Fiete Cats AR is a virtual/digital pet iOS app that uses augmented reality (ARKit) to allow kids to adopt their own three adorable virtual little kittens.
I’ve been playing around with quite a lot of virtual pet apps like AR Dino, Miaow, Cattery, Follow Me Dragon, AR Dragon, just to name a few. I found those virtual pet simulators fitting well into the augmented reality medium.
After spending a lot of time using those virtual pet apps, I think I have a better idea what makes a type of virtual pet work better than others. This will be a long review because I will also talk about the exact features that actually make one virtual pet app work better than others and see how well Fiete Cats AR fits into this category.
Fiete Cats AR Interactions
Fiete Cats AR, like many of the other virtual pet games, also allows you to feed your pet, play with him, pet him, move him around, clean him, put him to bed, etc. Of course, each one of those app features slightly different interactions.
Fiete Cats AR doesn’t have any progression system like AR Dragon, where you can earn points and unlock different types of items.Its interactions are a bit lacking compared to other games of its kind. For example, in AR Dragon I was able to play ball with the dragon, and it was actually a really fun experience, even for me as an adult. It actually requires good hand-eye coordination and I was actually sometimes failed to impress my dragon with my fetching skills. AR Dragon also features lots of customization options, what’s also lacking in Fiete Cats AR.
In Fiete Cats AR you have the option to choose between three different gets, name each one of them and play with each one separately.
The “Cuteness” Factor
Although it may sound a bit awkward, one of my benchmark factors of which game I personally prefer best also relies on how cute the pet actually is. Take Miaw! (now Meow!) for example, it has gone through a complete transformation with new updates and now features much more adorable kitten and new interaction, and this game just became so much better and fun to play.
I try to think about what can make an app user to love the virtual pet. For me, I like seeing a pet with a big head, large blue eyes and one that does silly faces and voices. I think this is one of the reasons AR Dragon became so beloved and popular among kids.
Let’s check some gameplay before we move on.
Comparing Fiete Cats AR to Other Virtual Pet Apps
The kittens in Fiete Cats AR looks cute but they look and feel less lively compared to pets in other virtual pet apps that I’ve played. I tried to think why it is like. For this reason, I actually downloaded the app Meow! all over again and watched the AR Dragon gameplay video that I made to observe the differences.
I’ve noticed that unlike Me Meow!, Follow Me Dragon, AR Dino Pet, and AR Dragon, the eyes are flat and the eyeballs are not moving, the yare just in the center of the eye all the time. This makes a HUGE difference. When I looked at the eyes of the pet in Meow!, AR dragon, Follow Me Dragon and AR Dino Pet, I actually felt an emotional connection. I felt more like a real living being than just a virtual 3D model.
Furthermore, the sound effects were not persuasive enough and didn’t give me that “OMG, it’s so cute!” type of feeling (maybe except the cat’s face when you wave a fish in front of his face). The animations were good, especially the ones where he licks his faces after eating, the ear animations and when he plays ball.
When you choose a virtual cat, you kind of restricted to what you can do with it. It would look funny if it had a long tongue like the dragon in AR Dragon. The thing is that this what makes other virtual pet simulators so adorable. Other developers have chosen to deliberately go with other types of animals. Choosing a dragon was a very smart idea because you can create some unique looks and adorable animations that you probably wouldn’t dare to do in a virtual cat app. Everything was exaggerated, the dragon’s eye, tongue, the body movement, and it has funny looking teeth and human-like facial expressions.
I think that the human-like face expressions one of the most important ones because it helps to create a deeper emotional bond as you can better sympathize with human-like reactions.The dragon’s big mouth and big eyes helped to produce some really convincing animations that it’s very easy to be emotionally affected by them.
Maybe it will sound a bit harsh, but Fiete Cats AR seemed a lifeless compared to the Dragon in AR. Maybe it’s not fair to compare it to a Dragon pet, but to a virtual cat AR app—Well, that’s what I did. I’ve downloaded the Meow! app to see how the two compare. The kitten in Meow! has big eyes, more human-like animations, and facial expressions, the eyeballs were moving from side to side, the cat has more compelling animations (e.g. lying on his back, standing on two fit begging for attention) and the fur’s texture looks much better. All this helps to create a much more attractive virtual pet experience, and I didn’t even mention the other features like being able to unlock new play and food items and even see your cat grow every day.
So Why this Particular Art-Style?
Now to be fair to Fiete Cats AR, it’s important to mention that the cat’s art-style is close to that of Ahoiii Entertainment’s other apps like Fiete Sports, Fiete KinderZoo, Fiete Farm, Damki Town, and others. So if I understand things correctly, Ahoiii followed the same art-style so users who already played its other apps will get to have somewhat a familiar visual experience. The company also has a set of Fiete books that they’ve released, so maybe this cat will even appear on one of those books in the future.
It’s like having a series like The Simpsons or South Park. It’s not like you are going to change to a different character design in order to make the character look cuter. People who already love their books and apps want to continue experiencing them in the same art-style fashion.
At least this what I understand after spending time on their websites and trying to understand why Ahoiii has chosen to go with this particular art-style.
At the end of the day, I am not their regular user, I am just a kid from the block (more like an adult from the block to be more accurate). If I like the art-style, I will definitely be interested to explore their other apps and maybe even their books. It can be a good promotion for their other offerings.
That being said, a casual iPhone or iPad user that looks for a virtual pet simulator game will choose the one with the pet that looks more adorable and entertaining. In this aspect, I think that other virtual pet apps felt much more exciting than Fiete Cats AR.
The last thing that is not less important is the educational aspect of the game. I think that Fiete Cats AR can teach kindergarten and pre-school kids how to take care of real cats, and this can be taught better than an app featuring a dragon, I guess. I am not an expert in the field, but I think that this value cannot be ignored and probably something that has a parent I would consider when choosing an app for my child to play.
Conclusion
Fiete Cats AR brings up a cute little kitten to life in your living room. You can play with him, feed him, pet him and make sure he is clean and having fun. There is even a camera button that allows you to record a video of your pet and share it with others.
This app features a few interactions, which makes it less attractive compared to other virtual pet simulators out there.
If you are familiar with the Fiete app and book series, I’m sure you will find this app more exciting than I did. Having said that, it all boils down to what I felt when I played it, without being a Fiete fan or anything like that. Fiete Cats AR had its own unique cute animations but I haven’t got to the point where I felt an emotional response compared to how I felt playing other similar apps.
I did like the colorful footprints, the sponge bath animations, the look of the cat when you present him with food and the dirt on his body when it needs to be cleaned. The AR experience worked well overall without any significant issues.
Every virtual pet game that I’ve played has its own unique charm and so does Fiete Cats. Still, the experience didn’t lift off and I had less of “oh, so cute” reactions when playing it. The app isn’t free while all the other that I’ve mentioned are.
If you’ve read this review though, you are probably not the person that this app is aimed for, but you might be a parent looking for a virtual pet game for his kid. If you are looking particularly for a virtual cat game, there aren’t many of them and Fiete Cats AR is a good choice, but if you don’t mind having a different type of animal, there are, in my opinion, better artificial pet AR games out there.
You can download Fiete Cats AR from the App Store here.