“One world, connecting smiles.” That’s the slogan of Sanrio, the company responsible for creating Hello kitty, established as early as 2021. Its brand is all about ‘Minna Nakayoku’, which means ‘all of us friends’ or ‘Getting Along Together’. Unity, friendship, and love encompass the world of Sanrio, and it works. Hello Kitty has always been that unifying figure for me – an icon, kind of like a cute Barbie who can do anything but always puts her friends first. I had Hello Kitty Dream World figures where the eponymous cat had a mushroom house, a pineapple juice bar (complete with a figure in a pineapple costume) and even a yacht with dolphins. There was also a costume figure of a bee with removable bee wings. What is? No love?
Hello Kitty is one of the biggest brands in the world (for context, Hello Kitty made more money on merchandise than Frozen, batman, and Sesame, open up in 2018). So it might come as a surprise that she’s never had a successful video game, despite starring in many dating back to the Famicom. So until 2023 Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Currently exclusive to Apple Arcade, this cozy life-sim game won Apple Arcade Game of the Year 2023 and is coming to Switch in 2025. We got our hands on the first Switch at Summer Game Fest 2024, and while we were tipped this was extremely early build of the game (there were frequent long load times, regular frame drops, and some funky textures), by the end of our time we were more than smiling with it – we were beaming from ear to ear.
Before diving in, we were aware of Hello Kitty’s success on Apple Arcade long before this appointment. But our rough understanding was that the game was a lot like Animal Crossing. That makes it perfect for the Switch, but it also means it has big shoes to fill. But developer Sunblink’s brand manager, Chelsea Howe—who sat with us during the demo—quickly corrected us. Despite first appearances, it is so much more than just an ordinary Animal Crossing-style life simulation.
While Animal Crossing’s DNA is present in Island Adventure in terms of cute characters and the ability to decorate your house and island and befriend the inhabitants, two other big (and surprising) inspirations loom: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Genshin’s Impact .
No, Hello Kitty doesn’t wield a sword, but there are so many little aspects that Island Adventure draws from those open world adventures. Quests and objectives, a large world map that you gradually uncover over time, a stamina meter, collectibles, little Gudetamas (an apathetic egg yolk character from Sanrio’s pantheon of cuteness) to take photos with – which Howe happily compared to collecting Koroks – all of it they are part of making friends on the island.
Like many life simulation games, Hello Kitty Island Adventure runs on a day/night cycle, with annual events taking place in the game and all characters working on their own schedule. But Howe emphasized to us that Sunblink considers FOMO to be “very anti-cozy.” Nothing is unmissable and as a result the plethora of items and events is never overwhelming. Characters can be easily tracked on the world map and there is no need to play the game at a specific time of day as one day in Island Adventure lasts 24 minutes. Only annual events and shop inventories are associated with the real-world calendar, and items only available during that period will always be available again next year, even if the event changes slightly.
Eager to jump into Island Adventure, we started by creating our own cute Sanrio-esque character – we decided on a little chicken because why not? We were then introduced to the world and the story: you and a bunch of other Sanrio characters are thrown into a plane along with the cute bunny character My Melody, who has been invited to open her own shop in Big Adventure Park. However, a malfunctioning cake machine causes your plane to malfunction, forcing everyone to escape. Crumbs…
Anyway, you and your friends land on an island resort, but it’s completely deserted. Hello Kitty points out that My Melody is missing, so we run off to find her, bring her back, and discover that many, many more of our friends have been separated from the group. Here everyone decides to split up, make the most of the island and help find the others. We first had to complete a quick quest for My Melody, who runs a furniture and craft shop, before we were introduced to “gifting”. This unlocked a lot of quests for us, and this is where we started to see how different Hello Kitty Island Adventure is from your typical everyday life sim.
Donating is key to making the most of your time on the island and allows you to build relationships, unlock quests and acquire new items during your time on the island. Everyone has their own wishes – Hello Kitty likes cakes and pastries, while Cinnamoroll likes chocolate and coffee – and giving them that will deepen their friendship. Howe told us that My Melody currently has 20 friendship levels, which may seem like a lot, but there’s also a much smaller cast than other similar games — currently around 18. But all of that will lead to a deeper story with the characters involved.
With the donations at our disposal, we went to chat with Pochacc, a Snoopy-like dog who loves sports but is also a bit clumsy. This is reflected in his dialogue and animations – his chatter is animated, peppered with exclamation points and frequent references to exercise. He also runs everywhere. Even if you don’t know much about Pochacc, it’s so easy to fall in love with him. He teaches you about Gudetama and the camera and expresses his admiration for the lazy yolk that seems to move everywhere. We found this little guy hiding in a ramen bowl, riding a floating boat and just chilling on the beach.
Badtz-Maru is just as easy to love. This spiky haired penguin has a bit of a grumpy attitude, but he also loves pulling pranks and wants to make a water balloon to scare My Melody. He also happens to run a ‘Comic & Bait’ shop. You know, those mutual activities of fishing and comic books? You can collect these to give to Badtz-Mar, and you can hunt on the island. Each character is associated with a service or activity, and each of them, even at the beginning of the game, is bursting with personality.
Eventually we ran into Chococat who needed us to collect power crystals to unlock the game. But first we needed to get a magnet to build the sensor. We got one by completing the quest, but not before the whole thing load procrastination. We climbed the side of a mountain and took part in a small island challenge involving collecting coins within a time limit (remember the Red Coin challenges from Super Mario 64) and tried our hand at going swimming and diving – which Howe proudly stated Sunblink had done “before Genshin Impact, just for the record”. We couldn’t do the latter because we needed to unlock something much later in the game, but it’s clear that the possibilities only increase as you progress.
Getting the magnet and building the sensor meant we could start looking for the crystals, which eventually led us to something we never expected – the ruins. Scattered around the island are structures that contain miniature puzzles and unlock various things. The puzzles are very simple, although Howe promised that they will get a little more difficult as you progress. She also compared them to the ‘Shrines’ of Breath of the Wild, and the mix of puzzles and rewards certainly brought it to mind.
Opening the gate was the very last thing we did during our demo, and it opened up a whole new biome. There are several areas to unlock, and a brand new island is coming soon to the Apple Arcade version. We also never tried multiplayer, which allows you to invite more friends to your island and do activities together. Everything available in the Apple Arcade version at the time of the Switch’s launch will be on day one of the game on consoles.
Sunblink also confirmed to us that there will be no microtransactions even when the game launches on consoles, and all currency can be earned in-game. None of the other updates, characters or features are paid DLC – they are simply free updates added to the game.
So it’s safe to say that after an hour of playing, Hello Kitty Island Adventure was the biggest surprise of Summer Game Fest for us; we already knew people loved it, but when we get to play it ourselves, we’re desperately resisting an Apple Arcade subscription to try it again right now. It truly lives up to the “One World, Connecting Smiles” motto that Sanrio promises with its world and characters. And with characters like Pompompurin, Hangyodon, and even Retsuko (from the hit Netflix show Aggetsuko) waiting behind those gates, we think we’ll be smiling even more when we get our hands on the game on Switch.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure it is scheduled to launch on Switch in 2025. Have you played the game on Apple Arcade? Will you be picking it up on Switch next year? Let us know below.
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