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Hello Kitty Island Adventure has made it’s way from mobile to the big screen. Developed and published by Sunblink, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is available now on Steam for £36. It’s also available digitally on the Nintendo Store. I am a big Sanrio fan and let me tell you I have been counting down the days to be able to write this review!
A tropical island for me to spruce up, this sounds familiar…
Porting a mobile game to PC and console is always a big risk. Does this break the mould? If anyone can do it, it would be Hello Kitty and her pals. Right? Let’s find out.
Gameplay
Hello Kitty may have studied to be a professional baker in France, but one thing is for sure, never trust her to bake cakes on a plane. Unless you want to end up stranded on an abandoned theme park island with lots of quests to do. In which case, entirely trust the process.
And that is essentially the plot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. After a cakes on the plane incident, you bail to the island you were all heading to rather rapidly. Unfortunately whilst jumping out of the plane, all your new would-be friends have been separated. Hello Kitty, ever the resourceful girl (yes, girl not cat), makes the best of the situation and you soon find yourself on a friendship mission. With presents to deliver, friendships to grow, people to find and a whole theme park island to quest through, you are soon very busy. Of course, before you do this, you must choose your character. The player character models are limited to just a Bird, Cat, Dog, Bunny, Horse or Sheep. But with the options to customise these, there is enough for everyone. If you’re unhappy you can always change not just your clothes, but your appearance using any mirror too. I obviously chose to be a fluffy pink sheep.
A gift for my friend
Quests range from photographing the hidden Gudetama around the island on behalf of Pochacco to finding a mermaid outfit for Hangyodon. With a wide range of these quests along with courting their friendship with gifts, there is no doubt about it, this is definitely a game for Sanrio fans. In total there are eight regions to explore, make friends in and complete quests within. Each area does feel very different to one another. This is a nice touch as it makes the regions as individual as the characters and their interests. Each quest does feel very familiar though. In that you need to find or fetch something for someone and believe me, there is always someone needing something!
I first played Hello Kitty Island Adventure on Apple Arcade a few years ago. I loved it and was instantly hooked but the controls were fiddly. Eventually, I did stop playing it because of this. At the time I thought this was a game that would be better on a larger screen and with the use of a controller. Turns out I was right. Playing this on my PC was so much easier, especially when trying to jump over certain areas without falling into the water pre-snorkel gear! I will say that as enjoyable as this was to play on the PC, I do wish I had experienced it on the Switch. There feels something inherently “Nintendo Switch” about this game. Maybe because the Switch in handheld mode feels like a bridge between PC and mobile gaming.
Graphics and Audio
Graphically Hello Kitty Island Adventure is just the cutesy cartoon art style you would want. It was never not adorable seeing Kuromi walking around the Spooky Swamp or Cinnamoroll in his sweet little Delivery Service uniform flying around. However, I do wish the camera wasn’t fixed. There were certain points whereby this was a slight issue as all I could see was the top of my character’s head. Not so great when climbing rocks or traversing a narrow path let me tell you!
What is impressive is Sunblink‘s audio in the game, more specifically the soundtrack. Hello Kitty Island Adventure has 50 tracks of original music. Which is a huge number. Big props to the audio team because these tracks really have helped the world build. There is more than one earworm in there too.
Longevity
As with all quest-based cosy games, the longevity really depends on the player. Ultimately this is a mobile game ported over and you can tell in terms of gameplay depth. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are enough quests to keep you busy or you can choose to explore and do your own thing.
In fact Sunblink themselves say there is around 80+ hours worth of gameplay as of the time of writing. What order you complete these quests is up to you. Although some quests are locked behind friendship levels. But this just means you have to spend more time with your Sanrio friends!
Final Thoughts
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is exactly what you think it is. A Sanrio character filled Animal Crossing. However, this isn’t a negative. There is comfort in knowing exactly what you’re going to be doing when you sit down to play this. Do some quests for people, fix up an island and make more friends. This game could fill the void the lack of a new Animal Crossing game has created. Especially if you’re a Hello Kitty fan.
My only reservation about the game is its price point. Whilst I appreciate games have increased prices over the years I ultimately had to ask myself if I would have paid £36 for this one. And I’m not sure if I would have. I certainly wouldn’t pay the £54 for a non-physical deluxe edition. It’s cute, and fun, and I loved interacting with my favourite Sanrio characters, but the price still feels a bit high for a cosy game with such simple gameplay. Then again based on the “£1 per hour of gameplay” model, and with 80+ hours worth of gameplay you could well get your monies worth from it. Wait, did I just talk myself around? Ok so maybe the price isn’t that bad, but still, I do wonder if it would become a bit too much of the same thing over time.
In any case, Hello Kitty Island Adventure receives the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received to write this review.
If you’re looking for another cosy game to enjoy, check out my review of Batography
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