I don’t even like cats, but Little Kitty, Big City has already stolen my heart

I’m all the time right here for distinctive little indie video games, and Little Kitty, Big City from Seattle’s Double Dagger Studio is among the most promising I’ve seen in that regard shortly.

At Summer Game Fest Play Days in Los Angeles, I received to go hands-on with the charming little cat simulator and got here away very impressed. I must also point out that I’m not even a cat particular person.

Right off the bat, individuals’s first inclination when seeing a recreation a few cat can be to consider final yr’s Stray. But moreover that related premise, the video games couldn’t actually be extra totally different. While Stray came about in a cyberpunk dystopia, Little Kitty, Big City is rather more lighthearted. Using a easy but efficient aesthetic and cute and full of life animations, Double Dagger — led by former Counter Strike: GO developer Matt T. Wood — has created a welcoming vibe to the sport that provides it an enormous quantity of appeal. Instead of surviving in a bleak post-apocalypse, your solely activity, after falling out of a window, is to navigate an city metropolis and get again dwelling.

Although the sport is gentle on narrative past that, there’s nonetheless surprisingly enjoyable writing all through the world. Our cat protagonist really talks to animals she meets on the planet, and this dialogue has an enticing diploma of wit to it. A specific spotlight is a crow who fancies himself a savvy enterprise tycoon, steering you in the appropriate path of collectibles to seek out to commerce with him. Some of those embrace “gotcha-style” capsules that unlock new cosmetics for the cat. Another feline you meet, in the meantime, teaches you to pounce on birds in a single exercise to gather their feathers and shortly admonishes you for pondering you had been going to truly harm them in any other case.

Overall, the sport additionally embraces the truth that cats will be, effectively, assholes. At any time, you may pull both set off to have the cat paw left or proper, which you are able to do to knock over objects, like potted crops on a ledge or a person’s cans of paint on a canvas. In some circumstances, there are even soccer balls that you could attempt to navigate into a close-by internet. These little actions assist preserve the moment-to-moment gameplay recent; whereas it’s on no account really an open world, you’re given the choice to move right into a facet alley or parking zone to see what’s down there.

Wood instructed me he desires to encourage gamers to return again to areas as they acquire new talents in a while, but he’s fast to level out that is extra Resident Evil-inspired than pure Metroidvania-style. There’s one thing to be mentioned a few recreation simply letting you discover at your leisure with none type of pressured fight or heavy story matter to weigh it down. Essentially, that is simply “be a cat and go nuts in a city,” and it’s all the higher for it.

What’s extra, if Stray confirmed us something, it’s that an approachable cat recreation has a large attraction, and Little Kitty, Big City, with its emphasis on laidback cat actions, might be an even greater hit. The proven fact that the sport focuses on varied actions to diversify its gameplay as an alternative of throwing in a type of fight, which is one thing that plagued Stray’s later hours, ought to solely make it extra attractive to informal audiences. Whether you’re a fan of cats or just like stress-free, non-violent video games, Little Kitty, Big City ought to completely be in your radar.

Little Kitty, Big City is coming to Nintendo Switch and PC in early 2024.

Image credit score: Double Dagger Studio