More than 40 years after a group of cartoon felines first showed us all how "everybody wants to be a cat" in the 1970 Disney classic "The Aristocats," one enterprising video game developer is trying to turn this collective fantasy into a reality.

"Catlateral Damage," according to creator Chris Chung, is a "first-person destructive cat simulator." Unlike most first-person games, players don't spend any time shooting at zombies, space aliens or members of the Third Reich. Which makes a lot of sense, because most cats would probably much rather take a nap than go through all the trouble of taking out bad guys. Instead, "Catlateral Damage" challenges its players to do what cats do best: knock things over. In other words, the game lets you be the star of your very own "Animals Can Be Jerks" viral video. I doubt many players will be as good as Teddy the A**hole Cat, though.

"Catlateral's Damages" gameplay will be familiar to players of any of the popular "Katamari Damacy" console game. Both share a visually striking anime-inspired aesthetic. Both are also basically just games about piles of stuff — whether it be picking up lots of random tchotchkes to roll them into a gigantic ball ("Katamari") or swatting them onto the floor for more points ("Catlateral"). More like CAT-amari Damacy, amirite? OK, please don't knock me off the table for that one ...

"Catlateral" is a joy to play, and it's currently free in an alpha mode through the game's website. Chung is working on a full game to release on Steam later this year. Seeing as Valve unveiled its first round of "Steam Machines" last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and the virtual reality startup Oculus VR brought out a new and improved version of its hotly anticipated headset that just happens to be Steam compatible, I think it's safe to say that the future of video games isn't first-person shooters, but high-end cat simulators.

Watch the trailer for "Catlateral Damage" below:

- via Polygon



Yannick LeJacq is a contributing writer for NBC News who has also covered technology and games for Kill Screen, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. You can follow him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq and reach him by email at: Yannick.LeJacq@nbcuni.com.