FingerGaming

Sometimes, I come across an App Store release that makes me pause and consider just how ridiculous and improbable the iPhone’s software library can be. There are good games. There are bad games. There are really bad games. And then there are games that can only exist on the iPhone, and could never be released on any other platform, ever.

Example: Wonderland Quest, a hidden-object game published by Friskies. Yes. The cat food brand.

Wonderland Quest challenges players to find hidden pieces of Friskies-brand cat food hidden throughout a number of painted backdrops. The pieces are often cleverly hidden — a cloud can be in the shape of a fish, or a logo on a tennis shoe can be a concealed cow’s head. It’s decently fun, believe it or not, and it’s free.

It’s also a game based on cat food. This kind of thing hasn’t been seen since the days of Chase the Chuck Wagon. No one’s going to release a Purina-branded dog food game for the Nintendo DS, or a PSP game where the object is to wrestle an animal into a Snuggie.

It’s weird, too. Take the screenshot above, for instance. Notice how this could be a normal, real-world setting…except for the fact that it’s completely overgrown with plant life. Does Wonderland Quest take place in the distant future, after humans have become extinct? Did cats overthrow their masters and become the dominant species, creating an idyllic paradise for themselves filled with hidden cat food?

Maybe I’m devoting too much thought to this, but it’s definitely a game that made me pause and consider the iPhone’s position in the games industry. If a cat food brand can make an iPhone app about cats taking over the world and finding hidden food-shaped treasure, anything is possible.

Someone needs to make that Snuggie game happen, by the way.

Tags: friskies, hidden object, iphone oddities, Puzzle, wonderland quest