Oftentimes in books and movies, there is a crazy cat lady. This character is usually not interesting enough to warrant more than a brief mention, because all she does as far as the audience is concerned is live alone with a multitude of cats that she treats like children. It's rare for the crazy cat lady to get a starring role, or even a plot line of significance, so it goes without saying that when I saw Granny in Paradise on PlayFirst, I was suitably intrigued. Could this game be the breakout role for the crazy cat lady?

The object of this game is deceptively simple. I use the word 'deceptive' because while the object is simple, the gameplay is not, but I'll get to that in a bit. As the story goes, Granny treated herself to a lovely vacation in paradise...and, she brought her many, many cats. As if that wasn't silly enough, Granny then proceeded to lose them. Since no crazy cat lady can enjoy a proper vacation without all her kitties being accounted for, it is up to you (playing as Granny) to collect all your cats, get them safely to the magic doorway, and successfully avoid the tikiman who chases you throughout the levels.

This game is unique because unlike most of the other casual games on the market, Granny in Paradise relies not on mouse clicks but on the arrow buttons to control the action. For gamers who are used to playing the current crop of games, it is somewhat tricky to revert back to the arrow keys for control. I play my games on a laptop, so my keyboard is considerably smaller, and I found it difficult to push the correct arrow key without looking, but this problem may be nonexistent on a full-sized keyboard. Once you get the hang of that though, collecting the cats and controlling Granny are pretty easy tasks. Each level is comprised of several ladders and platforms where the cats sit. To collect them, all you have to do is walk past them, at which point the cat meows and follows you. There are several cats to collect on each level, which means that by the end of the level, you have a pretty long line of cats following you.

There are items to collect on each level, and you have two ultimate destinations. The first is the cat door, which you lead them to and they walk through, are counted, and disappear. Granny must then make her way to a flower on the board that opens up. This flower basically swallows her, and the level is over. In terms of enemies, there is a tikiman (their word, not mine) that follows you through the levels. In order to stop him, Granny must dig a hole (which is done by pressing the space bar) so that he falls in. This is all about timing, and once you get it, you should have no trouble doing it on each level. If you fail to do this and the tikiman gets you, Granny will utter a painful "There goes my hip" and fall down. The screen will say something nifty like "The tikiman pummeled you senseless" or simply, "Granny fell down."

The music that plays along is quite catchy and not really annoying, so you can easily keep it on and not be bothered by it. What does get annoying is the constant meowing of the cats. As Granny passes each cat, it meows, and Granny says something like "My precious". If you don't mind meows, then this is a nonissue, but if you are easily bugged by little things like this, it is best that you turn your volume off.

Granny in Paradise is an online game, which means you can play unlimited levels for free. If you have a PC and a spotty web connection, you can download a free 60 minute trial of the game. Although the downloadable version is only available for PC, I was able to play the web version on my Mac (using Safari) with no trouble at all. In all, Granny Paradise is a very nice looking, entertaining game, and will surely kill lots of your free time quite successfully. This might not be the crazy cat lady's big break into stardom, but it is definitely a great start!

Our Final ScoreGood

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