There is something wonderfully daft about a cat travelling through space, but then again, anyone who has ever lived with a cat will know they already behave as though the entire universe belongs to them. Mel The Space Cat takes that attitude and sends it hurtling into a colourful little 2D platforming adventure, where our feline hero has to negotiate alien worlds, dodge traps and escape the persistent Theo. It is cute, compact and considerably more challenging than its adorable appearance might suggest. Most importantly, it knows exactly what sort of game it wants to be, delivering a straightforward precision platformer best enjoyed in short, determined bursts.
Developed by Ember Box Studio and published on the Nintendo Switch by Brainium Games, Mel The Space Cat brings 40 handcrafted space levels to Nintendo’s handheld and Switch 2 hardware. The premise is simple enough: guide Mel through a succession of alien environments while avoiding hazards, navigating tricky jumps and dealing with the game’s various obstacles. There is no enormous story to wade through or a complicated progression system to learn. Instead, this is a game about movement, timing and that familiar platforming sensation of thinking, “I know I can do that,” immediately before falling into the same trap for the fifth time.
A Cat Among the Stars
Mel is an instantly likeable protagonist, largely because the game’s visual style makes her impossible not to root for. The minimalist sci-fi presentation keeps things clean and colourful, while the cat-themed character design gives the adventure plenty of personality without requiring elaborate animation or enormous production values.
The space setting also gives Ember Box Studio plenty of opportunities to play with the usual platforming conventions. Alien landscapes, low-gravity sections and extraterrestrial hazards provide the backdrop for Mel’s journey, making each stage feel like another little test of her ability to keep moving.
It is not a game that attempts to deliver a huge cinematic spectacle, and that is perfectly fine. The charm comes from its simplicity. Mel looks like she has wandered out of a particularly cheerful animated cartoon and somehow found herself in a series of increasingly dangerous obstacle courses.
Forty Little Challenges
The 40 handcrafted levels are the meat of the experience, and their individual design rather than random generation gives the game a sense of structure. Each stage presents a compact challenge, asking you to learn its layout, understand its hazards and work out the safest way through.
The levels are generally bite-sized, which suits the Nintendo Switch particularly well. You can pick up the console, complete a couple of stages and put it down again without feeling as though you have abandoned some enormous adventure halfway through.
That accessibility does come with a downside. Once you become familiar with the basic rhythm, the level design can occasionally feel a little too comfortable. Fans of precision platformers will recognise many of the ideas on display, and there are times when you may wish the game would throw something genuinely surprising at you.
Still, there is something satisfying about mastering a level that initially seemed determined to make Mel’s life miserable. A tricky jump finally works, a trap is avoided and you reach the exit in one piece. It may be a small victory, but those are the victories this kind of game is built around.
The Art of the Jump
At its heart, Mel The Space Cat is a game about movement. The controls are straightforward, making it immediately accessible, but the challenge lies in learning how Mel moves and gauging how much momentum you need to carry through each section.
Low gravity plays a key role in some of the game’s platforming, which can make certain jumps feel very different from what you might expect in a traditional 2D platformer. You have to learn to judge your movement rather than simply relying on instinct.
When everything comes together, there is a pleasing sense of flow. You begin a sequence, make the first jump, adjust your position, and then carry that momentum into the next section. The best moments are not necessarily the spectacular ones, but those when you complete an entire tricky sequence without stopping to think about it. Of course, getting to that point can involve a fair amount of failure.
Fail, Respawn, Try Again
Thankfully, Mel The Space Cat understands one of the most important rules of precision platforming: failure needs to be quick. The instant respawn system means that when Mel inevitably meets an alien hazard, you are not punished with a long loading screen or forced to replay half the level.
Instead, you are back in action almost immediately. That might sound like a small feature, but it makes an enormous difference to the overall experience. Precision platformers can become frustrating when the punishment for failure is excessive, whereas Mel The Space Cat encourages you to try again while the mistake is still fresh in your mind.
It creates that familiar “one more attempt” mentality. You know exactly where you went wrong, you know you can do better, and suddenly the fact that you intended to play for ten minutes becomes rather irrelevant.
Theo Is Still Chasing
Adding a persistent antagonist in Theo introduces another source of pressure to the adventure. Escaping from something rather than simply reaching the end of a level changes the feel of certain sequences, forcing you to keep moving rather than stopping to admire the scenery.
These chase sections can provide some of the game’s most memorable moments, although they can also lean heavily on trial and error. Success often comes from learning the sequence rather than reacting dynamically to something unpredictable, which means a failed attempt is sometimes less about poor reflexes and more about not yet knowing what the game expects.
That is a fairly traditional platforming design choice, and some players will enjoy the familiarity. Others may find it slightly rigid, particularly when the game asks you to repeat a sequence several times before it becomes clear exactly what you are supposed to do.
Cute, But Not Entirely Cosy
The adorable presentation can make Mel The Space Cat feel like a relaxing little adventure, but there is a reasonably sharp challenge beneath the cuteness. Alien traps are placed to catch you out, and the later stages demand more precise movement and a better understanding of Mel’s momentum.
That contrast works surprisingly well. The game does not need dark visuals or an aggressive soundtrack to make failure sting. Watching a cute little cat sail directly into a hazard for the third time can be enough.
The minimalist presentation also ensures that hazards are generally easy to see. There is not an overwhelming amount of visual clutter, so when you fail, you can usually understand why. That makes the challenge feel more approachable than frustrating, even when a particular sequence has you reaching for another attempt.
A Small Adventure With Modest Ambitions
The biggest limitation is also the most obvious. Mel The Space Cat is a relatively small game, and once you have worked through its 40 levels, there is not an enormous amount of additional content waiting beyond them.
For players who enjoy short platforming adventures, that may not be a problem at all. There is something quite refreshing about a game that does not try to stretch a simple concept into dozens of hours of content.
For others, however, the brevity may make the experience feel slightly lightweight. The level design relies on familiar platforming ideas, and there is not enough mechanical variety to completely disguise the fact that you are essentially working through one focused concept from beginning to end.
The asking price and pick-up-and-play nature make that easier to accept, particularly on Switch. This feels like the sort of game designed for a few levels at a time rather than an epic adventure you are expected to live inside for weeks.
Perfect for the Switch
This is where Mel The Space Cat feels particularly at home. The compact levels, straightforward controls and instant respawns make it extremely well suited to handheld play.
You can play while sitting on the sofa, take a few levels with you on a journey, or squeeze in an attempt while waiting for something else. There is very little friction between picking up the game and actually playing it.
The Switch 2 version also benefits from the hardware’s ability to present the colourful artwork clearly, although the game’s deliberately minimalist presentation means it was never going to be the sort of title that exists to show off cutting-edge graphics. Instead, the appeal lies in the convenience and the responsiveness of the experience.
The Joy of One More Attempt
What ultimately makes Mel The Space Cat work is its grasp of the psychology behind a good little platformer. It does not need to overwhelm you with content. It simply needs to make you believe that the next attempt will be the one when everything finally clicks.
That feeling is surprisingly powerful. You miss a jump, respawn almost immediately, try again and make it slightly further. Then you fail somewhere else. Before long, you have stopped thinking about the time and are simply trying to beat the level that defeated you ten minutes ago.
There are games that demand enormous commitment and others that barely ask for your attention at all. Mel The Space Cat sits comfortably between the two. It asks you to concentrate, but only for a few minutes at a time.
Verdict
Mel The Space Cat is a charming little precision platformer that makes good use of its cute protagonist, colourful space setting and straightforward level design. Its 40 handcrafted stages offer a focused set of challenges, while instant respawns ensure that failure rarely becomes genuinely frustrating.
It is not going to redefine the 2D platforming genre, and some of its ideas feel comfortably familiar. The level layouts occasionally lack imagination, the overall runtime is fairly brief, and the challenge can sometimes rely more on repetition and memorisation than on genuinely inventive platforming.
But there is something to be said for a game that knows its limitations and works within them. Mel The Space Cat is not trying to be the next huge platforming epic. It is a small, cheerful adventure designed to give you a series of satisfying challenges, a cute cat to root for and plenty of reasons to have another go.
For Switch players looking for something to pick up for a quick session, there is plenty to enjoy here. The controls are accessible, the levels are compact and the instant respawn system keeps frustration under control. It is perhaps best approached as a bite-sized platforming treat rather than a substantial adventure, but sometimes a little treat is exactly what you want. Mel may be only a small cat travelling through a very big universe, but she has enough personality to carry this modest adventure on her tiny shoulders.
