It’s never been a better time to be a cat person and want to play as one of those mischievous furballs in a video game, and Little Kitty Big City might have captured the essence of being a cat perfectly.
Little Kitty, Big City
Developer: Double Dagger Studio
Price: $24.99
Platform: PC / Switch / Xbox
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
Little Kitty Big City sees you step into the paws of an adorable black cat with the biggest green eyes you’ve ever seen, and true to being a cat, they get in trouble almost immediately. Your cat starts off lounging peacefully on their owner’s window, only to end up tumbling down to the city streets, too hungry to have the strength to climb back up. Soon after, you meet an entrepreneurial crow who offers you fish as a means to recover your strength, and therein lies the path to reaching your goal of returning home. But the city is full of things to explore, so maybe returning home can wait a bit?
Little Kitty Big City tosses into this decently sized open-world city, and while you can totally mainline getting the fish and heading home, there’s a few distractions that are worth pulling your attention towards. You’ll be able to meet a variety of animals who need your help from other cats to ducks and a chameleon. All of their requests lead to cute, often hilarious results that complement the game’s relaxed attitude and they all feature fairly unique objectives. The chameleon for example sees you playing hide and seek with him, while the duck will ask you to find his ducklings who are distracted in various locations like an arcade. Most of these quests will require solving some sort of puzzle, whose solution is usually immediately obvious, but considering the vibe of the game I didn’t mind it too much. I’m not playing this game to wrack my head against a difficult puzzle, I just want to have fun and help this dog find his tennis balls.
While perhaps not particularly large compared to most games, being cat-sized makes the game’s relatively small city area feel a lot larger than it is. As your cat, you’ll be able to jump and climb your way up buildings to reach some gorgeous heights. You might discover a new quest, a slew of “shinies” that you can exchange to crows at capsule machines for hats, or maybe just a cozy napping spot for your cat. Each new fish you eat adds to your cat’s Breath of the Wild style stamina meter, allowing you to reach greater heights, which leads to the game’s singular issue: wonky jumping controls. You can tap a button to simply jump, or you can hold it down for a “precision jump” that will allow you to aim your jump with an arch showing where you’ll land. Most of the time, this works fine; other times your cat will refuse to auto-mantle onto a ledge or maybe you aimed to jump on something you’re not meant to and both results end with you falling back to the city streets. It usually doesn’t take long to get back to where you started, but it can make some parts of the map a little frustrating as it requires tighter controls that the game doesn’t have.
Iffy platforming aside, reveling in cat mischief is incredibly cathartic, as you can climb up balconies to knock over potted plants and watch them shatter, or trip up pedestrians and run off with their phones or lunch. You’ll also be able to dress your cat up in a variety of adorable hats, from a watermelon head to a wizard hat, which are found scattered around the game’s world or collected randomly through the various capsule machines you can find in the city. It’s a great way to encourage you to explore every inch of the city to see what new hat you might find. This is a game that was made by a person who loves and understands cats, and it’s apparent in every aspect of the game.
The Final Word
Little Kitty Big City is the perfect way to spend a cozy afternoon with a game tailormade for cat lovers.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
