Little Kitty Big City – Review

When Little Kitty, Big City first got announced it created quite the buzz around the TYG bullpen. A new “cat sim” game always gets attention around these parts and with it dropping on Game Pass I decided to give it a whirl.

You play as an adorable black kitty who, whilst sun-napping on a window sill, falls from their high-rise apartment into the streets below. Not knowing anything of the outside world or being away from “their human” they must learn to navigate the city and make friends with the local animal population.

Little Kitty starts simply enough with the first few gardens acting as a linear tutorial. Here you learn some of your basic abilities and what you can and can’t cross, water acting as a natural barrier.

When you reach the main area is where the game opens up. You meet with the crow who you “bumped” into on your descent and they suggest climbing back up to your home. To gain the stamina to achieve this you must eat many fish scattered across the city.

That is kitty’s ultimate goal but how you get there is completely up to you. There is no time limit and there is plenty to do otherwise – collectables are plentiful in this city.

The city itself is a sandbox which is at first cordoned off by natural barriers and yapping dogs. You meet plenty of other animals who are happy to help and teach you new abilities and you get a checklist of quests and “cat-cheivements” to unlock – some of them secret.

Oh and hats, lots of hats for kitty to wear.

Yes, this game is hecking wholesome. From the colourful cartoony graphics to the bubbly dialogue and the friendly characters Little Kitty was a joy to play. I think the most conflict was when you and a Shiba were comparing who was the snuggliest potato.

The animations are very fluid and believable and the many emotes and interactables make the world feel alive. Kitty can pounce, sneak, mantle and cat-spread out for naps in the most charming of ways. Even the faceless human pedestrians manage to portray personality.

The pacing feels good as well, a prime example was when I felt like I needed a map after making some progress, I spoke to someone who gave me a map. Playing Little Kitty I find myself comparing it to the likes of Goat Simulator or Untitled Goose Game with its non-linear approach and sometimes multiple solutions. With no voice acting we are left with simple meows and purrs for dialogue, but there is a nice relaxing jazz soundtrack which plays in the background helping give Little Kitty a cosy vibe.

Little Kitty was so adorable I was able to forgive a few niggles I had. While the “city” had a suburban Japanese feel, it wasn’t so much a city as it was a small borough. Yes, it had different sections for residential, cultural and commerce but it was around 4 x 4 streets, definitely not large enough to require the fast travel system (I’m pretty sure that there were situations where it was faster to walk than wait for the loading). There is also a plot reason as to why there is no traffic outside of the parked cars so there’s no navigating busy roads.

I had a few bugs as well. More than once I had to reset due to the kitty’s animation just freezing or becoming unresponsive. Once I found myself walking on solid air and clipping through walls. However, at the time of writing, there have been patches downloading, so the developers are still supporting the title.

However, my biggest bugbear was that after a while I had eaten the required number of fish to climb back up to the apartment. Being curious I tried to attempt it and succeeded, seeing credits at the two-and-a-half-hour timestamp. This wasn’t a big thing in itself as I still had quests and collectables to complete. Looking at the map I thought I had seen only half the city but after exploring after the credits (which I was able to do), I discovered that the map was deceptively drawn and what looked like other areas were just flourish.

After another couple of hours I had completed every quest, got all hats and achieved most of the checklist with one or two things I just couldn’t find and secret achievements I couldn’t work out. Yeah, I could have looked up a guide but what was the point outside of completionism?

Clocking in at around four hours I had seen everything Little Kitty had to offer and yeah I know, the length of a game is subjective, but what isn’t is the price. You see Little Kitty at launch is around £20 (or regional equivalent) and for a game that is four hours that’s too high of a price point for me. Your mileage may vary, however. You may want this for a younger audience or maybe want to play this on a handheld on the bus. Maybe you just love the little kitty sooo much that you are willing to pay that, but not me.

At the end of the day, yes, it’s a fun cosy game well worth your time and attention, and you will enjoy your time with it. If you are willing to pay the price of entry it’s a 100%, 10/10 recommendation from me. For everyone else, maybe wait for a sale.