Hot Barrel Cats — Merge Cats to Defend the Gate

Why it's Chromebook-friendly

The measured entry-referenced core is 0.4 MB. Native touch and mouse drags moved and merged matching-tier cats. The phone attempt ended with GATE FELL in wave three, while desktop completed Level 1 with WALL HELD, three stars, Gate 100% and 102 coins earned. In our throttled phone-sized test, the game loading screen was still visible at 30 seconds; the PLAY title screen was first captured at about 50 seconds. These captures do not measure exact interactive readiness. Later levels, cooling rules, saved progress and reward controls were not tested.

About Hot Barrel Cats

Drag two cats of the same level together to upgrade a unit in Hot Barrel Cats. Both tested boards merged two level-one cats into a single level-two cat. A second desktop merge joined two level-two cats and produced a level-three cat in a teal cap. The dragged cat's old slot became empty, making each change visible in the placement as well as the level label.

During touch play, a cat marked JAM moved from a wall slot into an empty spawn slot before merging. That attempt ended with GATE FELL in the third wave; a later attempt to put the upgraded cat back did not move it. Desktop reached WALL HELD at the end of Level 1, with three stars, Gate 100% and 102 coins earned. Touch and mouse drags both worked, but the two sessions had different outcomes.

The phone-sized startup screenshots do not measure exact readiness: the loading screen remained visible at 30 seconds, and PLAY was first captured at about 50 seconds under throttling. Allow for the opening wait before choosing your first move. Later levels, cooling rules, saved progress and the reward controls were not tested.

Controls

Controls for Hot Barrel Cats
Action	Desktop	Mobile
Move a cat between visible wall and spawn slots, or drop it on a matching-tier cat to merge.	Drag with the mouse.	Drag with a finger.

Playtest screenshots

Swipe or scroll to see all 3

Hot Barrel Cats mobile wall and spawn slots after two tier-1 cats merged into tier 2 — After the second native mobile drag, the right wall was empty and a tier-2 cat occupied the middle spawn slot.

Hot Barrel Cats desktop wall with a tier-3 cat after the second merge — The second desktop drag merged the two tier-2 cats into a tier-3 cat on the right wall; the spawn slot was empty.

Hot Barrel Cats Level 1 WALL HELD result with three stars and gate at 100 percent — The recorded desktop Level 1 ended with WALL HELD, three gold stars, Gate 100% - 75s, and Coins earned 102.