This precious Game Pass adventure let me see the world through my cat’s eyes

I recently moved into a new apartment, graduating from a boxy one-bedroom to a much larger two-bedroom railroad-style space. It’s been a great change for me, but it’s my cat who is thriving. She’s no longer a paperweight glued to my couch. She spends the days bouncing between rooms, jumping off of furniture, sneaking into cabinets, and peering out windows. Her entire world has tripled and she’s become a new creature because of it.

As fate would have it, that would also be the subject of the first game I played in my new apartment. Little Kitty, Big City is an adorable new indie game about a black housecat accidentally finding itself lost in town after falling off its windowsill. Had I played it in another context, I might have been tempted to write it off as a cute, but light indie curiosity (the kind of game that’s perfect for Xbox Game Pass). Instead, it’s a classic case of the right place, right time for me. For one precious afternoon, I could see my cat’s big new world through her eyes.

On the prowl

Little Kitty, Big City is sure to draw some immediate parallels to Stray thanks to its feline hero. The two share plenty of DNA, but the big difference is that Little Kitty, Big City is more of a Saturday morning cartoon than the brainier sci-fi of Stray. As soon as I gain control of my fallen hero, I’m let loose in a small open city where I can get up to the same slapstick hijinks that my own cat annoyingly seems to love.

Scrounging around in trash cans? Check. Knocking over potted plants? Check. Running under people’s legs to trip them up? Check. All of those familiar behaviors become helpful tools as I explore the world via some vertical platforming that’s built into it. Everything here is a little more playful than in Stray, right down to the cat having full-on conversations with oversized raccoons and crows trying to swindle me out of all the shiny things I’ve picked up. Its lighthearted cartoon comedy, enhanced by a bright and breezy art style.

There are plenty