Game: Little Kitty, Big City
Genre: Adventure, Simulation
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on available Steam (Windows) and Xbox)
Developer | Publisher: Double Dagger Studio
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3+
Price: US $24.99 | UK £22.49 | EU € 24,99
Release Date: May 9th, 2024
A review code was used, with many thanks to popagenda PR.
I first saw the teaser trailer for Little Kitty, Big City, a couple of years ago on the Wholesome Snack in November 2021, and I immediately fell in love with the cheeky, black kitten that appeared on my screen.
Little Kitty, Big City is the debut game for independent developers Double Dagger Studio, and I’m keen to see if the game will land on its feet or will use up its nine lives and be a cat-astrophe!
Little Kitty’s Nap in a Big City
Little Kitty, Big City opens with a cut scene: High above the city, our little kitten is having a nap. And, at the end of all good naps, you need a good long stretch. Unfortunately, this time, the little cat stretches just too much and starts to slide off the ledge. And after a rather dramatic fall, the black cat lands, feet first, in a trash can. So our adventure starts with the objective of getting back home!
The first resident the curious kitten encounters is a crow, who offers a fish in exchange for ‘shinies’. The fish will help boost the cat’s climbing ability, essential for climbing back to their ledge and ‘shinies’ are small glittery items, things like nails, bottle caps or paper clips. The crow explains that ‘shinies’ can be found all over the city, in bushes or on ledges, even under traffic cones. This is a large hint to look under the three cones which are nearby! Although 25 seems a rather large number for an opening quest, they are relatively easy to find and recycling drink cans will also help.
Little Kitty, Big City Cat-chievements
As you start to look around for ‘shinies’, you find other tasks and quests to complete. For example, find the cat napping spots, round up the ducklings, or even investigate the dumpsters. There are lots and lots of things to do around the Little Kitty, Big City world. One thing which could be deemed distressing is catching (and releasing) 20 birds. The birds escape with the loss of a single feather (needed for another quest), but the slo-mo clip of the pounce is excellent.
Looking Good in the Big City with Little Kitty Hats
Once you’ve handed over the 25 ‘shinies’ to the crow, you might think collecting more is pointless. But no! Firstly, there is a quest to collect 200, but more importantly, you can exchange ‘shinies’ for hats at the various pod machines found around the city.
Where’s what in Little Kitty, Big City?
One of the things I like in games (apart from having achievements) is a map. I can while away hours planning a route, hunting for secrets or admiring the beauty of a map, especially in something like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. So I was rather disappointed when I started Little Kitty, Big City, that there was no map of the Big City.
But thankfully, my dismay was short-lived. As soon as I met the duck, I was given the delightful sketch that the ducklings had drawn – it even marks the all-important fish. It only shows the locations you have visited, so it fills out as you explore more of the city. The little cat’s house is marked, as well, as the teleporting drains – oh yes, there is fast travel in Little Kitty, Big City.
Little Kitty, Big City Gameplay
Little Kitty, Big City introduces the controls gradually, and although they are intuitive, it would have been good to have a summary in the options menu. In addition to audio, camera sensitivity, and field of view settings, you can also increase the size of the dialogue text. I found the text readable without altering, even on the small Nintendo Switch Lite screen, but it’s definitely a welcome addition to the accessibility settings.
The game ran smoothly, apart from one incident of getting stuck in a pipe, forcing a reload of the game and one occasion of getting stuck in slo-mo. Occasionally, the camera would stay on the wrong side of the wall, so your view was obscured, but that was easily rectified by rotating the camera around. The only frustration in my 8 hours of playing was that I got too close to a wall to crawl under. Thinking it was blocked, I spent half an hour or more wandering around, trying to work out where the exit was. I came back to the crawl hole and, starting from further back, tried again, and this time it worked.
Little Kitty, Big City autosaves at appropriate points, but there is also a manual save, and apart from mid-conversation, you can save and exit when needed. There are three game save slots, so you can have multiple explorations if you want.
There is no time of day, but the graphic of the kitten waking up when you reload the game is a really nice touch. Depending on how much collecting and quest completing you want to do, Little Kitty, Big City can last from around 2 hours to 10 hours.
Conclusion
A round of ap-paws for Little Kitty, Big City. It’s the purr-fect offering of adventure, humour and collecting. There is the fun of exploring the big city and puzzling out how to get to different areas. The entertaining conversations with the various residents, coupled with the amusing actions of the adorable kitten. The plethora of quests and collectables will keep you busy for several hours.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up 
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