12 cert, Atari, PSN (also Xbox Live, PC) ***

It’s easy to see the anime influence on Blade Kitten. Slinky, wide-eyed, part feline and part human, Kit Ballard is an intergalactic bounty hunter whose blade is as sharp as her catty one-liners. It’s a platform combat game, with missions that consist of lots of leaping from walls to ceilings and around obstacles while shooting and slicing through anonymous adversaries. There are also a few small puzzles. Some of these head-scratchers are frustrating, but hey, that’s why god invented the online walk-through. Kit is a fun character, and the game boasts some amusing and nicely animated cut scenes. Indeed, the character movement and animation in-game is fluid and graceful; a shame that the background and location design are so flat. Blade Kitten will be catnip for platform fans, though, with its repetitive gameplay and sometimes frustrating puzzles it’s well short of purr-fect.

JOE GRIFFIN