I have had a black cat for many years now and her behavior has always puzzled me. After feeling the need to pointlessly jump inside every single cardboard box in 'Little Kitty, Big City' I looked over at my cat and thought 'I finally understand you'. 'Little Kitty, Big City' by Double Dagger studio is not only a PURfect cat simulator, but also a beautiful and addictive game. Although there was the occasional technical issue, overall I think this may be my favourite cozy game.
I played the game on the Nintendo Switch, because it seems like the perfect game to have on the go in the future, but it is available on the PC and Xbox Series X and S. It has been developed by the indie studio 'Double Dagger' and this is their first game, which is mind blowing because it is excellent!
The first thing that stood out to me during the game's opening was how much attention to detail there is in the cat's animation. The cat moved and acted so realistic that my own cat kept going over to the TV to try and play with their new friend. Here are a few random cat things you can do just because you're a cat, you can chase your own tail, nap, nudge up against strangers, clean yourself, make muffins, and many, many more things that are so accurate to how a cat acts. I cannot even begin to imagine how long the developers spent watching cats to make this game, but it paid off. Maybe it is because I am a cat lover, so I am biased, but I instantly fell in love with the little fur ball and wanted to help them cause as much chaos as possible! Honestly if you have a cat, get this game, because my cat spent the entire time glued to the TV watching the game, it was adorable! This game really does make you feel like a cat, it rewards curiosity in a fun way and gives you collectibles for exploring, in the form of cute hats.
The game play is straight forward, you are a kitty lost in a city trying to get home. The goal of the game is to become strong enough to make the HUGE climb back up to your apartment and to your human! The way you do this is by completing tasks around the city to earn fish, every fish you eat gives you more stamina so that you can climb for longer. Now the climbing is something that caught me by surprise, it is straight up the 'Breath of the Wild' style of climbing. You scale ivy that goes up walls and have a stamina meter, when the meter runs out, you fall. It almost felt a little Metroid-vania seeing ivy going up a wall and knowing that when I have leveled up I can come back and climb to get to a new area.
The game also needs to be complimented for its sense of humour. There are characters spread around the map and they all have quirky and fun personalities. I particularly liked the writing of a chameleon who considers himself a magician but has lost his ability to camouflage. Also the humour of being able to trip random people in the street so they fall flat on their face never gets old! I laughed out loud several times during this game and I found myself excited every time I met a new character because I knew it was going to be a funny interaction. Also the cat is scared of cucumbers and I love that!
The music has a smooth jazz feel, which really added to the cozy gaming vibe. Although the mix was sometimes a little unbalanced and I would find that certain noises, such as a random bird chirping, would be so much louder than everything else for some strange reason. But they really did nail the little noises cats make and the other characters squawk and squeak similar to the residents of 'Animal Crossing', which again added to the comedy.
The game took me around 4 hours to complete but there was still some loose ends to tie up after completing the main quest and side quests. It wants you to take your time, jump in cardboard boxes, catch birds and of course, collect hats. Speaking of the hats, these might be my favourite collectibles I have seen in a video game in a while. They are so cute and each time I unlocked a new one I would let out a noise of child-like glee seeing what it was going to be! The challenges are also fun to complete, these might be small things like hide in 5 cardboard boxes or smash 100 things, but they give you things to do as you explore. Even though I have finished this game, I will 100% play through this several times, it is a great for if you are stressed and need to escape into a cute, fun world and complete some easy tasks.
'Little Kitty, Big City' is not without it's flaws though. I experienced a few glitches whilst playing, most of them were minor and did not affect the game too much, but there was one in particular that I found annoying. The main glitch that happened was that I was supposed to steal a fish from someone but couldn't. I spent around 45 minutes trying to work out what I was supposed to be doing and felt like an idiot. Then I reset the console and tried again and realised that the character had just been glitching before and now that they were no longer glitching, what I was supposed to do became fairly obvious. I will say though I enjoyed this game so much that every time there was a glitch I was a little gutted for them, because of how much attention to detail went into making this game. I would in no way use this as a reason not to buy the game.
Now before I wrap up the review, I asked my cat what they thought and here is a short extract from their review (Legitimately there is a FULL REVIEW from my cats perspective on my blog as well, check it out!)
"Firstly I must say I was excited to see black cats represented in a positive way for once in any form of media. We have spent decades trying to get away from the negative stereotypes originally perpetuated by the witch hysteria that began in Europe in the 1400s. Although we were often seen appearing alongside witches, we do not condone their behavior and were unaware of there actions on account of the fact that we are cats. The stigma that we are 'unlucky' is both defamation AND slander and is extremely hurtful. Here are some examples of negative black cat representation that have really damaged our image to the public: Cat Woman, Sylvester (Looney Toons), Lucifer (Cinderella), Snowball II (The Simpsons) and of course Black Cat (the Spider-man villain). Although there has been the occasional positive representation, it has been a drop in the ocean. "
My final thoughts are that 'Little Kitty, Big City' is such a perfect cozy game that will make you laugh and genuinely just feel better about the world. Although there was the occasional technical drawback, it did not distract from just how fun and addictive this game is to play. If you are looking for a reasonably priced, shorter indie game, this one is a great option! The animation is beautiful, the music is great and the game play is addictive. I can confidently say this is a wonderfully special game and I am extremely excited to see what Double Dagger have in store for us going forward. My score is an 8 out of 10.
Let me know if you are going to play it! And what other indie games you are excited for. Comment below!
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