Dear god, what has Team Meat created this time? This is what happens when we allow a game about a skinless dude and fetus archenemy to become one of the most popular platformers in years. From the creators of Super Meat Boy, introducing Mew-Genics, the best simulated "cat lady" environment turned into a game ever. EVER.

Over the weekend Team Meat released their first gameplay details for Mew-Genics, which up until now was simply known for having lots of cats in it. Well, lots of cats and a perverse fascination with genetic manipulation. Rather than simply list features and mechanics, however, Team Meat provided a short story. I believe it captures their game in a way a bulleted list never could.

Last week I was playing a game with Puddle, a fat female cat I had been working on earlier that day, I thawed her out of her Cryo-cube and placed her in my current single story house along with her newly generated companion Champ. I had been focusing my time on Puddle due to the fact that she seemed to have a very unique tail that I believe had helped her place 2nd in a cat pageant in a previous and I needed to breed her so I could continue her bloodline before she got too old. Sadly Champ wasn't up to snuff and Puddle made this obvious by repeatedly kicking him in the face, I separated them quickly by putting champ in the attic but when I tried to feed him.. something odd happened. See, Champ was a dullard and when Puddle kicked him he just happened to also be eating and now associated the trauma with food instead of Puddle herself, he was scared of all food.. and sadly died in the attic shortly after. 

It wasn't long after though that I caught sight of a solid black stray cat named Goon, before he had a chance to run I grabbed him and pulled him inside. Goon was a much better fit for Puddle and before I knew it the humping started and puddle was pregnant! I put her in the attic with plenty of food and a bed, but quickly noticed that something was up with Goon, he seemed to be constantly falling asleep. As it turned out Goon was a narcoleptic and as you might have guessed Puddle gave birth to 2 sleeping kittens, one of them fat like his mother and black like his dad and the other small but with his mom's markings and that amazing forked tail that helped in the last pageant, but sadly both kittens were narcoleptic like their father... 

Goon acted aggressively towards the kittens so I let him back out into the yard and he eventually ran away. As the kittens grew up I did enter the small one (his name was Dot) into a pageant but sadly he just fell asleep on the stage and didn't win anything. To add insult to injury Puddle also acquired feline aids from Goon and I couldn't afford any of the expensive treatments Dr. Beanies was offering so I put her back in the Cryo-cube in hopes that in the future I might have a cure for her disease once I finish a few more of the Doctor's missions. 

I wasn't able to save Dot because I was arrested by the local animal control shortly after I put Puddle in the cube, probably because of letting Goon run away.. and the whole giving my other cat aids thing... or maybe it was the dead cat in the attic.

The current number of cats in Mew-Genics is 25418658283290000000000000, which means the permutations of cat genetics are so vast that it's unlikely you'll create the same cats in any single game. And apparently that doesn't even take into account size, state or personality of the cat. Breed cats, then set them to fight or enroll in competitions, then breed more cats. Simple, but sensible, yes?

Mew-Genics currently doesn't have a release window beyond a general 2013 and will be coming to PC, iOS and Android. It's everything we wanted in a follow-up to Super Meat Boy... kind of.