Hello Kitty Island Adventure surprised me in the best possible way. Where I expected a lower production value Animal Crossing-like game painted in Hello Kitty colors, made to cash in on the runaway success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and pitched to the lucrative mobile audience, the demo I played , introduced me to much more. I explored, made friends, and completed challenges around an island in an early version of the Switch port of Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure was originally released on Apple Arcade last year, mixing driving sim-like mechanics with light exploration, platforming and puzzle solving to create an overall cozy adventure. Think Animal Crossing or a less intense version of Stardew Valley combined with A Short Hike or the exploration and quest systems you’d find in a 2D Zelda game. If you’ve played Animal Crossing, you’ll find that much of this game’s settings are pretty easy to understand. It’s all about building your island and inviting cute Sanrio characters to live on it.
I checked out an early story in about half an hour. I helped My Melody find new clothing racks for her clothing store while playing as a delightfully massive cat she created herself in a Gudetama outfit. I came across so many little, fun diversions while looking around that kept me engaged during what would otherwise have been a simple fetch quest in the starting area.
One task had me going through the Mario 64 Red Coin challenges as I raced to get a handful of pink coins in a short amount of time. Another was less of a deliberate challenge and more of a collectible: statues of Gudetama, Sanrio’s lethargic egg mascot, are scattered around the island for you to photograph. I only found two or three of the 132 egg-shaped statues scattered around the island, but you’ll be rewarded with special decorations, clothes, and other prizes for every 12 you find and capture with your camera.
These small deviations are admittedly minor, but the insertion of microscopic platforming and puzzle challenges into the driving simulator-like quest structure adds so much value to your time. It encourages you to get off the beaten path and explore. The coin challenge I mentioned earlier, for example, made me find a new item.
I then started a story quest that helped me unlock a swamp-like section of the island, which in turn helped me make new friends, like Keropi. My demo ended pretty soon after I unlocked this new zone, but I was blown away after looking at the full Hello Kitty map that outshone the starting zone. My half hour with Island Adventure was clearly just the tip of the iceberg.
Developer Sunblink has maintained and expanded Island Adventure with free content updates since its initial release on Apple Arcade almost a year ago, regularly adding new characters from Sanrio’s surprisingly rich roster of characters to befriend. While the developer I spoke with didn’t confirm any details about who or what we should expect to see in the future, they did promise full parity with the mobile version day and date when it launches on consoles and PC next year.
In fact, Sunblink has done such a good job maintaining its Apple Arcade hit that my only concern for its future is a Switch port. The demo I played was featured on Switch and it ran pretty poorly. It was still playable, but dropped a worrying number of frames. It’s an issue that I certainly hope will be ironed out by the time Hello Kitty and friends make the jump to Nintendo’s handheld hybrid, but knowing what we’ve seen in other Switch ports, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Tiring presentation aside, I had a great time running around the island with Saniro’s adorable stars. Whether I was doing light platforming or completing a quest, I was consistently impressed with how and where Island Adventure took opportunities to give me something to do while completing story quests. Fans of cozy games or someone looking for a fun adventure for a younger gamer should keep their eyes on Hello Kitty: Island Adventure if they haven’t had a chance to play it on Apple Arcade yet.
