Review: Hello Kitty Island Adventure (Switch) – A Cute Social Sim That Takes Notes From Nintendo’s Best – Nintendo Life

GuestGuestLogin | Sign UpNintendo LifeGuestLogin or Sign UpHello Kitty Island AdventureSwitch eShop2025 N/AGame RatingUser Ratings: 0Our Review: Scroll DownNew Fur-izonsVersion Reviewed: North AmericanHello Kitty Island Adventure released on Apple Arcade in July 2023 to generally positive reviews. A year and a half later, the Switch release brings a charming cast of Sanrio characters and their island resort to a wider audience—an audience ultimately in for a good time.Hello Kitty Island Adventure opens on a plane en route to a mysterious resort with lots of familiar faces from the Sanrio franchise on board. After creating an animal avatar of our own (a moody purple bunny), we soon found ourselves jumping out of the plane and gliding to the ground with a handful of balloons. We get our first major quest shortly after touching down: find everyone who was scattered across the island during the descent.Despite having a big quest to start us off, the game gave us a refreshing amount of free reign to begin exploring and building relationships right off the bat. Within the first hour of gameplay, we’d only tracked down a couple of lost characters but had also picked up a handful of other quests and ventured into areas that we probably weren’t supposed to have access to just yet. While we liked being let off the leash, we also managed to get pretty lost during the early gameplay from the sheer inability to focus on any one task.Hello Kitty Island Adventure has been noted as sharing similarities with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and there is an obvious inspiration in gathering mechanics, home decoration, and even the bubbly art style. Possibly even more noticeable, though, is the clear inspiration in exploration mechanics from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Our ability to scale cliffsides and swim underwater was determined by an upgradable green stamina wheel, and our handful of balloons acted as an at-will glider. There were even dungeons with their own only-sometimes challenging puzzles to find and loot.The map itself had a surprising amount of depth, with different terrains like a swamp, desert, and volcano. Each time we thought we’d explored every corner, we’d find a new dungeon to delve into, circuit race to beat, or Gudetama to photograph. Quest lines unlocked at higher friendship levels with different characters opened up even more hidden areas and abilities, making the game feel just that much richer as we progressed through the storyline.Exploration is at the heart of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, but the game doesn’t lack for other activities. We went fishing, caught critters, cooked meals, crafted items, played minigames, and rode mine carts. In place of currency, furniture and clothing items are purchased with specific combinations of items that can be foraged from around the map. These items are also used for crafting, cooking, and gifting. The gathering of resources can feel like a bit of a grind, but everything regenerates each day in real time, and there’s generally plenty to go around for those willing to put in the time.Making friends with the variety of cute creatures in Hello Kitty Island Adventure is paramount since main plotline quests are locked behind particular friendship levels. It’s easy enough to make nice at the earlier levels of friendship, especially while being able to give each character up to three items per day. The higher we went, however, the more difficult it became to budge that heart meter, making this another area of the game that can feel like a grind.Luckily, making friends has the added motivation of upgrading character abilities for when they’re asked to join in on adventures. We could have Hello Kitty herself hang out to increase our chance of producing extra food items at cooking stations or have Keroppi tag along to make catching bugs easier.We had a good time decorating our house and even putting together visitor cottages to entice new Sanrio characters to visit the resort, but ultimately didn’t feel compelled to spend much time at home when there was so much else to accomplish.The character creator, which could be accessed at any point in the game, was so much fun to play with that we found ourselves completely changing up our look multiple times. Customisation options for attire were expansive as well, with clothes dyeing becoming an option later in the game.Hello Kitty Island Adventure runs well on the Switch overall, but there were a few moments of frame rate lag as we ran around the expansive map, particularly when there were a lot of other moving objects on the screen. The camera angle also ended up in funny positions at times, clipping our view of what was happening behind a tree or other visual obstacle. On the whole, these were minor occurrences that didn’t drastically affect our play experience.Hello Kitty Island Adventure proves an innovative entry into the social sim genre. While borrowing from multiple powerhouse games, it brings a fresh experience that is likely to subvert the expectations of any Animal Crossing expats looking for their next cosy fix.Great 8/10Review copy provided by SunblinkHow we review productsScoring PolicyFull disclosure: Just prior to this review going live, former Nintendo Life staffer Kate Gray revealed online that she has contributed writing to the game. The NL team had no prior knowledge of this, and we understand that her contributions aren’t present in the Switch version at launch, but it should be noted all the same. Our congratulations to Kate – we look forward to seeing her work in-game!Related ProductsPlease note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.About Jess Elizabeth ReedJess is a writer and game designer based in Chicago. She writes speculative short fiction and cultural criticism about media at its intersections and designs small, weird games with an emphasis on mechanics as narrative.Comments 40It’s only January, and the GOTY is already here. The rest of the year is just the battle for second place. DISTANT second.Well Butters will be happyI’d rather play this than World of Warcraft!Doesn’t the “New Fur-izons” pun kinda imply that this is like the referenced game but with the addition of furry creatures? Except… yeah.🤔😅[/Iamfunatparties]This looks way more involved than I initially assumed it would be. I just want to become Hangyodon’s best friend, but I’m excited to see all the dungeon stuff too. I know it won’t be challenging, but sometimes I like to have a game where I don’t have to think about anything to wind down before bed. This looks ideal for that.@nhSnork It’s best if you don’t think about it too much.Thanks for the review, looking forward to playing my discounted physical copy of this when it arrives and I have the time for it even more than I already was – combining Breath of the Wild and Animal Crossing mechanics is a pretty good idea (except for the resources being tied to real time and the grinding in general, but I guess those are due to it being an Apple Arcade game originally)… but let’s be honest, the funniest thing about this game is that it’s an accidental reference to a South Park joke!They should at least acknowledge the fact that a tv show invented this game 😝 butters should at least have a thank you in the opening creditsI didn’t know until I saw from the launch trailer that Retsuko was also a character in the game.I am suddenly quite intrigued.”Butters, you said you’re on your Switch all the time?”This looks super adorable but sorry Kitty Disney Dreamlight Valley is my dedicated cozy gameWelp, gonna have to snag this eventually…. my bestie is a HUGE Sanrino fan lol. (I have Palia for my cozy game fix, but variety is the spice of life!)Sooo happy that this is finally on Switch! Just downloaded it, cannot wait to play later 😍Congrats to Kate on in-game writing!Wait why is Aggretsuko there? 😂2025 Game of the Year, no doubt.@nhSnork Hello Kitty is a confirmed furry.Next time there’s a lockdown worldwide pandemic I might pick this up. Or I might just keep playing Infinity Nikki for free.Was this also $60 on Apple Arcade or is that strictly a POP game rental service?Great review Jess! 😊Now that I can play Hello Kitty Animal Crossing I can die a happy multi-platinum album selling rapper.Too bad the physical version doesn’t come out until March. And they wonder why physical media is down.Oh how I’ve been hoping for a moderately playable and nice-looking Hello Kitty game for so long. Could this be the one?miss seeing your name on here, Kate! but congratulations on the continued writing success ❤️”New Fur-izons” Please don’t.Even better, the game has physical release on Switch. I wasn’t expecting Hello Kitty and Breath of the Wild to have something in common, but here we are. Glad to see that they delivered as many people were expecting it. I do see why Butters prefers it over World of Warcraft.”hello kitty herself” real ones know her names kitty. next we’ll be hanging out with “cinnamoroll” smh 😡😡jk of course. im glad the game seems decent enough but the deluxe edition feels so gross. “hey look, heres time-locked content we refuse to release for this platform just to arbitrarily sell as dlc!” why not just re-run past events? and what happens to the game once they stop adding in timed events, do they just never re-run anything and let the game rot? and do deluxe edition late-adopters miss out on anything not currently included in it? i think i’ll wait for a sale nglWe finally have Aggretsuko on Nintendo SwitchThe review doesn’t mention the day one DLC—sorry, the “Deluxe edition.” Are they planning a long-term microtransaction model? The base game’s already $50 CAD, and it’s $80 for a couple years of cosmetics. Should I just wait three years for the complete edition?@Williamfuchs420 Wait, so this game WASN’T a real game when Butters referenced it in that episode? Huh, I always assumed it was and this is just a remake/re-release of a 15-20 year old game or something.Sanrio says it has nothing to do with the joke, and yet they joined in the memes that spawned from said joke. Sure Sanrio, sure. They absolutely wanted to make it a real game, they just don’t want to admit it and get into a copyright dispute with Paramount.Damn this is a pretty good innocent fun game, no wonder Butter loves it. The review score on Metacritic was a decent 77/100. Very high indeed for a game of this caliber.@sunspottyOfficially, “Kitty White” is an entity that exists in the “real world”. She works for Sanrio, runs the Japanese tourist board, and is an alternate ambassador to the UN. The character she plays in media is “Hello Kitty”.This started, like I’m convinced most things in Japan did, as a pun. Because the subject is implied, “Hello Kitty desu” can
mean “Hello, I am Kitty” or “I’m Hello Kitty” … so her Iconic introduction is always introducing both “people” at the same time.This looks so cute! I love sanrioI am completely out of the loop, never seen Hello Kitty (I guess it is a show) and I have only seen 1 episode of South Park. I don’t like Animal Crossing so even if this is good it just isn’t for me.@rvcolem1You are one of today’s lucky ten thousand.Can’t encourage you enough to learn a bit about Hello Kitty. Truly an enigma. She’s addressed the UN general assembly 3 times. She’s run for Prime Minister of Japan twice. She is the official head of Japan’s board of tourism (if you’re lucky, she might reply to you if you e-mail them. There is zero fan-fair. Nothing to point out the message is from a cartoon cat. It’s just signed “KItty White”.) Someone in a Mascot custom takes the train from where she canonically lives to Sanrio headquarters at least once a week so that kids go home and tell their parents they saw Hello Kitty going to work.It’s honestly insane, but one of the happiest and most purely awesome human creation.I need this game. Super cute and I need something to play while waiting for a new animal crossing.@HeadPirate there was a whole store dedicated to Hello Kitty in a mall like 15 years ago, I think I was in St Louis. I was so very confused. Seems wholesome but my interest never went beyond a cursory recognition of the character. I have the same level of understanding of Hello Kitty as i have for Astroboy, DragonBall and Biker Mice From Mars.I only came here to see @Anti-Matter’s reaction.I can be actual friends with Retsuko and Kuromi? Just shut up and take my moneyCan’t wait!!! One of the video games I am looking forward to getting the most this year. Show CommentsLeave A CommentHold on there, you need to login to post a comment…69 Games You Should Pick Up In Nintendo’s ‘Supercharge’ eShop Sale (North America)Every game we scored 9/10 or higherReview: ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom In The Mist (Switch) – An Incredibly Polished, Downbeat MetroidvaniaOne that shouldn’t be mistJapan’s Switch eShop Will Soon No Longer Accept Overseas Payment MethodsChange will come into effect in MarchReview: Tales Of Graces f Remastered (Switch) – The Characters Steal The Show In This JRPG Classicf yeahPSA: Don’t Fall For This New ‘Wukong’ Game On The Switch eShopYou cheeky monkeyGame ProfileTitle:Hello Kitty Island AdventureSystem:Switch eShopAlso Available For:PS4, PS5Publisher:SunblinkDeveloper:SunblinkGenre:Adventure, Other, SimulationPlayers:1Release Date:Switch eShopSeries:Hello KittyReviews:Review: Hello Kitty Island Adventure (Switch) – A Cute Social Sim That Takes Notes From Nintendo’s BestOfficial Site:nintendo.comWhere to buy:Buy on Nintendo eShop
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