Hello Kitty Island Adventure surprised me in the best possible way. Where I expected a lower production value Animal Crossing-esque game painted in Hello Kitty colors, made to capitalize on the failure of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and showcase itself to a lucrative mobile audience, the demo I played presented me with much more. I explored, made friends, and completed challenges around the island in the early Switch port of Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Originally released on Apple Arcade last year, Hello Kitty Island Adventure combines management sim-like mechanics with light exploration, platforming and puzzle solving to create a comprehensive cozy adventure. Think Animal Crossing or a less intense version of Stardew Valley combined with the short hike or exploration and quest systems found in a 2D Zelda game. If you’ve played Animal Crossing, you’ll find that many of the game’s settings are easy to disassemble. It’s all about building your island and inviting cute Sanrio characters to live on it.
I tried the first story task for about half an hour. I helped My Melody find new clothing racks for her clothing store while playing as an adorably chunky cat with her own custom design Gudetama outfit. Looking around I came across so many fun little diversions that kept me engaged during what would otherwise be a simple fetch in the starting area.
One quest had me reliving the Mario 64 Red Coin challenges as I raced to pick up a handful of pink coins in a quick time frame. 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 statues scattered around the island, but for every 12 you find and capture on camera, you’ll be rewarded with special decorations, clothing, and other rewards.
These little diversions are small, but the incorporation of microscopic platforming and puzzles into a management simulation-like quest structure adds a lot of value to your time. It encourages you to get off the beaten path and explore. For example, the coin challenge I mentioned earlier led me to find a new item.
I then started a story quest that helped me unlock a swamp-like part of the island, which in turn helped me make new friends like Keroppi. My demo ended pretty soon after I unlocked this new area, but I was blown away when I looked at the full Hello Kitty map that topped the starting area. My half hour with Island Adventure was clearly just the tip of the iceberg.
Developer Sunblink supports and complements Island Adventure with free content updates Since its original release on Apple Arcade almost a year ago, it has regularly added new characters from Sanrio’s surprisingly deep roster of characters to befriend. While the developer I spoke with didn’t confirm any details about who or what we should expect in the future, they did promise full parity with the mobile version when it launches on console and PC next year.
Sunblink has done such a good job supporting its Apple Arcade hit, in fact, that my only concern for its future is its Switch port. The demo I played was presented on Switch and ran pretty poorly. It was still playable, but dropped an alarming number of frames. It’s an issue I’m sure hoping will be fixed before Hello Kitty and friends make the jump to Nintendo’s handheld hybrid console, but knowing what we’ve seen in other ports on the Switch, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Performance aside, I had a great time running around the island with the charming stars of Sanira. Whether I was doing mild platforming or completing a quest, I was constantly impressed by how and where Island Adventure took the opportunity to give me things to do as I completed story quests. Fans of cozy games or anyone looking for a fun adventure game for younger players should keep an eye on Hello Kitty: Island Adventure if they haven’t already had a chance to play it on Apple Arcade.