Jazz Paws

Jazz Paws is a cozy lofi side scroller: a road trip with a five-cat band walking behind you, and a runner built to be easy to pick up. One thumb moves, one thumb plays, and a run is a few minutes long. How well it goes is still up to you. Every cat carries a skill nobody else has, every place asks for something slightly different, and reading a street early is the difference between strolling through it and limping out.

A hundred places, all of them drawn from real California. Little Tokyo, Olvera Street, the Observatory, the Star Walk, the harbor, the surf break, Joshua Tree, the open road out of town. Every stop got its own art pass, and none of them plays like the last one.

The Hush-Bots switched the city's music off block by block. They are robots, round and almost friendly, and thirteen boss machines stand behind them. The band answers with music: everything it plays is a musical note.

The main story runs in three parts, bringing one bandmate home at a time until the whole band is back on stage. Each of the fifty cats also has a story chapter set of its own: their corner of the city, their reason for coming back.

Or just press Play, the runner mode. It picks the route for you, five stops or seven or ten or endless, and the band walks until the hearts run out, past every robot and boss the road puts in front of it. No map, no menus, no plan.

One purchase clears the ads, and it is a cat: Bebop, a stray kitten with little dragon wings. He is not a receipt. The kitten flies along with the band, sings a heart back into whoever is hurting most, and fetches loose notes off the pavement. No subscription, and that is the whole store.

Free to play, and the whole game works offline. Cozy on a couch, offline on a plane. Landscape, two thumbs, one side scroller. Bring the band home.

Jazz Paws is an original work of fiction. Its neighborhoods and landmarks are drawn from real California places, but the game is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or licensed by any of the parks, businesses, attractions, or organizations that inspired them.