Little Kitty, Big City puts players behind the paws (and toe beans) of an adorable black cat in a city reminiscent of Tokyo’s residential areas. After falling high from the comfort of their home’s window, the unnamed feline finds itself on the city’s streets below. With one thing on their mind – returning home to the perfect spot for a nap – this cat goes on its biggest adventure yet. Admittedly, Little Kitty, Bit City didn’t need to do much to impress me. I love cats, and it immediately nails why I and other cat lovers enjoy these furry friends. But developer Double Dagger Studio also created a cute and funny exploration of our world through a cat’s eyes that doubles as a delightful puzzle game.
Immediately, Little Kitty, Big City is brought to life with a visual style that sits somewhere between traditional animation and anime, enveloping the entire three-hour experience like a warm blanket. Controlling the titular cat is a joy, too, thanks to mechanics that only make sense in a game like this. This cat doesn’t sprint – holding LB on the Xbox controller unleashes their “zoomies.” The triggers swipe left and right, perfect for knocking that plant on the ledge to the ground. Holding the A button to jump allows you to aim the pounce, which is great for catching birds and reaching new heights, and holding Y opens a wheel of emotes for things like a “Biiiiig Stretch,” nap, a scary face, or something else. It felt like I’d discover some new endearing mechanic or collectible like wearable hats that reminded me of my own cat, Bonny, here at home every few minutes, and it kept me exploring the city beyond the golden path.
The mainline quest is just as enjoyable, too, as it brings you across various other animal characters like a duck who keeps losing their ducklings, a crow obsessed with shiny things, a dog who can’t find his favorite balls, an engineer tanuki messing with timelines and the physics of the world, and more. Between hilarious dialogue and the bite-sized quests each doled out, running into new friends and helping them out never felt like a chore. For the most part, completing these quests is simple: explore the area using clues or a map, find what’s needed, and bring it back. Sure, these are fetch quests, but none took more than 10 minutes, and because Little Kitty, Big City constantly encourages exploration, I always found new things that caught my eye along the way.
The overarching narrative is even more straightforward – get home. To do that, though, you must find and eat four fish spread across the city because each one gives you more energy to climb higher. Each fish builds on the last, unlocking additional climbing energy and, subsequently, new areas of the vertical city you haven’t visited in a satisfying, lightly Metroidvania-esque way. And after collecting all four, it’s time for your most treacherous climb yet. While I felt most frustrated with this final climb, largely because the climbing is finicky, slow, and imprecise, it’s also one of the most heartwarming moments of the game, thanks to reflective run-ins with everyone you’ve met thus far.
Little Kitty, Big City could have easily over-relied on its cute cat, forgetting that controlling it and interacting with the world around it needs to be just as pleasant. Instead, a perfectly paced runtime, feline-forward mechanics, and engaging exploration coalesce into a reminder of why we love these animals so much in the first place.
