Nine Noir Lives (v1.0.3.1)

Meow Meow Furrington treats hard-boiled detective fiction with the seriousness of a rainy alleyway mystery and the absurdity of a city run entirely by cats. Nine Noir Lives casts you as Cuddles Nutterbutter, a private eye whose concerns include murder, rival crime dynasties, and persistent jokes about the size of his paws. A police job that should be routine spirals into a conspiracy involving the influential Montameeuw and Catulet families, giving the story a playful noir structure beneath its relentlessly feline humor. The mood is light, clever, and deliberately ridiculous rather than grim, but the central case still gives the investigation genuine momentum.

Most of the action follows classic point-and-click adventure rules: roam hand-drawn locations, inspect scenery, collect useful clues, speak to suspects, and connect the odd details that move the case forward. Cuddles can poke at objects, converse with nearly everyone, and—most distinctively—lick the environment with his “wits tongue,” often producing clues, reactions, or thoroughly unhelpful flavor commentary. Control also shifts to Tabby Marshmallow, Cuddles’s capable assistant, whose viewpoint opens different conversations and puzzle solutions. Puzzles lean on observation, inventory use, character knowledge, and comedic logic rather than twitch reflexes, while the design aims to make even its trickier challenges feel solvable without random guessing.

Over eighty illustrated screens make the city feel like a proper detective playground, from crime scenes and police offices to strange local landmarks such as its colossal yarn attraction. The extensive fully voiced script carries much of the appeal, with a large cast of eccentric citizens, gangsters, officials, and suspects constantly feeding the investigation fresh jokes and leads. Its humor lands closer to a cartoon Raymond Chandler filtered through a cat-obsessed adventure game than a conventional visual novel, while the two-protagonist structure keeps the investigation from becoming static. Fans of classic LucasArts-style puzzling, modern comedic adventures, and dialogue-heavy mysteries find plenty to enjoy, especially if they value personality and wordplay over action.