Cats are sneaky little gits. They scratch, they hiss, they usually’re hardly ever, if ever, cute. Hey, we’re canine individuals, what can we are saying? [Disclaimer: Hmm, we’re probably 50/50 on staff. And dogs are smelly. – Ed.] If you lastly get your palms on Little Kitty, Massive Metropolis in ‘early 2024’, nonetheless, we would not begrudge you immediately falling in love with the mischievous little felines, as a result of that is precisely what occurred to us once we went hands-on with the sport at Summer time Sport Fest.

Happening inside, uh, an enormous metropolis, you play as a anonymous kitten who, after stretching a little bit too far on a windowsill, tumbles into the streets under. Shaving off considered one of its 9 lives, the kitty picks itself up and units off on an journey full of distinctive characters, quirky puzzles, and heaps of customized kitty hats. Your final aim is to get again house, however like all good adventures, the enjoyable is within the journey itself, and Little Kitty, Massive Metropolis is stuffed to the brim with enjoyable issues to do and locations to see.

Attending to grips with the controls, what was instantly obvious was simply how life-like the cat is. Regardless of the stylised visuals, distinctive care has gone into making the protagonist really feel as authentically feline as doable. Slinking throughout the bottom, crawling via holes, and batting plant pots off partitions all look remarkably actual, and we puzzled whether or not the animation had been achieved via some type of movement seize. Developer Double Dagger Studio clarified that, no, the animation was as a substitute completed totally by hand, and admittedly we’re astounded at how good it’s.

Beginning to make our manner across the metropolis, we observed that quite a few sections of the street and pavements have been lined in water, spilled from a close-by object. That is the developer’s manner of letting you realize that sure pathways are blocked since cats do not have a tendency to love water. So as a substitute, you will want to make use of your abilities to bypass the water in different methods, be it leaping up onto a wall and sneaking round, or maybe crawling via a gap in a fence to seek out a wholly completely different route. Little Kitty Massive Metropolis does an amazing job at hinting towards your subsequent goal with out outright holding your hand.

On the best way via town, we ran into a variety of cute, cuddly characters that appeared prepared to assist our little kitty in return for a favour. One considerably bigger cat needed us to collect a bunch of feathers from some unsuspecting birds close by, and it is right here that we actually bought to grips with how the sunshine stealth mechanics work.

We had two choices for gathering the feathers. The primary was to easily crawl slowly in the direction of the birds in order to not startle them. It is difficult, however we managed to drag it off a few occasions. When you’re shut sufficient, you maintain down the soar button and a marker will point out the place you will be touchdown out of your soar. Line it up with the hen and pounce. Achieved.

The second is considerably simpler and mainly requires you to run right into a passing human, inflicting them to drop a bit of bread. Choose up the bread and drop it close to the birds. They will swoop down and gobble it up, providing you with the proper alternative to sneak behind them and seize that feather.

The demo we performed did embrace a variety of bugs, together with getting caught in a wall and being unable to leap up onto ledges correctly. Double Dagger is already properly conscious of what wants fixing previous to launch and is lifeless set on making Little Kitty, Massive Metropolis the most effective it may be in order that it sticks the touchdown (paws down) on Swap.

Evidently, for those who’re a fan of lighthearted, animal-led indie experiences like Untitled Goose Sport, then Little Kitty, Massive Metropolis goes to be proper up your alley. It is extremely charming, filled with enjoyable issues to do, and bursting on the seams with cute hats to gather (together with a frog hat that we have been fairly taken with). If the builders can lick the sport into form, preened and polished in time for its present launch window of ‘early 2024’, then we’ve a sense this might wind up being an actual indie darling. For such a little bit kitty, it ended up being our greatest, most nice shock from all of the SGF Play Days demos.

What do you make of Little Kitty, Massive Metropolis to date? Reckon it would show itself to be a worthy companion to, say, Untitled Goose Sport? Tell us within the feedback under.