Kitty Kitty from Gamewright

Kitty Kitty from Gamewright is a single player logic puzzle game. The box claims it is "The Paw-some Packing Puzzle", and I think they are right! You can never go wrong with a kitty-themed puzzle! I am not completely sure it is a packing style puzzle, maybe a pattern puzzle instead, but who can argue with cats?!

Kitty Kitty comes with 21 kitty pieces (2 kitty heads on each piece), 48 challenges on 24 large cards, and a rule book with answers. The kitty pieces look like this:

They come in 2 types; one where 1 kitty head is stacked directly on top of the other kitty head and the other where 1 kitty head is diagonal to the other kitty head. There are 8 of the first type and 13 of the second type. You can further break them down by color. There are 10 pink and 10 oranges kitties, 8 yellow kitties, and 7 black and 7 purple kitties. So a total of five distinct colors for the cats. Also note, there are 5 double tiles, where there are two cats of the same color. It is always good to inspect your playing pieces before you begin trying to solve these types of puzzles!

Also reading the instructions before getting started is usually super helpful! The object of this game is to arrange the kitty tiles onto the puzzle cards so that the patterns and colors match exactly. 

You begin by choosing a challenge card. Note in the top right corner there is a colorful kitty head. This area shows you which tiles will be needed for the current challenge. For this card, only the tiles with purple kitties will be used. If you see multiple colors, then you will use all those colored tiles for the challenge. When you see a kitty with a slash through it, that means that you wont use any kitties of that color in the challenge. 

Tiles picked? Time to match them to the challenge card! Most of the challenges in this game are pretty straightforward. Here are a couple tips to get you started:

1) Focus on the tiles with double color kitties, like 2 yellow kitties. There are usually limited spots where these can be placed.

2) Look for the color with the least amount of cats. In the challenge above, there is only one yellow cat, so only one spot where that tile can fit!

3) Remember to try turning the tiles over. This is crucial for the diagonal tiles as they will slope in the other direction when you flip them. Flipping the vertically stacked cats wont make any difference. 

4) Don't forget, the kitties cannot be placed upside down! Always ears up and chins down!

5) Finally if you find yourself really stuck, double check that you have sorted out the correct tiles for your challenge.

Here is a quick walk-through of Gin and I solving puzzle #32, just to give you an idea of how you can approach solving these types of puzzles.

First we removed any of the tiles that had a purple cat on them. Then we took a look at the tiles that were left. We focused on the black tiles since there were only 5 spaces for them on the board. There is a black above pink tile and a pink above black tile, but there is only one spot that the pink above black tile will fit. So that is the first tile that we placed!

Next, notice that on the right side of the placed tile, there is a spot that will only fit the orange over yellow tile. So we placed that there!

Then were considered the black and yellow diagonal tile, since it is the only one like it and there are only 4 possible places for the black kitty to fit. Because of the slope of the diagonal, considered on one side or the flip side, there is only one spot available for that piece, in the lower left corner. So we stuck that one there.

Next we gathered up the remaining tiles with black kitties and considered how they might fit into the grid.

It turns out that there are 2 ways that these tiles can be arranged and both work! So we picked one configuration and plopped them into place.

Now if you look above the yellow/black diagonal tile on the bottom left, you will notice that there are two orange kitty heads stacked on top of each other. Since there are no double tiles stacked vertically, we know that we need a diagonal tile to fill that gap. The orange and yellow diagonal tile works well!

Which forces the double orange diagonal tile into place.

We are now left with 4 yellow spaces on the challenge card. There are 2 yellow/orange tiles and one double yellow tile left. 

This seems like a good arrangement!

Now the right edge needs an orange over pink tile and we have one of those left! But OH NO! We still have a pink over orange tile that needs to be placed and nowhere to put it! Turns out our arrangement of the last 3 yellow tiles was incorrect!

Here is our new arrangement which included flipping the yellow/orange diagonal tile and the yellow/yellow tile! Now there is a spot for the pink over orange tile!

Finally, we can place the 2 pink/orange diagonal tiles and the challenge is complete! Wow! Those kitties were super patient with us! :-) Don't forget that you can check your answers in the instructions booklet if you like.

We really enjoyed this puzzle game! Of course, we are easily tickled by anything involving cats, but it also turned out to be well designed and satisfying to solve. This game is rated for 8 and up, but I do think a savvy youngster could handle it just fine. And of course, whenever a parent and child play together, they will always share ideas and find solving that much more achievable! This is why I often get Ginny to help me with these...she's just smarter than me anyway!

I hope you enjoyed this little review of Kitty Kitty. I don't receive any monetary compensation for these reviews. I just do them for fun! But if you are interested in buying a copy of this game, you can find it on Gamewright's website.