As I try to write an opening for this review, I’ve taken a moment to reflect on the number of times I’ve had to do such a thing with box-pushing puzzlers over the years. I’d like to think I’m not just inherently over them as a whole, but I’ll admit that generating some enthusiasm for them has gotten more difficult since in general so little is done to move the ball forward. All that said, in the case of Mimi the cat, I at least have a bit of good news that’s managing to pull me out of my normal subgenre funk.

While you will spend your time literally pushing boxes around in order to help your cute little kitty Mimi get to her scratching post, there are at least some twists here that keep it from being completely the same as the rest. First, you’ll need to do some planning in order to put boxes in the proper spot to jump from, allowing yourself to skip gaps and get into a better position. Second, and this is the more substantial blow to your typical subgenre plans, is that you’ll also need to stack boxes, and that does make quite a difference in your necessary approach. The tricky part tends to be that once they’re stacked you won’t be able to move them anymore, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that this complicated things quite a bit.

Now, on the negative side, whether there are some added wrinkles to help the game stand apart or not, at its core this is still a box pushing game. Also, while having great graphics is hardly a requirement for success in this casual sort of space, there’s no doubt that visually the game is quite sparse and lacking in personality. Sure, watching Mimi reach up to happily get at her scratcher is nice, but a little more time spent on imbuing her with more character may have helped the experience feel more endearing.

In the end, staring down the subgenre I’ve become somewhat exhausted with, I’m a bit torn. On the one hand, I do applaud there being a little extra flavor here, not merely sticking with the basic tried and true formula and throwing some additional rules into the mix. On the other, there’s no question that aside from those new elements, a cat protagonist, and a pinch of cuteness it’s a pretty bare bones affair. In the end, I suppose if you enjoy these sorts of puzzles, it at least has a little more to offer than the norm, which deserves some amount of credit.