If you want a new 1990s-style, point-and-click adventure featuring a cast of sleuthing felines, Nine Noir Lives aims to offer exactly that. Developed by Silvernode Games, Nine Noir Lives has several sources of influence, which include film noir, Taika Waititi, Shakespeare, and games like Broken Sword and Grim Fandango. This eclectic variety of inspirations combined with the universal appeal of cats promises to make Nine Noir Lives quite the novel experience for those interested. Fortunately, players can jump into Nine Noir Lives relatively soon, as it releases on both Steam and GOG on September 7.
According to a press release, you’ll take control of a feline detective named Cuddles Nutterbutter as he works to solve a murder mystery in the city of Meow Meow Furrington. This mystery will present a stiff challenge for Cuddles, as it “threatens to upset the tenuous relationship between the paw-erful Montameeuw and Catulet crime families.” Fortunately, Cuddles has strong conversational skills and an impeccable sense of taste that will prove incredibly useful in this investigation.
Oddly enough, Nine Noir Lives isn’t the only cat-themed noir detective game. Back in 2019, a similarly themed game called Blacksad: Under the Skin introduced us to a feline in a trench coat.
“A Point-and-Lick Adventure”
In Nine Noir Lives, players navigate hand-drawn environments while talking to a whole host of colorful characters. Notably, these NPCs come with full voice acting courtesy of actors who worked on all sorts of recognizable projects, including A Hat in Time and God of War Ragnarok. Additionally, players won’t only experience the story from Cuddles’ perspective, as the game gives you control of his assistant Tabby Marshmallow at various points.
Silvernode Games founder William Kruger described Nine Noir Lives as a passion project that the studio self-funded for years, and he expressed excitement over letting players experience it once the release date arrives. Hopefully, that passion will reflect in the final product. The idea of a cat-themed detective game will be too good to pass up for many.
