Little Kitty, Big City Review

The indie game adventure market always tries to evolve with new scenarios and settings to draw players in. In recent years, that focus has seemingly shifted to "cozy" games, as marketing unabashedly keeps repeating, and games based on animals. A few breakout hits have been Untitled Goose Game and Stray; the newly released Little Kitty, Big City feels like a combination of those two titles. This 3D adventure platformer looks the part, but finds itself a bit lacking in content and worthwhile gameplay.

As the name implies, the game follows a black cat that gets startled by a crow, and falls down from its apartment window. Finding itself on the ground level, players will have to assume the role of the kitty and navigate a small hub world, in order to eventually find a way back up to the apartment. Along the way, you will meet a couple of other animals, and have a few brief interactions with them. The game uses text boxes when the animals talk to each other, with some mildly humorous writing. It all feels quite surface level but is charming enough.

The streets feature a few small locations, such as a convenience store, a laundromat, parking spaces, and small playgrounds. The game world is inspired by Japan, as the street and building architectures are fairly unmistakable. Initially you can only run around a small area, with pools of water and dogs blocking your path. To leave the first area, you have to collect a specific number of shiny objects for the crow, who promises to guide you back to the apartment. After doing so, unsurprisingly, the crow ducks away from this arrangement, but at least allows you to explore the second half of the small hub world. Things are not really any different here; it's just a second small area to run around in. Some paths under walls and fences are blocked until you run around to the other side to pull the obstacle out of the way, but otherwise the exploration is rudimentary.

While pleasant to run around in, the map is somewhat dull and doesn't have much interaction. You can explore for a little while and find more shiny things, which act as a currency to unlock new hats for the cat. Or you can run around and try to complete all optional side quests – but there's little drive to do so. The game doesn't bother to try and dress this up or offer any sort of unique spin; you are just collecting things for the sake of it. The two main story quests, if they can be called that, are also just fetch quests. There is one quest that has you rounding up scattered ducklings, which requires exploring and reaching some new areas, but it's the only somewhat fully-fledged and involving gameplay scenario. Once you've completed the second story quest, you unlock enough energy to climb vines, which lets you reach a few optional areas as well as start the final climb back to the apartment.

While this is obviously an indie title and it is priced at $25, Little Kitty, Big City still feels rather short. The open nature of the hub world means you can see it all within an hour, and completing the main quests and reaching the apartment takes as little as two hours. You can artificially extend your time by perhaps another hour just to collect everything, but it still feels short on structured content and is over very quickly. You can randomly interact with the humans walking around, by letting them pet you or knocking them over and stealing their phone, but it lacks mischievous nature. There's nothing wrong with short well-paced and well-priced experiences, such as Minami Lane; nor is there fault with having more linear and more structured adventures like in Untitled Goose Game. But Little Kitty, Big City just doesn’t feel like it hits either of those targets.

Exploring the city as the kitty is also not much fun because of the somewhat stiff controls. Controlling the cat does not make you feel very agile, and there are frequent occasions where the third person camera got in the way or was awkwardly placed. And sure, as a game targeting fans of the felines, there are some aspects that make it cute - you can carry some random things around, you can perform various poses and stretches, you can sleep in a few spots for a cinematic camera view, and you can purr towards humans. But for the most part, when it comes to actually trying to accomplish something, it's not all that smooth. The game is also surprisingly a bit unpolished. Issues such as getting stuck, quests bugging out, and getting soft locked out of areas were experienced.

But at least the visuals are well executed for this type of experience. Using an art style that looks a bit like Untitled Goose Game, with soft edges and a pleasant color palette, this is an easygoing world to explore. It also runs well from a performance perspective, with a steady framerate and some decent visual options. Mouse and keyboard are supported, but a controller is a better fit here. The game is accompanied by the smooth, but expected, jazzy background music.

Little Kitty, Big City is a decent offering for younger players and those looking for an easy platforming adventure. It's charming to look at, and some of the dialogue is amusing; but the most of the structured content is a bit disappointing. Running around fetching things gets old fast, and so the whole adventure feels like it's over in barely no time at all. It's decently priced, but the somewhat awkward controls and slight lack of polish will probably prevent this title from entering the cultural zeitgeist like some of its contemporaries.