In my opinion, video games should be divided into two categories: games including cats and games lacking them. The former is one of the easiest ways to convince players (like myself) to check out a game like Little Kitty, Big City. You play as the cutest cat, but somehow it gets even better: you can make him wear adorable hats.
There is nothing serious about Little Kitty, Big City and that is the best part about this game. It starts with our little furry friend taking a nap outside a window and then accidentally falling down the building. Don’t worry, he doesn’t get hurt. Being a house cat, Kitty gets lost in the city and wants to go back home. By exploring the city, meeting and helping stray animals, and collecting new fashionable hats, Kitty begins his adventure.
Traversal is the main gameplay mechanic in Little Kitty. By crawling through crevices or jumping across narrow pathways, no high ground or area is impossible to reach as a cat. I did find it challenging to climb to certain buildings or get to a locked area to pick up a collectible, but exploring for a few minutes did the trick of finding a reachable path. And most important for clumsy players like me, there is no fall damage, so you can explore the city unworried as nothing can harm Kitty. Well, except for water puddles.
The game gives you multiple objectives the more you explore the city. These objectives can be completed within your own pace or in any order. Initially, the game gave me simple tasks to follow that didn’t take much time to complete. Once finishing a certain objective like eating fish food, Kitty gains additional stamina and the ability to climb vines, opening up new paths. There are four fish to be eaten that increase Kitty’s stamina bar to climb higher. Find them is necessary as they ultimately help Kitty in gaining the traversal ability to reach home.
Like Untitled Goose Game, Little Kitty, Big City is filled with mischief and a lot of heart. Chaos comes with being a cat, and Kitty is no different. While exploring, you can terrorize humans by tripping them, stealing their food, jumping into trash cans and boxes, and also breaking things throughout the city. By stealthily pouncing on birds with the right timing, Kitty can also collect feathers, which can be later used to fast travel across the city.
Collectibles called “Shinies” –more or less in-game currency used to purchase adorable hats — are scattered about the city. There are around 42 hats to collect in all and each of them are so adorable that I had to keep switching between them every five minutes. Though most of the time I preferred to wear the top hat, I was torn between the equally delightful cowboy hat and witch hat.
A big city is not without stray animals, and this is seen in Little Kitty, Big City. Kitty gets to meet and interact with a lot of animals who are in need of help. These side quests were fun to do and they mostly involved simple tasks like fetching, breaking, or stealing something. These quests are purely optional, but I didn’t want to miss them because they helped with the exploration part and granted rewards like a hat or a cat emote. One important side quest gave me a map, which later can be useful to explore the city to find certain things like fish food. The dialogues, though without voice acting, felt witty and light-hearted.
My time with Little Kitty, Big City, though short at about six hours, was wholly entertaining. This cozy cat game is simple yet wholesome, offering players a break from their busy lives. Very rare are games these days that focus less on structure and more on just being carefree. And what better way to do that in a game where you play as a hat-wearing cat?
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