Cowboy Cat: The rivalry between cats and mice becomes deadly on iOS

6Waves' latest free-to-play mobile game, Cowboy Cat, throws us on the side of the cat in the never-ending rivalry between cats and mice, as we'll be placed in charge of a single feline soldier, armed with two pistols, unlimited ammo and a desire to kill. Inspired by whack-a-mole, Cowboy Cat requires that you hold your device horizontally with both hands, and sees bomb-wielding mice appearing at either side of the screen that must be shot by simply tapping on each mouse before their bombs can detonate.

Cowboy Cat comes with three different game modes that differ in difficulty and the speed at which mice appear, but only the Classic Mode is available at the start. Each time you play the game, you'll have three lives or strikes to "waste" before eventually failing. You'll lose a life if you tap on the screen when a mouse isn't present, or if a bomb is allowed to explode, and you'll gain a single coin for each 50 kills you earn. You can then take these coins into the store and purchase the remaining two gameplay modes. Easy Play sees the mice appearing at a slower rate, while Ultimate Play is for experts only, allowing mice to appear at random locations on the screen. Unfortunately, these modes require thousands of coins to unlock, which encourages purchasing them with real world cash just to save time.

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Regardless of the mode, the game is more comfortable to play while actually holding your device, rather than having it sitting flat on a table, but if your hands are physically small (in the case of the iPad version), you might have a hard time stretching your thumb to reach the mice at the top or bottom of the screen as they start to appear so rapidly. Obviously, if you play on the iPhone, this won't be an issue.

All told, Cowboy Cat is an incredibly basic and often hectic take on whack-a-mole that comes with deliberately bland graphics and some difficult missions to complete as long-term goals. It's a free experience, and therefore worth downloading to at least try, but it might not have the staying power 6Waves probably hopes for.

Click here to download Cowboy Cat on iTunes --->

Have you tried Cowboy Cat on iPhone or iPad? How do you think the game plays on iPad in terms of stretching your fingers / thumbs to play? Sound off in the comments.