I grew up in an era when games for kids were well made, not rushed out, and designed so that everyone could enjoy them. Games like the Carmen San-Diego franchise and the various Magic School Bus games, a series I loved playing on my old Windows 95, come to mind as something anyone of any age could pick up and enjoy. I bring this up because, lately, it seems games geared towards a younger audience have really been lackluster as of late, basically relegated to shovelware, and Leo The Firefighter Cat is no exception, which is a shame as there is a fun game hidden somewhere in here.
To get the good stuff out of the way, the game is very easy to pick up and play and the controls, for the most part, are easy to get a handle on, meaning you won’t be going all Armored Core hands on your controller trying to maneuver Leo. I say ‘for the most part’ as I noticed a few on-screen button prompts were wrong and I had to hit a different button then what was being prompted, which led to some moments of frustration. I also liked how you can customize Leo by finding hidden pinatas that unlock skins for your outfit, which only seems to be a cosmetic change and nothing more, but the fact that I can make him look like an armored stormtrooper is pretty cool. The music, as well, is actually nice to listen to, even after hearing them on repeat for the hundredth time. Some of the missions were fun, too, including one where, no joke, fire sprites had hijacked vehicles and you must take them out as you travel to a massive pile-up. I’m not kidding when I said this mission had some mad Grand Theft Auto vibes to it. Yeah, that’s another thing I’ll give this game credit for and that is your not just fighting fires and cleaning toxic sewage, but actual Fire and Toxic Sprites and there is some strategy to use here, like if you see one with a shield, then you gotta use the ax to take the shield out before you can hose them down. You even can get your own shield, that is very easily abusable, to prevent damage on yourself, along with a ice-cube power-up that freezes enemies, allowing you to get some easy hits on them. There was also a mission where you fly a helicopter which, I swear I’m not joking here, reminded me of Nuclear Strike 64 (I guess because the helicopter’s water cannons were basically miniguns and that kinda made me laugh). Lastly, the game doesn’t overstay its welcome and is relatively short, which is, sadly, a good thing because this game is the definition of what many think of when they hear the term ‘game for kids’.
Look, I don’t want to be too mean to a game geared towards a younger crowd, but I need to be honest: Leo The Firefighter Cat is a prime example of modern kids games tossed out under the mentality of ‘it’s for kids, so effort isn’t needed’. It’s not a terrible game and it’s, by far, not one of the worst of 2024, it’s just not a good game. To start with, this game is buggy. There were times when I got stuck in place, either on a slope or just on the ground, after pausing the game and couldn’t even move at all, although I’ll give that one credit as it is easily fixed by going back to the HQ via the same pause menu, though it does mean restarting a mission you were on if the bug occurs. However, the same couldn’t be said for the yacht mission. So, what’s supposed to happen is, after you rescue a group of cats, you’re supposed to lead them back to your helicopter and complete the mission. Easy enough, right? Just lead them down the ramp outside the room you were in and to the chopper? NOPE! No matter how hard I tried, the cat’s AI just bugged out and wouldn’t even follow me down the ramp and, if they did, they would go so far before turning around and going back up, all the while taking these little jerky baby steps. “OK?” I said to myself, “Let’s try a different route then” and I did and guess what? Same issues there as well, with them even refusing to cross over a bridge. It wasn’t until, no joke, I took a father away route that not only did they follow me, but they went to the helicopter with no issues. Now, nowhere in that mission did it say to take a specific route nor was there any other mission in the game where the cats had to follow a specific path, so my guess is the pathfinding on that particular level is messed up as on other levels where you guide cats, they have no problems following you.
The game is open world but it’s not a fun open world to explore. Again, I know this is a kids game so I shouldn’t expect Rockstar levels of detail, but when even the Lego games put more effort into their open worlds, that’s saying something. In fact, you really can just ignore the open world and just do the missions your commander gives you as the entire main point of the world is mostly to find the hidden pinatas, which unlock new customization options for Leo, and complete the occasional side quest, like putting out a fire or rescuing cats, who all share the same meowing sound effects, trapped in vehicles. There really isn’t anything here to make the open-world really stand out or, at the very least, fun to explore. Same goes with the missions as they all are basically the same thing: Go to an area, put out fire/toxic waste, and rescue cats. Sure, a few levels do mix things up, like the aforementioned Grand Theft Fire and one where you’re on rails going through a factory, but the game really got boring after the second mission. I say the worst missions are the water missions and there are three you have to do: First one is a surveillance mission where you honk your horn at those fishing illegally (which took a long time to complete as the boats never went to the areas half of the time), another one where you rescue cats in a flooded city, and a “racing” level. I say “racing” in quotation marks as it’s not really a race at all. What’s supposed to happen is that, during the race, you’re to go to various islands and put out fires to rescue cats as fast as you can before your opponents can do the same. Good concept, except the opponents don’t do anything, other than move their boats around, allowing you the easiest win I’ve ever seen. And that’s the biggest problem with this game: There is zero challenge to anything, outside of one area which I’ll get to in a bit. Again, I get it: Kid’s game, supposed to be easy. But even an easy game needs some sort of challenge to keep people entertained and if a game has no challenge? People, especially kids, the game’s targeted audience, will get bored super easily. Although, I’ll give it this; there is one area where the challenge does sorta ramp up and that is when you unlock the Seaplane. The missions where you fly the plane and put out fires are actually pretty challenging, though that might be due to the controls being just a bit more sensitive here, and I actually felt just a bit of excitement playing them. Mind you, it didn’t start out strong as the very first mission you use the plane in has a tutorial where you are flying through wings and I was instantly reminded of Superman 64 and that ain’t a good thing. I will give it this: It’s the only mission where I actually had to do a legitimate restart as, during landing, I crashed the plane and killed the cat, which netted me an achievement and a slight chuckle.
Again, let me stress that I grew up in an era when games for kids were well made, actually had care put into them, and weren’t just shovelware. Yes, we had the occasional bad kids game or a straight-up weird one like Ninja Nanny And Sherloch Sheltie (Seriously, look this game up), but the good ones far outweighed the negative ones. Leo The Firefighter Cat, unfortunately, is another one in a long line of cheaply made games for kids that are very prevalent nowadays and one I can not recommend, despite the fleeting moments of fun I managed to find, like being able to make my cat into an armored stormtrooper with one outfit.
