Hello Kitty Island Adventure released on Apple Arcade in July 2023 to generally positive reviews. A year and a half later, the Switch release brings a charming cast of Sanrio characters and their island resort to a wider audience—an audience ultimately in for a good time.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure opens on a plane en route to a mysterious resort with lots of familiar faces from the Sanrio franchise on board. After creating an animal avatar of our own (a moody purple bunny), we soon found ourselves jumping out of the plane and gliding to the ground with a handful of balloons. We get our first major quest shortly after touching down: find everyone who was scattered across the island during the descent.
Despite having a big quest to start us off, the game gave us a refreshing amount of free reign to begin exploring and building relationships right off the bat. Within the first hour of gameplay, we’d only tracked down a couple of lost characters but had also picked up a handful of other quests and ventured into areas that we probably weren’t supposed to have access to just yet. While we liked being let off the leash, we also managed to get pretty lost during the early gameplay from the sheer inability to focus on any one task.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure has been noted as sharing similarities with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and there is an obvious inspiration in gathering mechanics, home decoration, and even the bubbly art style. Possibly even more noticeable, though, is the clear inspiration in exploration mechanics from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Our ability to scale cliffsides and swim underwater was determined by an upgradable green stamina wheel, and our handful of balloons acted as an at-will glider. There were even dungeons with their own only-sometimes challenging puzzles to find and loot.
The map itself had a surprising amount of depth, with different terrains like a swamp, desert, and volcano. Each time we thought we’d explored every corner, we’d find a new dungeon to delve into, circuit race to beat, or Gudetama to photograph. Quest lines unlocked at higher friendship levels with different characters opened up even more hidden areas and abilities, making the game feel just that much richer as we progressed through the storyline.
Exploration is at the heart of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, but the game doesn’t lack for other activities. We went fishing, caught critters, cooked meals, crafted items, played minigames, and rode mine carts. In place of currency, furniture and clothing items are purchased with specific combinations of items that can be foraged from around the map. These items are also used for crafting, cooking, and gifting. The gathering of resources can feel like a bit of a grind, but everything regenerates each day in real time, and there’s generally plenty to go around for those willing to put in the time.
Making friends with the variety of cute creatures in Hello Kitty Island Adventure is paramount since main plotline quests are locked behind particular friendship levels. It’s easy enough to make nice at the earlier levels of friendship, especially while being able to give each character up to three items per day. The higher we went, however, the more difficult it became to budge that heart meter, making this another area of the game that can feel like a grind.
Luckily, making friends has the added motivation of upgrading character abilities for when they’re asked to join in on adventures. We could have Hello Kitty herself hang out to increase our chance of producing extra food items at cooking stations or have Keroppi tag along to make catching bugs easier.
We had a good time decorating our house and even putting together visitor cottages to entice new Sanrio characters to visit the resort, but ultimately didn’t feel compelled to spend much time at home when there was so much else to accomplish.
The character creator, which could be accessed at any point in the game, was so much fun to play with that we found ourselves completely changing up our look multiple times. Customisation options for attire were expansive as well, with clothes dyeing becoming an option later in the game.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure runs well on the Switch overall, but there were a few moments of frame rate lag as we ran around the expansive map, particularly when there were a lot of other moving objects on the screen. The camera angle also ended up in funny positions at times, clipping our view of what was happening behind a tree or other visual obstacle. On the whole, these were minor occurrences that didn’t drastically affect our play experience.
Conclusion
Hello Kitty Island Adventure proves an innovative entry into the social sim genre. While borrowing from multiple powerhouse games, it brings a fresh experience that is likely to subvert the expectations of any Animal Crossing expats looking for their next cosy fix.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure released on Apple Arcade in July 2023 to generally positive reviews. A year and a half later, the Switch release brings a charming cast of Sanrio characters and their island resort to a wider audience—an audience ultimately in for a good time.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure opens on a plane en route to a mysterious resort with lots of familiar faces from the Sanrio franchise on board. After creating an animal avatar of our own (a moody purple bunny), we soon found ourselves jumping out of the plane and gliding to the ground with a handful of balloons. We get our first major quest shortly after touching down: find everyone who was scattered across the island during the descent.
Despite having a big quest to start us off, the game gave us a refreshing amount of free reign to begin exploring and building relationships right off the bat. Within the first hour of gameplay, we’d only tracked down a couple of lost characters but had also picked up a handful of other quests and ventured into areas that we probably weren’t supposed to have access to just yet. While we liked being let off the leash, we also managed to get pretty lost during the early gameplay from the sheer inability to focus on any one task.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure has been noted as sharing similarities with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and there is an obvious inspiration in gathering mechanics, home decoration, and even the bubbly art style. Possibly even more noticeable, though, is the clear inspiration in exploration mechanics from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Our ability to scale cliffsides and swim underwater was determined by an upgradable green stamina wheel, and our handful of balloons acted as an at-will glider. There were even dungeons with their own only-sometimes challenging puzzles to find and loot.
The map itself had a surprising amount of depth, with different terrains like a swamp, desert, and volcano. Each time we thought we’d explored every corner, we’d find a new dungeon to delve into, circuit race to beat, or Gudetama to photograph. Quest lines unlocked at higher friendship levels with different characters opened up even more hidden areas and abilities, making the game feel just that much richer as we progressed through the storyline.
Exploration is at the heart of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, but the game doesn’t lack for other activities. We went fishing, caught critters, cooked meals, crafted items, played minigames, and rode mine carts. In place of currency, furniture and clothing items are purchased with specific combinations of items that can be foraged from around the map. These items are also used for crafting, cooking, and gifting. The gathering of resources can feel like a bit of a grind, but everything regenerates each day in real time, and there’s generally plenty to go around for those willing to put in the time.
Making friends with the variety of cute creatures in Hello Kitty Island Adventure is paramount since main plotline quests are locked behind particular friendship levels. It’s easy enough to make nice at the earlier levels of friendship, especially while being able to give each character up to three items per day. The higher we went, however, the more difficult it became to budge that heart meter, making this another area of the game that can feel like a grind.
Luckily, making friends has the added motivation of upgrading character abilities for when they’re asked to join in on adventures. We could have Hello Kitty herself hang out to increase our chance of producing extra food items at cooking stations or have Keroppi tag along to make catching bugs easier.
We had a good time decorating our house and even putting together visitor cottages to entice new Sanrio characters to visit the resort, but ultimately didn’t feel compelled to spend much time at home when there was so much else to accomplish.
The character creator, which could be accessed at any point in the game, was so much fun to play with that we found ourselves completely changing up our look multiple times. Customisation options for attire were expansive as well, with clothes dyeing becoming an option later in the game.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure runs well on the Switch overall, but there were a few moments of frame rate lag as we ran around the expansive map, particularly when there were a lot of other moving objects on the screen. The camera angle also ended up in funny positions at times, clipping our view of what was happening behind a tree or other visual obstacle. On the whole, these were minor occurrences that didn’t drastically affect our play experience.
Conclusion
Hello Kitty Island Adventure proves an innovative entry into the social sim genre. While borrowing from multiple powerhouse games, it brings a fresh experience that is likely to subvert the expectations of any Animal Crossing expats looking for their next cosy fix.
