“One world, connecting smiles.” That is the slogan Sanrio, the company responsible for its creation Hello Kitty, founded in 2021. The brand is all about ‘Minna Nakayoku’, which means ‘we all friends’ or ‘Getting along together’. Unity, friendship and love encompass the world of Sanrio, and it worked. For me, Hello Kitty has always been that unifying figure – an icon, kind of like a cuter Barbie, who is capable of anything, but always puts her friends first. I had Hello Kitty dream world figures, with the eponymous cat having a mushroom house, a pineapple juice bar (complete with a figure in a pineapple costume) and even a dolphin hunt. There was also a bee costume figure with detachable bee wings. What’s not love?
Hello Kitty is one of the biggest brands in the world (for context, Hello Kitty brought in more merchandise than ever Frozen, Batman, And Sesame Street in 2018). So it might come as a surprise that she never really had a successful video game, despite being in many games, going all the way back to the Famicom. That is, until 2023’s Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Currently exclusive to Apple Arcade, this fun life simulation game won Apple Arcade Game of the Year in 2023 and is coming to Switch in 2025. We got the first Switch hands-on at Summer Game Fest 2024, and although we were advised this was an extremely early build of the game (there were often long load times, frequent frame drops and some funky textures), it made us the end of our time we were more than just smiling – we were beaming from ear to ear.
Before we dive in, we’ve known about Hello Kitty’s success on Apple Arcade long before this appointment. But our cursory understanding was that the game was very Animal Crossing-esque. 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 was with us during the demo – quickly corrected us. Despite first appearances this is true, So much more than a simple Animal Crossing style life simulation.
While the DNA of Animal Crossing is present in Island Adventure, with the cute characters and the ability to decorate your home and the island and make friends with the residents, two other big (and surprising) inspirations emerge: The Legend of Zelda : Breath of the Wild and Genshin impact.
No, Hello Kitty doesn’t wield a sword, but there are so many little aspects that Island Adventure takes out of these open world adventures. Quests and objectives, a large world map that you gradually discover over time, a stamina meter, collectibles, little Gudetamas (the apathetic egg yolk character from Sanrio’s pantheon of cuteness) to take pictures with – which Howe cheerfully compared to collecting Koroks – are all part of making friends on the island.
Like many life sim games, Hello Kitty Island Adventure runs on a day/night cycle, with annual in-game events taking place, and all characters work on their own schedules. But Howe emphasized to us that Sunblink finds FOMO “very anti-fun.” You can’t miss anything, and as a result the abundance of items and events is never overwhelming. Characters are easy to follow via the world map, and there is no need to play the game at specific times of the day, as a single day in Island Adventure lasts 24 minutes. Only annual events and store inventories are linked to the real-world calendar, and items only available during that period will always be available again the following year, even if the event changes slightly.
Eager to dive into Island Adventure, we started by creating our own cute little Sanrio-style character – we opted for a little chicken, because why not? We were then introduced to the world and story: you and a bunch of other Sanrio characters are pushed onto a plane, along with the adorable bunny character My Melody, who has been invited to open her own shop in Big Adventures Park. However, a faulty cake machine causes your plane to malfunction and forces everyone to escape. Crumbs…
Anyway, you and your friends land on the island resort, but it is completely deserted. Hello Kitty points out that My Melody is missing, so we run off to find her, bring her back, and discover many, many more of our friends separated from the group. Here everyone decides to split up, make the most of the island and help the others find it. First we had to complete a quick search for My Melody, who runs the furniture and craft store, before we were introduced to ‘gift giving’. This unlocked a number of quests for us, and here we started to see how much Hello Kitty Island Adventure depends on your typical everyday life simulation.
Gift giving is crucial to getting the most out of your time and allows you to build relationships, unlock quests and get 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 to them will deepen their friendship. Howe told us that My Melody currently has twenty friendship levels, which may seem like a lot, but there’s also a much smaller cast than other similar games – currently around 18. But these will all lead to deeper storylines with those respective characters.
With gifts available, we sat down with Pochacco, the Snoopy-like dog who loves sports but is also a bit of a klutz. This is reflected in his dialogue and animation: his chatter is animated, peppered with exclamation points and frequent mentions of exercises. He also runs everywhere. Even if you don’t know much about Pochacco, 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 who is seemingly everywhere. We found the little guy hiding in a ramen bowl, riding on a floaty, 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 likes to play pranks and wants to make a water balloon to scare My Melody. He also happens to run the ‘Comic & Bait’ store. You know, those mutual activities of fishing and comic books? You can collect the latter to give to Badtz-Maru, and you can fish on the island. Each character is associated with a service or activity, and each character, even in the early game, is bursting with personality.
Eventually we came across Chococat, who needed us to collect Power Crystals to open a game. But first we needed a magnet to build a sensor. We got one by completing a quest, but not before a whole one load of procrastination. We climbed up the side of a mountain and took part in a little island challenge where we had to collect coins within a time limit (think the Red Coin challenges from Super Mario 64), and tried our hand at swimming and diving – which Howe proudly exclaimed Sunblink did. way before Genshin Impact, just for the record”. We couldn’t do the latter because we had to unlock something much later in the game, but it’s clear that the options only increase as you progress.
Obtaining the magnet and building the sensor allowed us to search for the crystals, which ultimately led us to something we never expected: ruins. There are structures scattered around the island that contain miniature puzzles and will unlock different things. The puzzles are very simple, although Howe promised that they get a bit more complicated as you progress. She also compared them to the ‘Shrines’ from Breath of the Wild, and the mix of logic puzzles and rewards was certainly reminiscent of that.
Opening the gate was the very last thing we did during our demo, and it opened up a whole new biome. There are multiple areas to unlock and a whole new island is coming to the Apple Arcade version soon. We also never tried multiplayer, which lets you invite multiple friends to your island and do activities together. Everything available in the Apple Arcade version at the time of the Switch launch will be available on consoles on day one of the game.
Sunblink has also confirmed to us that there will be no microtransactions even when the game launches on consoles, and that all currencies can be earned in-game. None of the additional updates, characters or features are paid DLC – they are simply free updates added to the game.
So we can say with certainty that, after an hour of playtime, Hello Kitty Island Adventure was the biggest surprise of Summer Game Fest for us; we already knew people loved it, but getting to grips with it ourselves had us desperately resisting an Apple Arcade subscription just to try it again right now. It really fulfills the motto ‘One World, Connecting Smiles’ that Sanrio promises with its world and characters. And with characters like Pompompurin, Hangyodon, and even Retsuko (from the hit Netflix show Aggretsuko) waiting for us outside those gates, we think we’ll smile even more when we get our hands on the game on Switch.
Hello Kitty island adventure is scheduled to launch on Switch in 2025. Have you played the game on Apple Arcade? Will you get this on Switch next year? Let us know below.
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