Xbox Game Pass Just Added the Most Adorable Game of the Year
Claws and effect.
Sometimes the sheer size and time commitment needed for video games can be overwhelming. As much as you may want to play through every Baldur’s Gate or Stellar Blade, sometimes life just gets in the way, or maybe you need a reprieve from the epic world-saving events. That’s where a game like Little Kitty, Big City can be the perfect fix, an adorable bite-sized adventure overflowing with furry personality. Its Pixar-esque charm is downright infectious, and its throwback to the collect-a-thons of old make it the perfect game to spend a weekend with. The game launching on Xbox Game Pass also means you have no excuse not to jump in.
Little Kitty shares a lot in common with 2019’s Untitled Goose Game, casting you as an adorable creature that wreaks havoc on the unsuspecting citizens of a quaint town. This time, instead of running amok as a squawker, you play as a little black cat who ends up getting scared by a dog barking and fall out of the apartment window he lives in. Don’t worry, cats always land on their feet.
But now that diminutive cat is stranded alone in — as you might have guessed — a big city. It’s up to you to make sure the feline finds its way home, all while meeting a cornucopia of quirky animals, from a Tanuki experimenting with interdimensional travel, to a crow desperate to get his claws on shiny objects.
The saying that curiosity offed the cat doesn’t apply here, so feel free to steal as many people’s phones as you want.
Everything about Little Kitty is designed around being a relaxing experience, based entirely on exploration. The development team has done a phenomenal job of capturing the quirks and tendencies of cats, integrating those both into animations and actual gameplay mechanics. Controlling the cat feels fantastic, allowing you to quickly clamber up ledges, deftly walk over ledge, and pounce on unsuspecting birds.
Little Kitty takes place in an unnamed Japanese city, filled with landmarks like a convenience store, a flower shop, a gift shop for a giant lizard Kaiju, and more. As you explore the city you have a loose list of “tasks” to complete, which all entail helping various animals with their problems. These tasks highly guide you through the small open world city, while letting you experiment with the city in a variety of ways.
You can climb vines to reach new areas, find hidden fish to increase your climbing gauge, and collect dozens of hats that make you even more photogenic. Mixed in with these activities are loads of fun little discoveries and tasks, like finding rubber ducks to put in a pond, or uncovering hidden soccer balls to knock into goals. You’ll also have to contend with a few obstacles, such as finding bones to distract grumpy dogs, so you can crawl past them.
A selection of different hats and emotes means you’ll likely get a good bit of use from the game’s photo mode.
Despite not being the biggest game out there, Little Kitty’s roughly five-hour runtime is filled with things to see and do, with every corner yielding some kind of new activity. It really harnesses the energy of classic collect-a-thons like Banjo Kazooie, and you’ll quickly find yourself wanting to uncover every single hat you can, not just for how cute they are but also for the brilliant pun that accompanies each one.
Everything in Little Kitty is heightened by its phenomenal aesthetic and sense of humor. There’s a cartoony sheen to everything that makes the game pop, and the charming setting oozes personality. This is a game that wants you to have fun, wants you to feel relaxed, and goes to painstaking lengths to make that happen. The best way to describe it is this city feels cozy, it feels like somewhere you’d want to live and curl up with a good book, as the sounds of activity thrum around you. It’s idyllic, and so incredibly refreshing.
Little Kitty, Big City isn’t the biggest or most complex game out there, but it’s a great reminder that sometimes simplicity in and of itself can be a good thing. It masterfully uses charm and immersion for an experience that’s calming, leaving you feeling as warm and fuzzy as its main character when you’re done.
