Indie games are often known for their uniqueness and diversity, for creating compelling mixes of clever design and innovation with a unique visual package. To be frank, some indie games are simply weird, though such a description is not exclusive to the indie games market, as there are some mainstream titles out there just as bizarre as some of the things I’ve seen in the indie market. But no matter how weird a game may be or appear to be in terms of its visuals, cleverly designed game mechanics will often make up for or, more ideally, work to support the weird idea or unusual design concept that a particular title may have. This introduction brings us then to an odd-looking little game called Nyan Cat Adventures, created by developers Twenty First Street Games, a game that certainly has the “weird” element going for it, but does it deliver a compelling gameplay experience as well?

The answer is ultimately a rather shaky “kind of”, but first first let’s look at the visual design of the game and other factors that contribute to its “weirdness”. A colorful palette of 2D sprites and backgrounds means there’s a lot of generally pleasing eye candy to enjoy, though it’s all a bit random and out of place, contributing to the weirdness but happily not distracting from the gameplay itself. That said, it’s honestly the kind of game that would make sense to someone only if they were high, but in such a state that person would likely be unable to play the game very well, since the game is rather challenging, though the goal of getting a high score is simple enough.

What works against the game in terms of the visuals is some of the bizarre and potentially seizure-inducing visual effects and random pallete switches that occur whenever you pick up one of the little capsules and other pick ups littered about everywhere. This makes the game more exceedingly harder to play than it is normally, where the fairly precise timing requirements of the game become even more taxing to the player, who will likely be struggling to make sense of where they are on the screen in relation to the obstacles. A few times also while playing I was pushed close enough to the left edge of the screen after failing to get around an obstacle that it became nearly impossible to tell where I was on the screen and would have been likely better off if the game had simply taken away some life and reset my character to the middle of the screen.

Even ignoring the previous faults, the game is not very deep or particularly rewarding. Your main goal is simply to get as high a score as possible, done by collecting various items strewn about and surviving as long as you can. Unfortunately there’s not much reward even for survival outside of the high score, as there is not much noticeable difference within the levels, which feels like they constantly repeat themselves, which takes away any sense of discovery that might otherwise be had. The only real noticeable variety to the level design comes from the odd visual effects caused by various pickups, or, in the case of “party” mode, switching between the different gameplay options as you make your way through the level, though this too becomes repetitive and a bit uninspired after a while.

Ultimately the game’s biggest selling point is its weirdness, and not much else besides. The game does have a semblance of a working design and compelling gameplay, but it isn’t quite well-structured and ordered enough to hold someone’s interest for very long. In the end, it’s pretty simply just a “weird game” and not much else than that, good for if you’re feeling particularly bored but that’s about it.

Nyan Cat Adventures is available for the Xbox Live Marketplace. More information about the game can be found at Twenty First Street Games’ official site.