This game was originally covered as part of our Nindie Round Up series that sought to give coverage to a wider breadth of Switch eShop games beyond our standard reviews. In an effort to make our impressions easier to find, we're presenting the original text below in our mini-review format.

If you love the shmup genre and feline friends, then boy, have we got the game for you. Neko Navy is a fairly run-of-the-mill shoot 'em up, utilising an adorably amusing cat aesthetic as well as a bit of Japanese cultural influence that gives it a fun and unique style. You collect cat tokens to accumulate points and will pick up power-ups along the way. There isn’t a huge amount in terms of the gameplay to define it against other games of the genre. Shields, bigger guns, hordes of enemies and (eventually) large-scale bosses are all implemented well, but are the norm and to be expected.

It’s the surreal and amusing visuals of Neko Navy, with its Pusheen-esque art style, that makes it stand out from the crowd. The splayed-out playable cats are as cute as they are hilarious, making for a nice change from the same old space shooters. The enemies, however, aren’t quite as interesting or fun, with the occasional unique design but nothing as charming as your kitty protagonists.

The Daydream Edition boasts an infinite mode to test your skill, which is a welcome addition. This is particularly tough on the all-new 'death mode'. There is a feeling of a missing middle ground in fact, as the game’s difficulty jumps from easy to hard to death, with no medium skill level.

Neko Navy is a perfectly serviceable shmup that, not unlike an underfed cat, is a tad bare-bones. It plays smoothly, emulating an arcade feel, but could do with some additional features and a bit more enemy variety to make it truly stand out. That said, it offers a bright, colourful atmosphere with an unapologetically arcade-style soundtrack and could function as a nice introduction to shmups for players of any age.