Ledge Life Rules in Little Kitty Big City

Welcome to Little Kitty Big City, the family-friendly version of Stray, where you don’t need to feel bad when the cat gets hurt because it always lands on its feet! In this adorable and cartoony world, we follow a kitty on its adventure to find its way back home after falling from an apartment window. 

Your goal is to eat fish until you can muster enough strength to climb your way back up to your apartment window. In the meantime, steal sandwiches and phones by tripping passersby, make some deals with crows, and knock anything and everything off any ledge you decide to jump on. Catch and release birds, have a bunch of ducklings follow you around, or steal fish from a fisherman – because cats are the embodiment of unpredictability, destruction, and chaos. It’s why we love them, right?!

With the physics and immortality of Goat Simulator and the wholesome, light hearted nature of a no-risk exploration game, Little Kitty Big City is the purrfect option for when you just want to relax, but still want to play a game without any potential frustration. I mean, you can’t die in this game, even if you leap from the heights of an apartment building’s roof. 

This time, curiosity did not kill the cat. I made sure of it. 

It's a good thing, too, seeing as some of the Goat Simulator-type physics can be as unpredictable as a cat on the platforming side of the game. You know you landed on the surface, but the game doesn’t – and sends you sliding off the ledge and sometimes all the way back down to when you first started. This didn’t happen terribly often, but often enough to at least make note of it. 

In terms of threats, your main culprits are puddles all over the city due to a plumbing issue, barking dogs, and being picked up and carried out of areas by the humans that can’t handle the chaos. You may also become a certain tanuki’s test subject in their invention endeavors. I wouldn’t necessarily consider this a threat, especially since doing so will make completing all your side quests a piece of cake, especially since you’ll be doing more side quests than mainline ones. Hide and seek with the chameleon becomes much easier, as does rounding up all the ducklings. You thought I was joking about the ducklings, didn’t you? 

Being a little kitty in a big city, the tiny, confined map felt much bigger than it was, thanks to both scale and the clever leveling system. The whole map works out to maybe a couple of blocks worth of city, but as you eat fish to gain the strength to climb higher and higher, more of the city opens up to you. At first, you’re limited to the streets and what walls your weak little jump can reach, but then you may find yourself in some new backyards, higher balconies, and eventually rooftops to explore. With more and more exploration available, maybe you’ll find yourself another hat to add to the collection! 

If you wear the right hat, you will not get chased! Indeed, you can trick the dogs into not barking at you simply by wearing a dog hat. Trick the construction workers by wearing a construction hat. No one can stop a determined kitty who also happens to be a master of disguise.

This is also the only real bit of customization in the game, and while adorable, it would be nice to see some other sorts of customization become available in the future, especially seeing as the cat doesn’t have a name or anything. I mean, think about it: how cool would it be for players to be able to make the cat look like their own? 

From start to finish, the game does not take long to complete. If you are focused on the main goal in the game, I can’t really see it taking more than a few hours. By the time you get home, your kitty will have mustered the strength and the know-how to get around the city and will have no problems visiting the friends made on their big adventure, so finishing the main goal doesn't necessarily mean the end of the game. If you want to finish all of those side quests and reach 100% on the achievements, you don’t need to start a new game to continue working on what progress you’ve already made. Unlocking all achievements only takes around 7 hours as well, and that includes the time spent playing the main game. 

All in all, this is a decent single-player game to play if you want to relax and not feel like you’re under any pressure. If a G-rated version of Stray was ever released, this is probably what it would look like. Little Kitty Big City would be great for any age, but I can definitely see this being a game that children would love.

Little Kitty Big City is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.