Wait, didn't I play a cat game already, called Stray? No, this is set in a more peaceful environment, you know, where he gets to interact with other animals, do silly cat stuff, go on a suburban adventure. Healthy, wholesome animal titles like Untitled Goose Game, Goat Simulator, and so on.
And the other obvious part, it takes place somewhere in a template based Japanese town. Yes, that one is a Tanuki on the left. Little Kitty, Big City, despite the name, is actually quite a title with an adorable little black furball, who tumbled, and fell from their respective owner's flat. That place was several stories high, this little guy knew how to stick the landing still.
But his problems aren't over yet, he has to make deals, find his way around the streets while avoiding puddles of water, dogs, and opening up crawl spaces. Collecting sewing items to buy hats, I mean, why go back home? One of the animals can even teach basic algebra, for crying out loud.
Kitty was just sleeping by the balcony, a little too close to the edge, but he was sleeping warm and comfortably under his red blanket, then he started to slip a bit. And right then, soon as he woke up, he was holding to the edge with his bare paws before falling to a crow, who slings him elsewhere.
Not long after the fall, kitty recovers, only to end up in the downtrodden streets. No idea where he is, he pouts around, looking for help, climbing walls through various objects of reachable heights, here is where I learned the trick of playing as a seemingly clueless cat.
After finding the crow, we are well on our way to start our journey by first stumbling onto the residential of the area. This is by choice, though. I've helped out someone paint using my paws, and just tumbling a bucket full of paint on the canvas set on the garden grounds. At this point, it was by design placed to fulfill a silly achievement and give our cat some pats.
Cute moment, but there was nothing else in the area, so to find the crow and follow his lead. Around here is where I've noticed the animation quality is pretty great, mostly when it looks more focused on kitty and the other animals. Everything else is just backdrop cell-shaded asset from UK kids shows.
The experience of having him jump over, walking on ledges is kind of finicky due to weird collision detection. Whenever he jumps, especially holding the button for long coordinated ones, he misses at times. So that can be a little irritating at best. The physics here isn't clear either.
But this is a 2GB game, doesn't even need a beefy PC to run. It ran butter smooth, even with the small visual glitches here and there. The real fun starts when I find the Tanuki, yes, that Tanuki, and she happens to be an expert in quantum physics, and created a manhole portal system to travel across the city. But couldn't get out of a concrete hole she got stuck in.
This isn't for free, and requires bird feathers from these small blue ones, you've seen a cat trying to catch a bird before. It requires a delicate touch like stalking, timing approach, and then making the move soon as possible. The game then runs in slow motion around the moment of capture.
What else? Can the cat run around chasing his tail? Yep. Bump onto people? Definitely. Helping a beetle steal another phone so that he can serve his cat mistress by spreading her online influence? Don't get a choice on that, in order to progress the main story.
And it's not that hard. Some of these tasks the animals give teach you new skills, but often requires time and aptitude for some problem-solving. Hell, some things you find out on your own, like taking cans or whatever thrown on the street, put them in the trash bin, you get currency.
Now back to the crow, yeah in order for me to return, he would need to make a trade. Looking for stuff for Shinies. For him, they're shiny, but these are sewing kits, and mechanical screws. Oh well, sometimes he gives me hats from vendor kiosks, can't go wrong with that. I swear, even if the game is padding with him around, this guy really knows how to swindle.
Which is easily done thanks to the writing. I am legit convinced that Tanuki does all kinds of quantum, cosmic experiments in this place, every manhole I enter is literally a rainbow vortex. Plus, the math and all the explanations, sometimes I wish certain TV shows had it this good.
There are moments that never do ceases to amaze me at times. You already have a likeable, silly yet affable cat that has to help other animals figure out. While the first few of them felt like fetch quests, some are pretty adorable. I had to help a father duck find his little herd.
Going on an education trip, somehow they all became separated, and started going to places from being inside a washing machine after shoving coins for 400hrs of spin time. Staring at a Street Fighter intro, getting air blown by a rooftop air condenser, and dancing in puddles inside a grocery store. Man, I miss watching children cartoons, this takes me back.
Helping a Shiba Inu find his special balls somewhere in the backyard, because he played too hard, and they went all over. That silly little goober. Others are cats sleeping at my napping spots, and some cats wanting to evoke dominance over their humans by having me drop their fruit jelly jars.
No worries, sometimes they get angry and stomp on the ground. Other times, they do want to cuddle you, and I decide whether to run or let them have at me. And this is a pretty short-game, even much shorter if my focus was only on the story. There's a lot to do for achievement hunting.
Look, this game isn't entirely GOTY material, there's so many of that out this year, and maybe the charm slowly wears off afterward, but I had a good time. I like how inventive the problem-solving and puzzles can get. And other times the gate to progress isn't halted by stupid things. Unless the fish eating to gain stamina climbing grass veins is what you'd consider tacked in.
Honestly speaking, if it had less jank, the visuals more polished, and to some degree, a little more content, this would have 8s and 9s popping across news media. It's a solid good time. Heck, it could even be a cure to a sad day even. Man, I want a cat so bad now.
I'm old, yet my life is a gilded cage, much like the teenagers and young adults I see. The environments can be interacted, I mean, go to a children's park and down a slide. Heck, there's more to the stuff than just breaking plant vases on top of the walls.
It's a pretty big town, the map has shown. Being real here, there's way too many games coming out this month, and then there's Hellblade II. Which, ahhhh, wish me luck on that one. Also, finished this so quick, the ending was good and it let me continue playing the sandbox afterward.
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