On my (mis)adventures with my new Mac Mini, I stumbled upon a game we’ve covered before on our site—cutesy multimedia brand holder Sanrio and developer Sunblink’s ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure, staring me right in the face over on the Apple Arcade side of things on Apple’s otherwise paltry App Store offerings. I like cute things, I like Hello Kitty, and I love My Melody and Kuromi, so I figured it was worth giving these merchandise heroes’ latest game a shot. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was me adding in another game to my dailies rotation, a rebirth of home customisation love, and a fervent desire to give gifts to anything that breathes on the island of “Big Adventures Park”.
(Sanrio/Sunblink)
In Hello Kitty Island Adventure, players take on the role of their very own Sanrio-approved character that can be customised (albeit in a fairly limited fashion) between a few animal species and size options. Somehow, your little toon has made it big on a flight to a resort island out in the middle of somewhere—and with Hello Kitty and friends’ all being on the same plane no less. After a few introductions, the plane decides to give up on life, forcing the cast to make an emergency jump out onto the Big Adventure Park isles. This place is naught more than a strange one, with structures long-since put in place that make it look more like a theme park than a secluded land of relaxation. After a few deliberations, Hello Kitty and My Melody place the investigation of the isles squarely (mostly) on your shoulders as they run off and start building their bakery and furniture establishments.
And from this point on, you’re free to explore Big Adventure Park! Well, somewhat anyway. In Hello Kitty Island Adventures, “progression” is dictated by the completion of story quests that open up new features across the isles. These quests will only appear as you explore and make friends with the Sanrio cast of characters—and nothing says friendship better than bribes presents! As soon as you get just a bit of freedom, you’re going to want to make and give as many presents as you can because if you leave the islands’ guests unfriended, you’re not going to open up the other features and functions of the game. Oh, but don’t think you can just dump truckloads of Rammstein and Fugazi albums onto the little red panda Retsuko or cool little doo-dads unto Chococat in a night: you’re limited to giving gifts three times a day (items to reset the limit not withstanding), which means your progression is solely dictated by how often you log into Island Adventures. The developer keeps adding new events and content to keep you coming back, too.
That was the last thing I was expecting to run into when I started this game, but I quickly grew into the routine and not worse for wear. See, when you don’t have much else to do but wait, you can instead explore Big Adventure Park and begin your resource amassing as you walk around haunted swamps, derelict volcanoes and valleys, underwater zones, you name it. Solving puzzles will net you cool stuffs and though key quests will slowly be made available over time, you’ll have plenty of side quests that get you to open up with the Sanrio cast of animals as well as getting new fits and furniture to trick out yourself and the cabins that are available across the game world. Making these cabins more homely will also tempt other Sanrio-knowns like Hello Daniel, Macaron, Mocha, and the like. You can even get them to stay, depending on their requirements!
You’ll always have something to do when you hop on the game every day, but I never felt particularly compelled to stay logged in for hours on end to complete chores. Heck, most of my time was spent just exploring the islands and completing quests as they came up. As that happened, my chore list lessened thanks to the help of the weird little island helpers, the “Nulls”, among other things that unlocked. But alas, I was drawn to the comprehensive Wiki.gg page for the game to best maximise my friendship returns—but note that you don’t need to do this, but you will be better off seeing what gifts should go where as resources are limited.
(Sanrio/Sunblink)
I’m tempted to say that Hello Kitty Island Adventure is quite similar to something like ‘Animal Crossing’, but I prefer the game design here as opposed to Nintendo’s casual life sim title thanks to a more-freeing exploration system and how often the game looks to engage the player in tasks for rewards. This does make Island Adventure come off as more busy work at times, especially when your tasks are being updated and presented to you atop the UI at all times. And considering that progression is locked behind daily resets of resources and requirements, sometimes you might just log in and feel like you don’t have much else to do but wait for the next day. There is coop play too, but I didn’t really feel compelled to try it. On the flip side, this does make the game easier to digest and I simply rotated it amongst my gachas, made easy in part thanks to cross saves between macOS and iOS. This iPhone 11 I still keep around may be dying, but I don’t need much else to play this game. Plus, controllers are supported!
But I also really enjoyed hanging out with the Sanrio residents and seeing their personalities shine. I mean, I would assume the vast majority of Hello Kitty merch buyers likely don’t know the characters themselves, and it’s nice to see those adorable little creatures finally do and say things. Hello Kitty hanging out with My Melody is a treat and seeing Kuromi make herself at home in the haunted swamps feels natural, while Keroppi mucks about and collects bugs and creatures for the little conservatory he’s opened up. Down the line, you’ll help Pekkle restore the rocky valley into a music and dance paradise, but not before dragging Retsuko along a fiery volcano ride and getting her to pull off her signature screech-into-the-mic gag to calm down (everyone’s reaction to this is quite amusing). All in all, it’s quite nice to be part of “the gang”.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is both relaxing and oddly time consuming cosy life sim adventure. If getting things done day-by-day sounds like an appealing premise, this is a game for you. You’ll get to hang out with a family of Sanrio characters as you build your homes and trick yourself out. It’s a good time here on the island of Big Adventure Park and I don’t think there’s anything quite like this one out there. ∎
Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Played on
macOS/iPhone 11
PROS
- Cosy island goodness.
- Fun exploration and puzzles.
- Questing is fun!
CONS
- Can feel like a chore at times due to progression locks.
