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Hello Cats
By Erin Brereton,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Puzzle game uses violence toward cats to solve situations.
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Hello Cats
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Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What’s It About?
Players draw balls, ramps, and other objects to move or block objects in HELLO CATS. They're often trying to knock cats who've allegedly been naughty off ledges, or occasionally protect them from things like bees. Some rounds are timed and players can only draw a certain number of items. They receive a one to three star rating after a cat's pushed, protected, led to water, or released from a dangerous situation. As players advance, they earn gems, which they can spend on boxes that contain portions of photos of cats they're trying to piece together.
Is It Any Good?
The description of this puzzle game app deceptively seems like a positive animal game, but the action is anything but kind to these digital felines. Players of Hello Cats are initially presented with info that suggests that they'll be rounding up cats for an animal shelter -- which would be great. Unfortunately, you often seem to actually be attacking -- not protecting -- the felines that you come across, and philanthropy doesn't get mentioned much, if at all, while playing.
The experience starts out fairly strong; players see detailed explanations of how to draw items and what they need to do to proceed. But as they advance levels, the challenges get harder, and while players can restart rounds to try again, their intent in each one -- and how to achieve it -- isn't always clear. Ads for other games pop up just often enough to be an annoying distraction, and the rating system that determines how many stars you receive after each round seems to be pretty random (or just imprecise). But the app's biggest issue is the behavior it encourages players to exhibit toward the cats they're allegedly trying to help. Instead of coaxing them to come to a safe location -- or just picking them up and carrying them there -- players often have to throw things at the cats to knock them down, and the animated cats do not look or sound pleased when that happens. Offering players other methods to move and help the cats would be a much better choice than encouraging what looks like violent behavior toward animals.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about empathy and social-emotional skills. Why is it important to help people and animals in need?
Why might a real pet take more time to care for than an animal in a game?
App Details
- Devices: iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: November 19, 2018
- Category: Action Games
- Topics: Cats, Dogs, and Mice
- Publisher: Fastone Games
- Version: 1.5.3
- Minimum software requirements: Compatibility: Requires Android 4.1 and up or iOS 9.0 or later.
- Last updated: February 11, 2020
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