I’ve been pretty dismissive of point and clicks as a genre. I fully admit to being a bit sceptical that their style of gameplay still has a place in modern gaming. I said all these things about point and clicks without ever having tried one of their largest and most popular modern incarnations, the hidden object game.

I feel like I’ve entered an entirely different world, parallel to my own. The similarities are there, oh I recognise them, but mine is but a hollow facade beside the sheer cathartic bliss that is achievable in the world of the hidden object games.

cats

Cats Hidden in Jingle Jam is a hidden object game. One hundred cats are scattered throughout a black and white, hand-drawn Christmas market scene. The goal is simple - find the cats.

Mechanically, the game is as simple as it gets. You spot a cat. You click the cat. It meows, turns blue, and gives you an achievement. Each cat has its own name.

It’s beautiful.

cats

We are creatures whose brains evolved to pick out the tiny details and to recognise familiar objects in unfamiliar settings. Often, this is unhelpful, as we can use it to see ghosts around every corner, or faces in the stumps of trees, but here, this is what it’s meant for. There is something deeply and wonderfully cathartic about just activating my monkey brain and letting it delight in pattern matching. In some ways, a game like this is uniquely human, however much it may be centered on cats. It’s built to make our monkey brains happy, and it does so well at it. There’s a hit of dopamine every time I pick out a cat, hear its meow, and watch the colour change. Coupled with the beautiful art and fun music, I felt whisked away to the little Christmas market and the fuzzy feelings it evokes, swaddled in the warm glow of lamps against the snow. This game made me feel cozy and safe, roaming a world where the only concern was finding the next smiling cat.

cats

I don’t know enough about the hidden object genre to know if this is a good example of the genre, but I feel it must be. Any game that brings me this much joy and comfort is a credit to its genre, and of course, to itself. Cats Hidden in Jingle Jam is a delight to play, and is the holiday treat all of us deserve. Curl up with your cats. Get lost in the winter whimsy. Let your monkey brain have its unproblematic dopamine hit.

Developer: Travellin Cats

Genre: Point And Click, Hidden Object

Year: 2023

Country: Unknown

Language: English

Play Time: 10-15 Minutes

Youtube: https://youtu.be/MEBzq8SQIIQ