| Magic Cat Academy | |
| Developer: | |
| Platforms: | Browser game |
| Released: | October 30, 2016 and October 30, 2020 |
| Modes: | Single-player |
| Publisher: | |
Magic Cat Academy is a series of short browser games created as Google Doodles for Halloween. The first game, Magic Cat Academy, aka. Doodle Halloween 2016, was released on October 30, 2016 and the second, Magic Cat Academy 2, aka. Doodle Halloween 2020, was released on October 30, 2020.
Players control Momo, a sorcerer cat. She goes to a magic school and defeats the boss ghost that steals her spellbook.[1] Momo fights ghosts and bosses throughout five levels, taking place in the school's library, a kitchen/cafeteria, a laboratory/classroom, a gymnasium, and on the tower/sky. Ghosts are defeated by clicking and swiping the mouse in certain directions, pertaining to the symbol atop the ghosts' heads.[2] The swiping directions include a horizontal line, a vertical line, a "v" shape, a "ĘŚ" shape, and a lightning bolt, the latter-most of which summons lightning that weakens all onscreen enemies. On occasion, the player will be allowed to swipe in a heart-like shape to regain health.[3]
The objective and the development of the game are exactly the same, only that the action takes place under the ocean, since the boss ghost fell after winning the first part, reaching the ocean and summoning other ghosts to help him possess various marine animals.[4] Momo fights enemies in five stages, each at a deeper level, against ghosts and possessed animals such as an immortal jellyfish, a school of bogues, a vampire squid and an anglerfish, until reaching the final boss, which is at the first part a haunted fissure. At the second part it is an underwater volcano. This game includes two new movements: a circle, by which the player gets a shield, and a spiral, by which the player pushes back all ghosts and makes them lose one spell or kills them if they only have one spell. The shield lasts for only one attack.
The creation of the game was coordinated amongst four different design groups, relating to art design, engineering, production, and music.[5] The original concept for the game involved Momo making soup that resurrects dead spirits.[6] The game's development involved also involved multiple rejected concepts including elaborate symbols to draw and additional boss enemies.[7]
One of the official webpages[8] for the 2016 game currently also list platformer mechanics which aren't actually featured in the game.
The character of Momo was based on a real-life cat belonging to the games art designer Juliana Chen. Momo also appears in the Doodle Champion Island Games Google Doodle (2021).