As much as I enjoy digging into intense or challenging experiences on the Switch, there are times when it’s nice to slow down and enjoy something simpler and more relaxing. With its mix of therapy-driven beats and some simple old-school jigsaw-ish puzzles (though using square pieces in this case), Doctor Cat does bring some calmness and reflection to the table. Unfortunately, the gameplay is also quite slight, and the implementation of the puzzles has just enough issues to keep it from meeting its pretty unambitious potential.

While I suppose you could find the therapy sessions to have some soothing value, getting down to business with what gameplay there is, it’s pretty thin. Working to arrange all of the squares of a broken up image properly, you’ll need to take what help you can get to first establish your edges and then work from there. Depending on the puzzle involved, unfortunately the colored line that was used to help you easily identify the edge pieces isn’t as visible as it could be. Then, with the pieces lacking unique shapes the whole enterprise feels a bit generic and low-effort, with only the hand-drawn art itself really helping it stand out, but the style is simple so I’m not sure that’s enough to justify your attention either.

In the end, there’s simply not much here, so writing a full-throated review is a challenge. The thing is, while digital puzzle games are all relatively simple in general, I’ve played quite a few that at least have shown more effort than this. Whether going in a more creative direction like Glass Masquerade, or simply executing the concept with more flair like the Animated Jigsaws titles, there are superior options already on the eShop. Does pairing pretty weak digital puzzles with some storytelling via therapy clearly make for a game worth your while? You’ll ultimately need to choose for yourself, but overall it just fails to make much of a positive impression.