Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche

Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche is a brief yet amusing shooter. The silliness works well, and the varied weapons make you rethink every attack to keep shooter fans on their toes. The shooting is fun for those not normally skilled in either traditional or bullet-hell variants of the genre, but it really takes some effort to not complete the game in one sitting. This isn't a fantastic game in the genre, but it's worth owning if you're down for short and satisfying side-scrolling shooter jaunts.

Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche is a fun little game that fans of Wayforward titles or a good laugh will enjoy. While I wish it was longer, there’s no doubt that a lot of effort went into making this a hilarious riot of a title.

For people that are already fans of horizontal shooters, Cat Girl Without Salad probably has at least a little something for you. Its writing can be fun for its short duration, the voice acting is pleasant to listen to, and the music by Shantae and Shovel Knight composer Jake Kaufman is at the very least catchy. However, if you’re not already a fan of the genre or even if you prefer more meat on the bones of the ones you play, this game likely isn’t going to get you what you want. Its slow pace and short runtime may turn some players off, but if you’re looking for a way to kill an hour or so it may still be worth a look.

There is a Sephiroth parody named Chefinoff, and that's enough to give it a pass in my book. [Issue #47 – July/August 2020, p. 24]

Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche is an unusual game, based on the formula of a shoot'em-up but with plenty of elements of other genres, and which does several things right - its original ideas, humor-filled dialogue and colourful outlook stand out as its main assets. On the other hand, its very short lifespan, high selling price and rather quick way with which it will feel like a done experience will not attract many players to this new arrival on the Nintendo Switch catalogue.

Catgirl Without Salad: Amuse Bouche is a delightful, sugar rush of a game that's over far too quickly. It's a wildly funny game with gorgeous visuals and terrific voice-acting. Unfortunately, the game is over far too soon and once the three levels have been cleared, there just isn't much else to do. The game doesn't overstay its welcome, and that helps the joke land in a way that few other games could pull off. As such, many players will find that the game's humor and style are well worth the $7.99 cost of admission, but others might want to wait for Shantae and the Seven Sirens, instead.

If you have a silly sense of humour then you'll love Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche but don't expect it to be a top-notch shmup.