Little Kitty, Big City Review: There's a New Sheriff in Meown

Little Kitty, Big City has been delighting fans all week since it hit Xbox Game Pass, on top of the PC and Switch release, and it couldn't have a more self-explanatory title. You're the Little Kitty, and there's a whole Big City to explore (and terrorize) as you see fit.

This feline forward platformer has given plenty of traditional mechanics an adorable new coat of paint, but does the game stand out as more than a novelty? Our Little Kitty, Big City review will claw through the cuteness to see just how special the debut from Double Dagger Studio turned out to be.

Little Kitty, Big City Review

Little Kitty, Big City blasts off with your adorable black kitty stretching a bit too big then tumbling off a ledge to the street below. Don't worry, you always land on your feet completely unharmed. That's actually true of the entire game, though there are plenty of discomforts that can startle you throughout Little Kitty, Big City.

If a human sneezes, or a cucumber exists near you, or a dog barks, or water dares find itself under your paws, your little kitty will jump up in shock and vocalize that frustration. However, no little kitty is ever harmed in this game. The developers further confirmed that the kitty is kept safe specifically so the game remains accessible to all gamers, even very young kids who may want to play Little Kitty, Big City with their parents.

After getting grounded by gravity, your exploration of the city works towards the goal of getting fish so you'll have the climbing energy to work your way back to the high-rise apartment you live in. You'll meet other animals along the way including a helpful hustling crow, a duck dad whose rambunctious ducklings have run off, and one tanuki that devised a way to manipulate space and time.

While out on PC and playable with a keyboard, the Little Kitty, Big City controls are definitely more comfortable and fluid when using a controller. Aside from a few tiny bugs some players have hit, which are already being addressed with post-launch patch updates, the game runs very smoothly on PC, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

For players using Game Pass, you can seamlessly jump between PC and Xbox as the cross save function worked perfectly and would let you start off right where you left things on the other platform. Once you've nestled into exploring the city, things only get cuter as you can unlock tons of unique hats to give yourself the purr-fect look.

The Verdict: Perfect 10

At an affordable $24.99 across all platforms, or a quick free download for Game Pass subscribers, there's little reason not to give the charm of Little Kitty, Big City a chance to brighten your day. If you own a cat, chances are all the little noises coming from your screen will eventually garner their attention. At that point, you can become one of many flooding Little Kitty, Big City on Twitter with clips and photos of real-world cats checking it out.

While other games like Stray have dug deeper into the existential storytelling that playing as a cat can provide, nothing else has quite captured the whimsy and joy of a feline perspective like Little Kitty, Big City. For players who might be worried the fun goes by too quickly, this one has already been a blast to replay. This could become the cutest speedrunning game around, but it's just as easy to kick back and relax as you take charge of that city.

Little Kitty, Big City Rating: 10 out of 10