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Reviewed On: Xbox Series X (Through Xbox Game Pass)
Also Available On: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC
Price: $24.99 USD
Developer: Double Dagger Studios
Publisher: Double Dagger Studios
Release Date: May 9th, 2024
Being an adult can be very hard. You have bills, kids, work, school, and life in general can get in the way of relaxing, sleeping, eating, and just having fun. Being a pet seems like it is an easy life, but I sometimes wonder if that is actually really true. Well, it may not be a perfect representation of being a domesticated animal, but there games where you play as a dog, cat, or other animal. One of the latest that came out last week was Little Kitty, Big City from Double Dagger Studios. The game came out on GamePass and I have been wanting to play this game for the longest time, and I was very happy when I played it… for the most part.
The story was a cute but basic concept that was executed well without overstaying its welcome. The cat was stretching in its favorite nap spot, on a window sill outside of their human’s apartment, and unfortunately they ended up falling off the multi-story building and became lost in the city below. Obviously, this wasn’t their intention and the goal of the story is to get back home by using their cat reflexes and climbing skills Throughout the story you will meet many humans and a cast of other cats, dogs, birds, and more that will both help you with your adventure but also want things in return. The story, along with side stories that you can come across, isn’t all that exciting or brand new in games, but it was definitely cute and fun.
Gameplay means a lot to me for playing a game without much of a story. Thankfully, the gameplay in Little Kitty, Big City oozes charm and fun as a whole, with very occasional moments of feeling repetition. You need to get back to your house so you need to gain energy in order to climb that high. To get the energy, you must eat fish that can be found by hunting for shiny objects (currency in the game) and stealing them from stores or people throughout the city. You can run, jump, pounce, swat, and other cat like movements in order to complete the objectives that are in the game. Throughout the city, there are collectables to find including new costumes that you can wear to show how adorable the cat is. I found that I liked a lot of them, but there could have been cooler designs than a couple of the ones that were there. I will say, some of the easter eggs that are available in the game is actually terrific and funny beyond belief. Mario Kart reference anyone…
There are other missions and tasks you can do to pass the time while playing as a cat in the streets, and while most of them are fun, some of them are unfortunately the repetitive fetch quests found in a lot of games. They aren’t asking for the same items, but they felt too similar to one another sometimes. One of the missions require you to get a phone from a human to a bird assistant. Another asks you to get a bagel from a human to another cat. Very similar kinds of missions, but they navigate the line well enough to have them feel different at the same time. These are optional, but to get a full look at the world, it is nice to do them all.
Thankfully, there are achievements that feel unique including diving in trash cans, or giving the three dogs bones in the world, or walking through the wet cement in the construction site, among many others. There are also other things throughout the world which make it all feel alive such as finding cat nap spots, riddles to find a hiding chameleon, and more. Missions do wear out its fun after a while unfortunately, but I finished everything in 6 hours. I think that is the perfect amount of time for this adventure.
Unfortunately, I think the overall music and audio design was semi-forgettable in my eyes. There are moments where the world absolutely feel alive with things like humans walking around the streets, objects around the world, the crow and animals making accurate sound effects, and more but it also kind of feels basic also. I don’t think it is like stock sound effects, but there are moments where it just doesn’t leave a big impression when you wrap everything up in the game. The music was overall lacking too without much there. It could be intentional for the setting or for the kind of game they were going with, but I had to put on background noise when completing some of the optional objectives as it got repetitive for listening to the same sounds I have heard multiple times before.
The art isn’t the most realistic I have seen in video games before, but the game definitely looks like a lot of polish went into the art design the team created. I feel like there are some AAA that push the aspect of graphics and fidelity to realism where they might seem like real life, but if you create visuals at a somewhat lower level of detail, it will still look beautiful if the game was crafted correctly. This is a perfect example of this kind of situation. The water may not have reflections, there may not be perfect lighting across the board, ray-tracing might be minimal to none, but to me when games over push that compared to reducing the overall fun in a game, it somewhat loses the value of those bells and whistles. The graphics and artistic style as a whole just ooze fun and happiness, which is an overall aspect apparent throughout the game.
There are a few issues that I personally encountered with the game. They weren’t game breaking or things that made me stop playing this game, but definitely issues that I wish weren’t there in the first place. The first issue was there was a couple of achievements seemed bugged for me. One of them that I remember trying to figure out was making a human trip over a banana… yes that is a real achievement for this game. I kept trying to make it happen, but no matter what I did, nothing worked. Eventually I had to know what was happening, so I used Google and found it wasn’t just me. Restarting the game worked for others, so I tried it and it worked for me. The second, and smaller, issue was on a rare occurrence when I pressed the jump button the cat would do something else that I didn’t tell it to. Not sure what the cause of it, but I kind of chalked it up to an idea. It could have been if those input inaccuracies were purposeful from the game developers, as cats typically cannot be commanded to do tasks (at least mine usually cannot be without treats). Maybe that is just me thinking that, but it would be a cool reasoning behind it, albeit maybe annoying to the player overall.
Playing as a cat in a video game has been done before, but not in the way that it was done here. There were simplistic puzzles to solve in this game, lots of platforming, some side quests, and fun activities to complete that lasted the correct amount of time. Even if there are a few issues with the semi-bland side missions and annoying bugs, I believe the studio did a terrific job; especially since this appears to be their first game. I played the game through GamePass, but if they ever decided to partner with a physical game producer, i.e. Limited Run, iam8bit, I would be grabbing a physical copy of this game as it was so well done. I think it would be a perfect addition to someone’s collection to play when they need to be cheered up if they were ever sad. I don’t think there is a way you can be sad when playing this game, and that is a great thing when complimenting a game where you play as a pretty creature.
Review Score: 8.5/10
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