Mewgenics' many intros are inspired by The Simpsons

Which weird cat experiment will you get?

I am an admittedly impatient person, a serial “skip intro” spammer who frequently stops her microwave before it’s finished. So, after I’d seen the Mewgenics intro once, I figured I’d gotten the gist and would skip it every time I started up the game — I was eager to keep breeding my cat army! It turns out, I’m not only impatient but oblivious as well, because in doing so, I was missing out on one of the game's most elaborate jokes.

Edmund McMillen, one half of the two-man development team behind Mewgenics alongside Tyler Glaiel, has teased that the game has secrets that will take "months or years" to uncover, but this one is arguably one of the easiest to discover (unless you're me). McMillen spoke about the variance in intro animations in a recent OneyPlays video, citing inspiration from the ever-changing couch gags on The Simpsons. McMillen recalls Glaiel telling him, "No one's going to know, and they're never gonna watch it a second time," which did make me feel a bit more validated in my skipping.

The main element that changes in each intro animation is the result of the cat experiment taking place — perhaps the cat turns out veiny and buff, or takes on the appearance of Spewer, a reference to a Newgrounds game from McMillen's past — but other subtle changes will happen as well. "I randomized like everything else, too," he says, and that variance can be seen even in the two intros featured in the video. The character behind the experiment changes, for example, as does the contents of scientist Doctor Beanies' pocket.

With all these variables, McMillen estimates there are about 200 different animations players can see during the game's intro. I decided to run through a few myself just to see what I'd been missing, and I was absolutely not disappointed. In some, the tombstones at the start had graffiti, in others they were clean; Beanies' pocket went from full of pens to housing a kitten; I saw a cat made of stone, and another that was straight up turned into a dog. Suffice it to say, I will never be skipping the Mewgenics opening animation ever again.

It's only fitting that something as small as an intro animation still received incredible care to detail in Mewgenics, a game that's received widespread critical praise for its seemingly endless combat depth. The game has had a very long development cycle, first announced in 2012 as a project with Team Meat, canceled in 2016, then revived in 2018 by McMillen and Glaiel. McMillen has stated that he believes Mewgenics is his best game to date, and it's clear to anyone who plays it that the duo has poured their hearts and souls into the title — these intros are just the icing on the cake.