Rescue kittens in bubble cages with Bombcats SE for Windows Phone

In Bombcats Special Edition for Windows Phone, you play as exploding cats that rescue kittens.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but this puzzle game is fun and cute. There are nearly 200 levels, so you may be spending a lot of time with it. 

Head past the break to watch our gameplay video on a Nokia Lumia Icon.

Bombcats Special Edition feels a little like Angry Birds, but it’s definitely a different game. There are seven Bombcats in total at your disposal, and each one has their own special skill. There’s the wall-clinging Clawdia, bounce-happy Boing, the ground-shaking Crush, and more.

Kittens are trapped inside bubble cages. The Bombcats have to explode right next to the kittens to break them out of the cages. In order to get next to the kittens, you’d have to move the Bombcats towards them before time runs out. You also need to collect suns and gems to unlock other levels, boosts, powers, and costumes.

To move the Bombcats, just press and hold anywhere near them. An arrow shows up with the direction of where they’re heading. Release to let go. You can zoom out and look around the level before you decide to take any actions. This is a good idea, so you can plan ahead. The status bar at the bottom right corner lets you know how long you have until the Bombcat explodes. Right above that is the number of times you can make the Bombcat jump. The Bombcat explodes when the timer runs out or if you run out of jumps.

While rescuing kittens is the main goal, there are other exciting modes:

  • Time Trail - Race through 5 quick sub-levels as quick as possible.
  • Marathon - You've got some extra jumps and a longer fuse to go as far as you can.
  • Challenges - A new cat and layout in an old level with limited attempts.

You can equip boosts to help you pass the levels. For example, the ‘Arc Extend’ boost gives you longer arc drawings for longer jumps and ‘Blast Damge’ gives you more damage for explosions. There are several boosts to unlock, but you can initially equip one boost at a time. Unlocking boosts require gems, so it’s important that you try to collect as much as you can while you’re playing.

The Bombcats are also upgradeable with gems. For example, 3,000 gems can make Clawdia jump longer, have a longer fuse, and stronger explosion.

The game is pretty easy to master, but there are also powers you can use to make it even easier. For example, you can activate the Slow-mo power to make everything go slower. This is handy to give you more time to make decisions in mid-air, but we haven’t used them much.

Bombcats Special Edition is a free download from the Windows Phone Store. You’d think that this game will have in-app purchases for upgrades, but they’re nowhere to be found. In this initial version, upgrades are unlocked with gems you’ve collected while playing. We highly recommend Bombcats SE. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Thanks for the tip, Mohamed A.!

Mark Guim

Mark Guim is Video Editor at Windows Central. He switched to Windows because the MacBook Pro isn't Pro enough. You can follow him on Twitter at @markguim.