Review: Claws Of Furry – A Paw-Some Adventure

WARNING: Only approach this game if you have the reflexes of a cat and all your 9 lives intact!

Claws of Furry, developed by Terahard, is an up-to-4-player side-scrolling beat ’em up action-packed ninja cat game with Cat-titude.

The game begins with a brief tutorial with the grand master cat being taken hostage by a large dog in an armored-like suit. As he is being held in the clutches of the dog, the master begins to instruct you on special attack moves, with the hope you’ll be able to free him. You warm up by practicing against one of the armored dog’s minions, using a mixture of quick dodges, fish projectiles, and clawing. You eventually mix in uppercuts and mega kicks, which will fell your foes in a cloud of sparkling stars. After this brief tutorial the armored dog escapes with your mentor in paw and leaves you to unleash your new found skills on the streets.

You are now alone in the foyer of the building where the game began. You take the form of a blue floating orb until you select one of the four cat faces on the floor, which represents the number of players you can have in the game.

Facing you on the wall are three doors, which represent the difficulty levels available in the game. Door 1 is Rogue Mode – this option lets you play through all the levels, but when you use up all your lives and die you must start right back at the beginning. Behind Door 2 is Arena Mode – this door allows you to play in arena matches, which gets more difficult the longer you can survive. Finally, Door 3 is Pussycat Mode – this is similar to door number one, but it gives you the choice that if you do use up all your lives and die in the game you will restart at the level in which you died, as opposed to going back to the very beginning.

I began by selecting door number 3, which contains 50 levels, with the first beginning on the nighttime streets. You must battle through a volley of enemies made up of small rats, super big rats, crocodiles and dogs. Here you must use your newfound ninja skills to defeat them, collecting pink balloon-like balls that boost your own lives.

You can also use your techniques to great effect, especially dodging. Given the right timing, you can entice your opponents to mistakenly drop into a toxic waste puddle or plunge off the edge of a building onto the beds of spikes between buildings.

The short street levels are interspersed with arena matches. In these areas you may find yourself down in the sewers on all kinds of pipe and box obstacles trying to defeat a family of crocodiles, or in an actual fighting ring taking on all kinds of rats and alligators. In these instances it’s necessary to use all your skills just to survive. Once completed, you find yourself back on the streets to start the next wave of attacks. After finishing a level, you get a report where you see your Kills, Damage, Bullets and Deaths.

Claws of Furry is a colorful and fast-moving game that controls well. Your determination to succeed is cheered on by the quick-paced music. The levels are very addictive; the more you lose, the more you are driven to win. As the levels are short, it keeps your interest highly focused. Breaking these rounds up with the arena fights is a refreshing way to play, challenging your skills with a variety of reactions to the targets ahead of you.

I would definitely say that Terahard have marked their territory in the beat ’em up genre.