2024: The year of the cat (in video games)
"Copycat," "Little Kitty Big City," "Cat Quest 3," and "Stray" make digital heroes out of our feline friends.
While industry commentators have noted that 2024 is a bit of a quiet year for video game releases, there is one subgenre that has quietly flourished – the cat game. Furry feline protagonists have been popping up more frequently in games, and, since I take both cats and video games very seriously, what follows are short reviews of three cat games from this year. However, only one will get the “Mazzy’s Choice” award, as offered in consultation with one of my resident feline advisors. Also included is an “honorable mention” for a slightly older game that needs to be part of the conversation around digital felines.
Copycat
“Copycat” is kind of like an interactive short story, telling a narrative about a shelter cat that gets adopted by an older woman, gradually warming up to her and becoming adjusted to a new home, only to be mistakenly replaced with an identical cat. Gameplay is fairly simple, asking you as the player to navigate the cat around different environments, and occasionally play some “Simon Says” style button pressing mini-games or dodge oncoming obstacles. Personally, I’m a fan of this kind of “interactive fiction” (and a few parts of “Copycat” gave me vibes of “Gone Home,” one of my personal favorite games). But just know that “Copycat’s” real goal is to be as much of a tearjerker as possible for animal lovers, especially cat parents. The story does ultimately have a happy ending for the kitty in question, but on the way it keeps bludgeoning you over the head with increasingly upsetting scenes of desperation for this poor cat. The game does have some interesting points to make about the very human feelings around abandonment and healing from such trauma, which I respect the developers for including, but the game would have benefitted from a less heavy-handed approach. Overall, I’m glad “Copycat” exists as an example of a smaller, indie team trying to tackle weighty subjects in a game, but it’s a game I respect more than I enjoyed my time with.
Platforms available: PC (Steam)
Little Kitty, Bit City
The direct opposite of “Copycat,” “Little Kitty, Big City” doesn’t bother with any message other than encouraging you to be as goofy and mischievous as possible. As a little black cat trying to find their way back to their human’s apartment, you have to steal fish from humans, pounce on birds (letting them fly away unhurt afterwards), find a group of lost ducklings, bargain with a crow obsessed with get-rich-quick schemes, and help a mad scientist racoon with her inventions on your trek back to your favorite nap spot. “Little Kitty Big City” is basically a bite-sized open world game, encouraging you to cause mischief around it’s vaguely Tokyo-esque metropolis while completing quests and collecting adorable hats to put on your feline protagonist. The game has an infectious amount of silliness, and though it doesn’t last very long (I beat it in about an afternoon and a half) it’s a very sweet-natured game that’s perfect for cat lovers.
Platforms available: PC (Steam) Switch, Xbox platforms (included on Game Pass)
Cat Quest 3
“Cat Quest 3” feels like a notable level up for this series, after two installments that were very charming (and filled to the brim with cat puns) but a little simplistic. While “Cat Quest 3” keeps the same overall formula of the two previous games – fight monsters, go on quests, explore dungeons, find and upgrade new weapons, armor, and spells – it adds an extra amount of polish and depth to make the third game a real joy to play. The animation is great, with your cat adventurer and their animal friends and enemies all being wonderfully expressive, there’s a greater variety of weapons and equipment that lets you really experiment with different playstyles, and boss fights are much more varied and exciting. One of the best features, though, is the addition of a pirate ship to sail around the game’s setting of the Purribean Sea (and yes, the cat puns are thankfully back in full force). This gives the player a lot more freedom compared to the prior two games, and though areas of the game are “soft-locked” by the presence of higher level enemies it is still a lot of fun to chart your own course and simply go looking for treasure. For all these reasons, and the return of the great co-op mode from “Cat Quest 2,” “Cat Quest 3” is the first game (or, anything, really) to receive the “Mazzy’s Choice” award!
Platforms available: PC (Steam), PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox platforms
HONORABLE MENTION - Stray
Yes, “Stray” came out in 2022, but I only just played it to completion this year. An indie hit on its release, “Stray” tells the story of a lone kitty who gets separated from their cat friends and ends up in a strange, underground city populated by robots. Making friends with a friendly little robo-buddy named B-12, the duo set out to open the sealed city to the outdoors, both to help the cat get home and to help the robotic denizens finally be part of the outside world. “Stray is at its best when it allows the cat and B-12 to freely explore the more open, residential parts of the robot city, interacting with the charming android inhabitants and solving environmental puzzles. This gets broken up by some more “action-y” areas, such as having to use a powerful UV light to hold back waves of vicious, tiny predators, that frankly don’t play to the game’s strengths. Ultimately, though, “Stray” has a tremendous amount of heart, and it’s a lot of fun to explore this unique world in feline form.
Platforms available: Mac, PC (Steam), PS4, PS5, Switch (releasing November 2024), Xbox platforms