Meet Mittens, Disney’s new physics-based puzzler

Who would have thought Disney Interactive would ever produce a smash hit for the iPhone? Seemingly against all odds, that’s exactly what the company has accomplished with its charming puzzler, Where’s My Water? (free, $0.99 universal). The game knocked Rovio’s Angry Birds off the top spot on the App Store’s list of paid apps just 24 hours following its release and ratcheted up a million downloads in its first month of release, enough to score an Apple Design Award for iPhone apps.

Where’s My Water? was also Apple’s 25 billionth app download and was featured in a free download promotion. Disney, of course, wasted no time building a merchandising business around the game. But that was 2012. Now in 2013, Disney is looking to replicate its success with a brand new physics-based puzzler involving kittens and aptly named Mittens. Have a look at the official trailer and jump past the fold for additional info…

The premise of the game is simple and involves guiding a kitten to his lost red balloon.

If the trailer is anything to go by, your kitten can jump over obstacles and manipulate in-game objects in a fashion mildly similar to Rovio’s Amazing Alex puzzler, though Mittens appears to be more simplified in that regard.

Games.com has more:

Mittens’ adventure will take it through a variety of environments, from a construction yard and circus tent to a dark and spooky cave.

Each level looks to be filled with other interactive animals like birds that will carry Mittens over large distances, sometimes helping Mittens claim a shiny gem that might otherwise be too high to reach.

Disney has provided little by way of detail except for saying the game is “coming soon.”

With graphics and animations looking top notch, we’re indeed very much looking forward to this one.

The Mickey Mouse house is betting that exploiting both the cat meme and the wild popularity of physics-based games on iOS, coupled with its omnipresent brand and lovingly cute characters, will be sufficient to push Mittens atop the App Store rankings.

We’ll see about that when the game lands on our home screens.

Be that as it may, looks like Disney might be onto something here, no?