Use Logic and Deduction to Find the Culprits in Cat Crimes

Forty cases of cat misbehavior. Six suspects. Can you find the one who spilled the coffee? Or deduce who unraveled all the yarn?

Using the clues given in each case, you must eliminate possibilities, and figure out each cat’s location at the time the crime went down. The one left sitting in front of the destroyed object is your criminal cat.

Gameplay

There is a small game board that features a rug. There are six spots around the rug, one for each cat. Each spot has one main object that can be the object destroyed in the crime, such as a coffee cup or a pair of shoes. Each spot also has two pieces of supporting evidence, such as a paw print, cat nip, or a mouse. Each piece of supporting evidence appears twice on the rug, and each location has a unique pairing of two different pieces of evidence. The six cats all have their own names, and two pieces of identifying features such as white paws or a bell on their collar.

The game comes with forty cases ranging from beginner to expert. Each crime shows which object has been broken. You place a token on the rug to help you remember. Each case then gives you a series of clues about the location of each cat during the crime, and on the back of the case card is the solution. Early on, the clues can be quite easy, giving precise clues such as ‘Duchess was sitting in front of the bird cage’, or ‘Ginger is sitting to the right of Pip Squeak’. But as the cases get harder, the clues become more difficult, such as 'Tom Cat was not sitting next to Mr. Mittens’ or ‘only cats with white paws were sitting in front of mice.’

You must use all the clues to try to deduce where each cat was sitting when the crime occurred. The cat who was in front of the destroyed object is the guilty party. The game comes with standees of each cat, so you can move them around the board as you try to work out the solution.

Review

Cat Crimes has great presentation and a nice ramping up of difficulty that makes it well worth it for puzzle and logic fans. The ability to actually manipulate the cat figures around the board is a useful mechanic and helpful for thinking things through

The game does sell itself as a single player game, but you could absolutely play with one, or maybe two friends. The beginner puzzles are quite easy and adults won’t need a second pair of eyes for them, but the later puzzles are legitimately tough, and having someone to talk through ideas with can be helpful, while the bite-sized cases are also great for solo play.

With forty cases, there is some replayability. You’re certainly not going to solve all forty in one sitting and you’re unlikely to remember the solution for every single one. The range of difficulty is excellent, with puzzles that will work for children and others that will work for adults, and the size of the game makes it handy for travel.

The components are high quality, with cute cat artwork and a nice solid feeling to both the board and the cat tokens. Though it would have been nice if the game came with a few extra tokens to help you track your theories and remember the direction your deductions were taking, particularly in the more difficult cases.

If you enjoy puzzles and logic games, Cat Crimes is a unique presentation of logic games. It nicely blends stumping you with a great, satisfying feeling when you finally work the solution out. Having actual components to play with, as you work through the clues is helpful and the result is a fun little game to give your brain a workout that both adults and children can have fun with.

Pros: Fun as a solo game and also good with one or two friends, high quality components, good range of difficulty in the cases, good for wide range of ages

Cons: A few extra tokens included in the game would have been helpful

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.