Cat And The Coup
I love student games. They’re often very short, very unique, and play with setting and story in ways a game with a longer length and more budget wouldn’t be able to. Some of my favourite games in this series have been student games, and I’m just as excited to talk about the Cat and the Coup.
The cat would like everyone to know they’re not responsible.
The Cat and the Coup is a puzzle game telling the story of the life of Mohammad Mossadegh, the first democratically elected prime minister of Iran. Without going deep into Iranian history, the Cat and the Coup does an excellent job walking the player through Mossadegh’s tenure as prime minister, his ouster in a CIA-led coup, and the question of how history is told. It does a stunning job painting a picture of Iran, its history and identity, and the power that outside forces have wielded against it.
The cat is fine.
The gameplay itself is straightforward. The player plays as a cat, prompting Mossadegh to move through history by batting around his objects and scratching him. It’s not in the gameplay that the Cat and the Coup excels, but rather, how it tells the story of Iran. Rather than walking the player through, the Cat and the Coup bathes the player in imagery of Iran, redepicting this coup in traditional Persian style with music and occasional speeches providing the only background to the chaos happening around it. It leads the player to pay attention to the world, and to reconsider what the events are that are being depicted.
The most interesting choice, though, is the decision to retell the story in reverse once the puzzles have been completed, making the motivation of Western powers abundantly clear. It’s a sobering reminder of the arbitrariness of diplomacy, both in the Cold War, and into the present day.
The Cat and the Coup does a fantastic job immersing the player in a story. Though it’s short, that length makes the game more memorable and, if anything, highlights the absurdity of the story it’s telling.
Developer: Kurosh Valanejad, Peter Brinson
Genre: Puzzle
Year: 2011
Country: United States
Language: English
Play Time: 10 Minutes