Purrhoop: Cat Fishing Arcade

Purrhoop is a cat fishing game in retro pixel art: a cat on a beach gets a harpoon on a rope and 60 seconds to spear as many fish as it can. Touch and hold to aim, then let go: the harpoon flies up into the sea, goes through as many as three fish, and reels back on a sagging rope, slower when the catch is heavy. The fish drop into the cat's bucket, and the clock only starts with your first shot.

The bucket is not safe. A seagull dives at it and a rival tuxedo cat sneaks up along the sand, each after your newest fish, and later in the round they come faster. Tap a thief to shoo it, or spend a shot and harpoon it: it drops what it stole and pays two coins. That choice, fish or thief, turns harpoon fishing into an arcade game. Reel in one of the two sea mines and it blows away the newer half of your catch. Bubbles at sea give five more seconds, a golden harpoon that pierces five fish, a scarecrow that keeps the thieves away, or a snail that slows the fish down. Every fish you land charges a super shot of three harpoons, and about every 20 seconds a golden giant fish swims past; tap fast to drag it ashore before it breaks free.

Between rounds the cat walks home to a cardboard house, where every setting and every shop is a box on the sand. Coins buy five upgrades in the toolbox, such as a longer rope and a faster reel, one-round boosts like ten extra seconds or a sea with no mines, and hats, a scarf, a bow tie or a bell from the wardrobe. Treats from the food bowl keep the cat happy, and holding a finger on it makes it purr, which charges the super shot for the next round. Coins are earned by playing and never sold.

The sea holds 20 species in three sizes, two of them rare, and the first of each you land fills its page in the fish book. Nothing in this cat game needs reading: the clock, the catch and the coins are numbers beside icons, and the cat and the thieves show how they feel in picture bubbles. Play in 8-bit NES colors or in black-and-white 1-bit pixel art, each look with its own chiptune music. Vibration grows with the number of fish in one shot. Music, sound and vibration each have a switch, and a left-hand mode mirrors the beach.

Purrhoop is free, with unlimited rounds, every upgrade, boost and wardrobe item, and 8 of the 20 fish. Full Catch, a one-time purchase, adds the other 12 fish, both rare ones among them, and the PICO-8 and Game Boy looks. The Supporter pack, also one-time, includes Full Catch and is a thank-you to the people who made the game. Both are behind a times-table question in the grown-ups box, and Google Play shows the price in your currency before you buy.

There are no ads and no account. Purrhoop plays offline; buying and restoring need a connection. What leaves the phone: anonymous usage statistics and crash reports (Firebase) and, if you buy something, the purchase record (RevenueCat). The app does not read your advertising ID. Requires Android 8.0 or later. In 13 languages, picked from a grid of flags: English, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Indonesian and Bengali. Your progress is kept only on this phone, with no cloud save and no online leaderboards.