another too-on-the-nose game that panders to a very specific type of online person; myself included though it feels like it acknowledges a part of me that I don't particularly want recognized. the little animation flourishes when you pounce on a collectible or scurry your paws crawling through a gap, the silly hats, the Japan setting, the pastel solid color art style, it all feels workshopped to be something that'll go viral on twitter and be the "this was made exactly for me!" experience of 2024 for a select group. too easy to feel a bit patronized from the carrot so clearly dangling in front of my face.
doesn't help that dialogue is ever-present and feels like it was written for a children's TV show, and even the movement isn't as tight as I feel it should be for a game mostly about traversal.
unfortunately I had more fun coming up with increasingly-ridiculous rhyming phrases based off the title (a somewhat humorous tune about a small cat metropolis is a pretty witty itty bitty kitty city ditty)

Untitled Goose Cat Game

What Little Kitty, Big City lacks in ambition and breadth, it makes up with joyfulness and a lot of heart.

I estimate you can mainline the game in literally one hour, but there wouldn't be any fun in that. The core selling point of LKBC instead lays in going around this Tokyo-inspired city (more like a small neighbourhood) and talk to fellow animals to find excuses to explore all its nooks and crannies. The game then becomes a simple if kawaii collect-a-thon of emotes and cute little hats, and more importantly the perfect cat simulator - yes, even better than Stray. You can pounce, stalk, climb buildings, take naps, push stuff off ledges, steal the humans' belongings etc etc - sharing a lot of its DNA with the likes of Untitled Goose Game or Goat Simulator, and leaning heavily on internet cat jokes.

A little unpolished and rough around the edges, but there are worse ways to spend a summer day than sowing chaos as a cat in, say, a sushi hat. And that's more than I can ask for.

I'm not the biggest fan of the whole "animals are a menace" genre of games like Goat Simulator and Untitled Goose Game, but I had a really fun time in Little Kitty, Big City regardless of my general aversion to the genre. It's fun and silly, never taking itself too seriously. I thought the controls were kind of messy and frustrating, which it has in common with other menace titles, but they were still perfectly bearable for the short runtime. It's not my favorite game in the world, but it was good for a few evenings after work, and that's good enough for a Game Pass title.

"Little Kitty, Big City" - это забавная инди-игра, отражающая обаяние кошачьих приключений в условиях шумного городского пейзажа. Яркие цвета, выполненные в чарующем художественном стиле, прекрасно дополняют легкомысленный, но увлекательный геймплей игры.

Отличительной чертой является открытый мир, в котором предстоит искать секреты, решать головоломки и взаимодействовать с причудливыми персонажами. Интуитивно понятное управление позволяет без труда прыгать по крышам, пробираться сквозь закоулки и даже устраивать небольшие пакости.

Повествование удивительно простое и в то же время душевное, подчеркивающее любопытство, обретение независимости и желание поскорее вернуться домой.

Эта игра, которая дарит незабываемые впечатления.

I could see you feeling a bit annoyed if you paid $25 for this game, it's very cute and charming but is insanely janky and decently buggy. It's also incredibly short! I liked grabbing the fish and they had some neat little ideas behind them, but I got all 4 in like 15 minutes. The demo I played last year was like most of the main story! There are a good bit of little side quests and missions to do, like returning 4 little ducklings back to their father or finding bones to distract a dog that otherwise blocks your path but even these don't extend the playtime too much. Your mileage will very much vary on how much you want to be a kitten running around a (against the name of the game) pretty little city even after doing all of the tasks. I had a fine enough time doing that, and for a day 1 game pass launch it was cute enough to be worth the playthrough but I wish there was a bit more meat on the main story and the gameplay in general was a bit less janky.