I was a really big fan of Catstronauts when we played it — there was just enough on to keep it interesting, and the way that it promoted co-operative gameplay felt both incredibly modern and refined. That said, there were two main issues, which the Catstronauts Fish Finder Satellite expansion quickly fixes.
Catstronauts, for those unfamiliar, puts players in the role of Cat… Astronauts as they attempt to assemble and activate a space station through exchanging sets of resources for new ship parts and correctly bolting them onto the existing station components. Its charm comes in its characters, the goofy event cards and the motivational speeches that you can use once a game for an extra move. At its core it’s fully co-operative, with everybody working against a ticking timer. Catstronauts Fish Finder Satellite adds an extra building, items that need to be fetched from the building, extra characters and extra events.
I mentioned that Catstronauts Fish Finder Satellite fixes the two major issues with the core game, and that’s completely true… so, I guess I should explain what those are. Firstly, you place new rooms by standing in a room with at least one empty space next to it, you then exchange items matching the back of the tile, then place the room flipside up. This encourages people to simply dump out building tiles into the void and have a single cat repeatedly operate the machinery that allows them to move constructed buildings. The extra starting tile that comes with the expansion shifts the shape of the starting area, making this redundant.
Secondly, the satellite adds in a new victory condition: You need to fetch and deliver three tokens from the satellite to a new tile. Catstronauts has really clear rules for moving into, out of and around space, but there was no real need to explore the outside of the ship until now. This is a great fix, especially when combined with the challenge to repair outer panels… and really feels like it should have been included from the start.
I really, really enjoyed the core version; However, the Fish Finder expansion makes the spacewalking part of it essential and encourages you to think more about how you build out your ship. I genuinely hope that more expansions come in future.
Catstronauts Fish Finder Satellite is available now from publisher Atlas Games.
