Text/Yiguang Flow

Some mobile games have an incomprehensibly long lifespan.

Not long ago, I flipped through the list, and I happened to see that "Cat Man Wars (にゃんこ大戦争)" entered the top ten of the best-selling Japan again, and I felt a little trance for a while, because its icon was printed with the words of the 11th anniversary...... Let's take a look at the players who are similar to it: "Wilderness Action", "Legend of the Mushroom Brave", "NIKKE", "Genshin Impact". How this lineup looks at how it violates the harmony, it is particularly joyful.

In terms of generation, "Cat Wars" is the same generation as "Wisdom Dragon Maze" and "Monster Marbles", and even more than half a year before "Monster Marbles" was launched. To say that Zhilong and Marble are the hegemons of the Japan market, and their vitality is strong enough to survive various opponents in the same period and later, but what the hell is this cat, not only alive until now, but also alive quite nourishing?

So I flipped through the data, good guys, just a year ago in July, the total revenue of this game just exceeded 700 million US dollars, that is, more than 5 billion yuan, which is converted into 5 small goals for a year, and it is estimated that there will be 5 more small goals when you count the revenue of this year. In addition, the total number of downloads of the game has also exceeded 93 million, which is almost over 100 million.

Data from a year ago

What's even more puzzling is that the painting style of "Cat Wars" is very strange, the characters are basically black and white stick figures + ugly and cute cats, and occasionally there are some strange species and gram evolutionary types, this style of painting is placed in the market that has been rolled out of the open world 3D high-precision card rendering, it looks particularly rebellious. Even the IP linked to it has been deeply assimilated by its painting style.

Guess what kind of IP linkage role this is

There are a lot of mobile games in the market that have lived for a long time, and there are a lot of mobile games that make money, and games with strange art styles are not uncommon in specific fields, but it is difficult to find a second one when these elements are stitched together. So I'm particularly curious, how exactly did this "Cat Wars" do it?

01

The earliest "Cat Wars" was popular, and the main reason was that it had eaten the dividends of the changing times.

The original "Cat Wars" was strictly a feature console game developed 14 years ago, and the version at that time not only did not do well with the paid features, but the content of the game was only one chapter, and it had to be restarted after playing. It is also for this reason that the developer, PONOS, received a lot of complaints from players that they felt that they "didn't play enough", so they decided to port the game to smartphones, and then there was a follow-up content.

Screen of the feature phone version

The decision to expand from a "game with an ending" to a "game with a continuous operation" and the practice at the time made the development logic of "Cat Wars" move closer to the content-driven direction to a certain extent, after all, the development team at that time did not have a preset long-term operation framework, and even in the interviews of that year, the development team always paid the most attention to the very mysterious feeling of "cat flavor".

This "cat flavor" is very contradictory to explain, it stands to reason that most of the cats in "Cat Wars" are strange-looking, not so much that these characters are strange cats, but that they are more like some kind of creature, with a cat face and a pair of cat ears, such as muscle cats, long-legged cats, striped cats, flying cats......

These are pretty normal

It's pretty handsome

Set a unique cat-cat super express train

A character based on a legendary creature

But this strange ugly and cute style is also the place that players talk about the most. In a YouTube author's video, he summarizes the reasons why gamers of all ages love Cat Wars:

Children under the age of 10: Look at you! Cats are so cute~ The dragon is so handsome~ On the dragon's attack! This cat cat dragon is the strongest~ Ah! Another very strong monster came out~ Ahh

Players in their 10s: Ship Ship Ship! Super Rare Saionji Mechanic! Alien Attack Character! It's shipping again! Event-only Black Mage! I've shipped my brother, Dark Mage!! With these characters, I directly pushed the alien Ben.,It's just a god BOSS.,Ah, I haven't fought it.,So I can only draw all the limited characters alive......

Players in their 20s: The most interesting thing about Cat Wars is strategy, for example, in this picture, offense is more effective than defense...... This enemy will attack from a long range, so close the distance quickly...... If you want to clear this level as quickly as possible, you have to do this and this, well, you can shorten it by 5 seconds......

Players in their 30s~40s: Mrs., look at you, the game my children play, it's quite interesting to try it~ Anyway, it's quite tiring to save canned cats, and it's not easy to collect your favorite characters. Oops, the previous event was quite nostalgic, and it was all smoked by accident, hehehew

Players over 50 years old: cats are cute ~ Longlong is handsome! Look, look, look, the castle has been breached~

It can be said that no matter what age the player is, he is generally inseparable from the fate of "cute cats". In the era when feature phones are replaced and smart phones are popular, a mobile game that is suitable for all ages and has a novel style can always quickly become a hit.

In comparison, the total number of downloads of "Cat Wars" on feature phones is only 200,000, but after the release of the mobile game version on smartphones, there were 30,000 downloads in one day, and the total number of downloads exceeded 8 million in 5 months after it was launched. As the number of downloads increased, the game gradually became one of the bestsellers.

Many games are smash hits, but they can't be hits, and Cat Wars is one of the few games that can do the latter.

From a purely data point of view, the upper limit of the best-selling performance of "Cat Wars" in the first three years of its launch is not high, at most it can reach the threshold of the Top 20, but it can occasionally break into the best-selling Top 10 from 5 or 6 years after it is launched, and after that, it basically maintains the level of "can enter the top ten" and "can't fall out of the top 200", and the upper and lower limits are not low.

The recognition of this game by players is also outrageous, and on various quiz sites, there are always players who write extremely high reviews for "Cat Wars". For example, I like ugly and cute cats, the game is simple and easy to use, the single game time is short, 0 krypton can also be played, and the difficulty setting is especially exquisite. Some players even think that other mobile games are not even games, but Cats have a bottom line as a game.

The stickiness of players is also outrageous, 9 years ago, YouTube Internet celebrities released a "Cat Wars" trial video, not only more than 15 million views, the comment area has become a holy place for players to cruise, almost every year someone comes to send a sentence "People who are still playing ↓" to make a card, and there are not a few players who respond to comments and like.

02‍‍

Purely from the type of gameplay, it is difficult to see the reason why the player's reputation and stickiness are so high, because the gameplay of "Cat Wars" is actually very simple, so simple that children under the age of 10 can easily get started.

This game uses a side-scrolling tower defense gameplay, players only need to summon cats according to CD and money consumption, or use the active skill cat cannon to fight against the enemy on the opposite side, and finally break through the enemy city.

Further, this is actually a pure competition for the efficiency of the two sides' combat power consumption. As for the more complex settings such as terrain, routes, and multiple exits that are common in tower defense games, there are no them, and the pile of monsters is over.

But in fact, the level of experience that "Cat Wars" brings to players is very particular.

There was an 8-year veteran player and senior programmer, who used a long article to disassemble his experience process, which was very well described. He believes that the interactive experience design of "Cat Wars" pays great attention to the player's emotions. Before getting started, the game will use the strange cat to attract the player's attention, and people can't help but click.

For example, this beautiful-legged cat feels very strange at a glance, and after a little thought, people can't help but want to summon another one.

After the player gets started to play, there are not many places that can actually be operated, all cats have their own established running procedures and behavior patterns, and players can only watch except for summoning. However, at this time, the game will use "pseudo-haptic feedback" to enhance the player's emotions when they "substitute the game battle".

This pseudo-haptic feedback comes from the expressiveness of the side-scrolling scrolls, each of the cats' attacks, skill releases, and enemy attack animations, all of which are animated in great detail. Horizontal scrolls can not only show the effects of various moves or hits, but more importantly, they can show the feeling of "ready to attack" before moves and hits.

For example, the charge of moves, the defense that cannot be broken no matter how you fight, etc.

This "ready to go" detail is synced to the player's feelings, and gets a breath of relief when the character breaks through enemy defenses, throws enemies flying, and uses skills to take down enemies. When you actually play, the combination of "ready to go" in the front and "release" in the back can bring a strong sense of excitement.

In a vertical scrolling game, this feeling is difficult to portray. For example, in "Wisdom Dragon Maze" and "Monster Marbles", due to the lack of Y-axis graphic expression space, it is difficult to make effects such as vertical slashing of moves, and there is no way to make players feel a detailed sense of layering.

In addition to the sense of layering, "Cat Wars" also has a very thorough interpretation of "easy to use and difficult to master".

As mentioned earlier, this game is a tower defense gameplay, but there is no complex operation of traditional tower defense, only summoning and amplifying moves, which is a minimalist design that children can quickly understand and play proficiently. The rest of the more complex advanced techniques are all buried under the surface of the "Monster Stacking War".

For technical flow and strategy players, it is not only necessary to be familiar with the basic attributes and attack characteristics of each character, so as to match the team in a balanced manner; It is also necessary to adjust the output rhythm through the control of summoning timing, such as adjusting the attacks of several cats together to achieve burst output. This will be a great test of the player's experience and judgment, and even in the high difficulty book, the timing will be used as a unit of 0.1 seconds to affect the battle situation.

This "just use your brain to raise the upper limit of the team's combat power" makes this game more difficult to master, and it is also the foundation of the game's strategy.

Moreover, "Cat Wars" will also design a high-difficulty card point at a frequency of almost once a year to create a peak in the player's calm game experience. When players use cultivation or use technology to clear the level, they can also gain a great sense of achievement.

The layering of performance, the ease of gameplay, and the overall regulation of emotional flow all protect Cat Wars as the purest part of the game. This is also the reason why players can love it for a long time, and I don't think anyone will follow a game that is not fun for more than 10 years.

03

In fact, in addition to the attraction of the characters and the design of the gameplay, "Cat Wars" is also a classic linkage game.

Not long after the game became popular, it was linked with "Princess Kicks Knight Sweets", and since then it has been out of control, and it has gone further and further on the road of linking other IPs.

According to wiki statistics, there are at least 45 IPs linked before and after "Cat Wars", including games, such as "Diffusion MA", "Meluko Story", "Destroy the City", "Live Force Professional Baseball", etc.; Anime and film and television, such as "EVA", "FATE", "Godzilla", "Hatsune Miku", "Rogue Kenshin", "Magical Girl Madoka", etc.; There are also real-life IPs such as the Central Jockey Club and Tokyo Skytree.

"EVA" linkage, this damn painting style (cover your face

Of course, the painting style after the linkage is very strange.,Completely integrated into the ugly and cute rank.,There is no extreme restoration emphasized in other game linkages.,This is probably the only scenery of "Cat Wars".

Before ←→ after linkage

One of the most impressive crossover IPs is the elimination of the city. The reason is that the derivative mobile game of this IP was announced to be discontinued in March this year, but the linkage with "Cat Wars" is still being held in July. The mobile game "Destroy the City" was launched in 14 years, and it has been a full 10 years since it was closed this year.

The words in the press release of "Cat Wars" are linked to "Destroy the City" on the line", although this refers to the offline version on the line, but it still makes people feel inexplicably: it's not enough to kill the opponent, or even to kill the partner. It's really nerve-wracking.

However, it is undeniable that in the linkage again and again, "Cat Wars" has achieved the most ideal commercial purpose.

It not only expands the user base, but also gradually converts users of other IPs into their own enthusiasts and paying fans. After all, after the baptism of the ugly and cute painting style, the people who can stay are basically "so strange, I want to take another look", and when the player becomes curious about the cats, it is not far from the fall.

A derivative pit is enough for players to spend for a long time

In addition to linkage, there are many operation points to maintain the social influence of "Cat Wars", such as naming F1 events, boxing events, conducting various offline activities, maintaining online strategies and community heat, etc., but these operations basically do not jump out of the set of Japanese-style IP operation mode, and do not carry out.

04‍

After "Cat Wars" became popular, there were actually many imitators in the Japan market, whether it was playing horizontal tower defense, engaging in ugly and cute games, or some other popular ones. Even the production company itself has launched similar products, but the game has hardly met any opponents.

On the one hand, the reason is that this game has become a general trend, and it has become popular→ linkage → expanded audience → linkage...... In this cycle, this snowball rolls up and is almost impossible to stop. This is the case with "Wisdom Dragon Maze", "Monster Marbles", and "Cat Wars" is also like this, but the latter is not like the first two to reach the national level.

On the other hand, it is difficult to grasp the main point. When a layman sees the success of this game, it is easy to attribute the cause to the trend of "ugly moe", after all, there is never a shortage of mascots for ugly moe debut in Japan; It may also come down to the wide audience of the tower defense track, or business strategies such as payment. But few people accurately grasp the "cat smell" mentioned at the beginning.

You must know that the cat creature has a terrifying attraction, which knows no borders, and in Japan cats have a closer living distance from people, making the healing cat tour on the market is not uncommon, but the same cat tour, there may be a few ugly cute, and the persistence until now may be the "Cat Wars".

So out of this unique cat flavor, maybe "Cat Wars" will not last to this day, and the time is also fate, this game also reminds me of the "Nervous Cat" that was popular in China back then.

This strange game, which is as popular as a virus on WeChat, also has an ugly and cute side, but in the end it was only a smash hit, and it failed to achieve an evergreen product, let alone become a "wonderful" that has been as strong for 11 years as "Cat Wars" in the next market.

This article is from Xinzhi self-media and does not represent the views and positions of Business Xinzhi.If there is any suspicion of infringement, please contact the administrator of the Business News Platform.Contact: system@shangyexinzhi.com