Little Kitty, Big City is cute but lacks in one key area
Little Kitty, Big City is cute, no denying that. As the title of the game implies, you play as a small and adorably animated black cat who must find their way back home in a Japan-inspired city.
While you can complete this objective in just a couple of hours, you're encouraged to deviate from the main path and embrace the game's sandbox environment, doing everything from climbing onto balconies and rooftops to being a nuisance to pedestrians.
You're rewarded for exploration. Rummage through dustbins to find shiny trinkets, or stumble across a hidden opening to unlock a new hat to wear. You also meet other – and overly chatty, it must be said – animal characters along the way who you can complete short quests for.
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The game carries a particular breezy tone. There isn't anything that difficult – very few objectives here provide any sort of challenge – but that is the intent. It's meant to be a warm and cosy experience, the sort of game that you can sit back and switch your brain off for.
Progress is gated in less than subtle ways. Your cat refuses to walk through water puddles, and there is a funny amount of them conveniently blocking potential paths ahead. Some streets are initially blocked off by dogs that will aggressively bark at you if you get too close.
There's a stamina meter for climbing ivy as well, which can be upgraded through finding and consuming fish – a key part in your quest to return home.
In fact, there's a fair bit of platforming, which isn't a surprise considering its open-world setting and the verticality of some of the exploration, but it also isn't one of the game's strengths.
The kitty isn't the most elegant to control. An occasionally awkward camera doesn't help, but the cat itself also doesn't feel as agile as it could be. The jumping is one aspect that may take some getting used to for some players, requiring you to stop and aim where you're leaping to. It's a finicky mechanic, and if you're not patient enough and you're just a little bit off, you might find yourself accidentally stumbling off the edge.
Perhaps what holds back the game the most is the world itself lacking personality.
The world lends itself to exploration and discovery well enough from a mechanical perspective, but the character of the neighbourhood at the centre of the feline's journey isn't at the same level and is rather dull.
The pedestrians behave in a predictable manner, the animals you befriend aren't interesting, and while there are some fun interactions, the reactivity of the world is quite limited.
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And that's a shame, because there is enjoyment to be found with the game. You can complete it in an afternoon and it wouldn't feel like a waste of time. The strength of the exploration – our quibbles with the controls aside – and the charming art style both help to somewhat mask its main shortcoming.
However, the struggle to portray a vivid world and a sense of place results in the game failing to make much of an emotive impact. Once the credits rolled, there was very little about the experience that stuck with us.
Platform reviewed on: PC
Little Kitty, Big City is out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Game Pass.
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