Like a lot of people, I played the incredible cat-driven adventure game Stray back in 2022, and also like a lot of people, I came away wishing that the whole game was just a simply, atmospheric cat simulator like the opening hours had been. I loved scratching trees and hopping across balconies, but as soon as the game introduced coloured keys and nuanced NPCs I lost interest. Little Kitty, Big City is a game that’s laser focused on delivering that wandering cat power fantasy I had been dreaming of.
There’s the tiniest bit of narrative framing for why you’re playing as a lost little kitty in a big city – an afternoon cat nap on the balcony of your high-rise apartment goes wrong when a barking dog startles you so badly that you take a tumble all the way down to the streets. You’ve never been outside before, so figuring out how to get back home is a big task, but it’s not one that I or the game was in a rush to complete.
The town you’re wandering through is an adorable pastiche of a busy Japanese neighbourhood – you’ve got salarymen and businesswomen rushing down the streets, birds fluttering around to sneak by and pounce at, plus plenty of endearing landmarks to wander into from a conbini to an arcade and even some unattended kitchens.
Little Kitty, Big City doesn’t quite have the open-world explorative vibes that I was hoping for, though – and it’s not quite as lived in or uniquely populated as something like Kamurocho from Yakuza. The vibes here are more akin to Untitled Goose Game in the sense that you’ve got a well realised small town you can navigate as you please, but there are so many blocked pathways or minor progression checks that it’s clear you’re more inclined to spend your time doing specific activities in certain locations. A bunch of the streets in town are covered in water puddles, and since cats hate water, you can’t bring yourself to get past them. At first they act as cute ways to naturally block off certain sections of town or prevent you from wandering out of the playable space without using invisible walls.
At a certain point, though, I just wanted to run – I wanted that sense of ambient, unguided movement you get when you swing around in Spider-Man just to see what happens – but with water puddles, barking dogs, and barely climbable ivy blocking so many sections of the map, I found my options for how & where to run were pretty limited, even after I beat the game. Thankfully, getting to that point was plenty charming, if a little too quick. I reached the credits of Little Kitty, Big City in just about 3 hours, and that’s with digging into a lot of optional objectives on my way there.
Despite the short length, I felt like all of the stuff I did was fun and silly enough to make up for it. I helped a mother duck find her lost children, I followed the instructions of a sleepy mayor cat to destroy glass jars in a store, and I distracted an angry water-hose-equipped gardener by shutting her hose off so I could sneak into the kitchen and steal a big fish. Some of your quests are simple environmental activities like “becoming an artist” by knocking over a painters paint-cans. Others are more task-driven quests given to you by talking animal NPCs hanging out in the town. I loved all of these characters, especially the neurotic magician chameleon who doesn’t know he isn’t invisible.
As much as I loved the characters though, part of me wishes the game was as much of a silent-yet-charming journey as Untitled Goose Game. Characters talk a lot in this game, and the tone of it all hovers between the vibe of a children’s cartoon and the toothless quips of a Facebook group about moms who love their gerbils. Every dialogue box felt like it was this close to having someone say “hecking epic doggo” or something – and while that never happened, I did find a shark-hat to wear with a description that was just a Baby Shark reference, which is arguably worse. On the subject of hats, Little Kitty, Big City has dozens of collectable cosmetics for your kitty that are very clearly called “hats” in-game – yet, after collecting almost 30 of them, I was beyond frustrated that practically every single one of them was just an animal or fruit-shaped bow-tied hoodie, and not actual hats. No more cat hoodies. Please.
Despite my issues with the corny dialogue and less-than-exciting cosmetics, I had a blast with Little Kitty, Big City. It’s a joy to explore the town and live out those feline fantasies – but bigger issues like clunky platforming controls and the limited scope of the town keep a good game from being truly great.
