Game Review: Catch and Shoot (Mobile – Free to Play)

From Voodoo (yes, them) and Stone Axe comes Catch and Shoot, a free to play game that does nothing wrong really. However, it is so ‘meh’ that conjuring up the number of words to even talk about it, is difficult. That’s why we refer to our ‘free to play’ mobile game reviews as ‘free to plague’ when we upload them on YouTube as videos.

Do you remember when the mobile gaming market had promise and innovation? We barely do as it was such a long time ago. Yes, you can still find the odd excellent release here and there but they’re often buried under mountains of free to play crap. Free to play games that are churned out by hack developers and publishers at an alarming rate.

There is a reason why the likes of Voodoo keep popping up here. They are one of the most prolific on the market and have nailed the ‘rinse and repeat’ formula to the letter. Their games range from dire rubbish to decent. The latter normally because they’re not the worst ad-spam offender out there and they at least try different ideas out.

The skins of their games might be different but the insides are almost always the same. Which is why Catch and Shoot elects nothing but tired shrugs and half-arsed mutterings of “it’s ok”.

Catch and shoot tasks you with throwing the ball from character to character and from roof to roof. All while dodging groups of figures who are desperately trying to tackle you. Simply hold down on the screen to start running forward and direct your throw to the waiting arms of the next catcher.

Get to the final roof and cross the finish line to complete the level and so on. Difficulties range but gameplay never changes and this isn’t great gameplay. To try and extend the life of the game by more than 10 minutes, coins can be collected and spent in-game. Spent on different skins for your faceless catchers. However different balls are unlocked by completing levels and to unlock them all you’ll need to make it to level 69 (as of version 1.3.1).

We got to level 15 and had enough. Bored out of our minds and happy to delete the app before another pop-up ad appeared.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Catch and Shoot. It works fine, is fun initially and has replay value if you can look past its gameplay shortcomings. However, that unshakable feeling of monotony is constant throughout. There’s just nothing to get excited about here at all.