The Battle Cats is a mobile tower defense game developed by PONOS, first released in Japan in 2011 before its worldwide launch in 2014. Players spend energy to deploy an army of increasingly strange cat units against enemy bases, with the simple basic Cat as the most recognisable fighter. Its short meow became a familiar part of attacks and deployments, then moved beyond gameplay into fan edits, streams and meme videos. Players still search for it as a clean, standalone cue that identifies the game in under two seconds.