and moths and we once saw her catch a fly with her paw - piercing its wing with a claw then eating it nonchalantly.

Ruby

20/03/15 - 24/05/16

You were taken from us too quickly babes.

R.I.P.

Apologies For My Absence

*THIS POST CONTAINS PHOTOS OF KITTENS!*

LOLHI. 

Regular readers (not the 100+ daily hits I get from people who find my Fallout: NV SPECIAL guide) will no doubt have noticed a lack of blog posts in the last 8 months. I haven’t updated since January. I’m back now – but allow me to explain my absence from blogging.

In February, I moved out of my mam’s house. This amuses everybody – I moved from #93 to #94 – on the same road. My bank manager thought this was hilarious. “…you only need to change the ‘3’ to a ‘4’…” The house we moved into could charitably be described as “somewhat dilapidated”. We had a really low budget, so I think what we've accomplished is pretty good. We were given a lot of stuff for the kitchen, some furniture and bought some 2nd stuff from the BHF – but it took us a long time to get the house into a liveable condition. 

I've moved in with my fiancée – but I've never not lived with my parents before. If you’re considering moving out – fucking do it. It’s amazing. Somehow, it’s improved my relationship with the folks. I think it’s because they now see me as a “proper” adult, if you like. I know I'm only renting a house, but the % of people from my generation who will be able to own their own house is pretty low. I hope to do it one day, but for the time being – Shelly and I have been together for 6 years, it’s about bloody time we moved in together. Lesbian U-Haul stereotype my arse.

This is cool – the house had no internet for a few months – until we had a brainwave. Move my dad’s wireless router into the front bedroom of his house and set up my computer in the living room downstairs with a wireless dongle on a long cable. FREE INTERNET BITCHES. All I have to do is occasionally text him to reset the stupid thing when it goes on the fritz.

I also started a new work placement at the end of January. I do two days a week – I’m in charge of copywriting, social media, SEO and guess what else? BLOGGING. I’m technically a professional blogger now. (This site uses my real name – ignore it, it’s shit. Hence why I prefer to go by Dixie.) 

I’m also working on a self-published novel, but let’s keep that on the down-low – I've written like 2 chapters in a year. It’s all planned and shit, but I just can’t get my arse in gear and frigging write something.

The best thing about moving into my own house was that I was allowed to have pets again. I had a cat growing up – she was a few months older than me, she died when I was 11. So I went 12 years without a cat. Now I have TWO.

The one on the left is male, and he is called Jet. The one on the right is female, and she is called Ruby. (And yes, I believe in neutering, they've both been done recently.)

Jet was originally called Jess. Like Postman Pat’s cat. (This reference will sail right over your head if you’re not British, I feel sorry for you if you grew up without Postman Pat.) Then we noticed that he had some fuzzy bits. He’d already learned his name though – so we settled on Jet. As in Whitby Jet, because he’s black. :)

I wanted to call him Maiq, like Maiq the Liar from Skyrim – but Shelly wouldn't let me. :( She named Ruby, I have no idea where she got the name from, but Ruby still doesn't respond to her name, the ignorant little cowbags. :P

I now have an excuse to post random photos of cats everywhere. If you like cats, let me know - and I'll fill my blog with pictures of my babies. :P

Sleeping together on my lap

Having fun in their play tunnel

Anyway, as this is a gaming blog, I feel that I should mention something about games. The house I now live in has essentially the same floor plan as my mam’s house (except she had two rooms knocked into one living room and we have two rooms knocked into a big kitchen-diner) – the room what was mine in my mam’s house is a spare room in mine. We use it to store books, games and computer stuff. Oh, and it has a bed in it too, obviously. I bought these shelves 2nd hand from eBay and my daddy put them up for me. 

By the way, this isn't even HALF of my games collection – which has grown since I now claim joint-ownership of everything Shelly has. (I now have a PS3 and an Atari 2600!) Our Xbox 360 and PS3 games are downstairs in the drawers of this amazing IKEA TV stand Ash’s mam gave us, our PS2 games are on the opposite side of the room spread out across 3 racks (Shelly has some fucking random PS2 games, I can tell you), my PC games are in another rack, downloaded games are metaphysical, obviously – and all of the loose cartridge games for the NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, GBA, Atari, Mega Drive etc. are nicely put away in drawers and storage boxes to stop them from getting all dusty. My ideal “dream house”, which will be owned, not rented, will have a dedicated games room – but this is a happy medium for now. :)

So why all of a sudden have I started writing again?

Well, I've been toying with the idea for a while, but yesterday evening, I received an e-mail from a fan. Wow, I thought – this is the first time anybody’s ever e-mailed me. 

(By the way, feel free to e-mail me: mog_anarchy@hotmail.co.uk) 

He expressed that he liked my blog and had been following it for a while and requested that I start writing it again. This e-mail was the proverbial kick up the arse that I badly needed. 

I have a massive folder of half-finished posts, random ideas, tons of screenshots and photos I could use – I have plenty to write about. Albeit not about any “new” games, because there hasn’t been a decent release for years with the exception of remakes and sequels. 

Let’s hope I don’t lapse into my rut of playing modded to hell Skyrim every evening while Shelly bakes bread and pies (she’s a trained pastry chef, by the way, I've put on half a bloody stone since I moved in with her) and two kittens sitting on my lap and neglect my blog baby again. Honestly, I get 100+ hits daily – I know most of those come from people who find my Fallout: New Vegas guide – but if you’re a regular reader, please get in touch – hearing that there was SOMEONE who actually gave a shit about what I do really motivated me to start writing again.

Cheers babes. :P