Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Hello Kitty Island Adventure (Switch) – Nintendo Life
GuestGuestLogin | Sign UpNintendo LifeGuestLogin or Sign UpFeaturing Kuromi, Cinnamoroll, and more!Last week saw the arrival of Hello Kitty Island Adventure on the Nintendo Switch. Apart from featuring an all-star cast of Sanrio characters, the game takes a fair bit of inspiration from the Animal Crossing series while also freshening up the genre.As more reviews have been published, we’ve now got a round up. Starting with ours here on Nintendo Life, we thought this was a “great” experience on the Switch – awarding it 8/10:”Hello 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.”New Fur-izonsHere’s what a bunch of other outlets thought about the Switch version of this release:”Hello Kitty Island Adventure on the Switch is giving players a chance to finally get their hands on one of the biggest surprises of the last five years. While it may not be as good as games like Animal Crossing, it never tries to copy or replicate. In fact, it does a lot of things better, and offers a ton of content for you to do every single day you play.””Playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure on the Switch after following it since its Apple Arcade debut means I got to see it grow, and this Animal Crossing style game improved since its debut. Sunblink put a lot of work in, both in terms of quality of life changes, additional quests, more events, and new content. I’d recommend someone play it more now than I did before.””For fans of Sanrio’s lovable cast of characters, Hello Kitty Island Adventure might scratch an itch left in the wake of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in the broadest sense. On the surface, its large and colorful world, cutesy critters, and never-ending to-do list feel energetic and new. But sadly, that surface is all there is. A shallow pool of endless gifting and mindless tasks are locked behind daily progression gates to distract you from the fact that you are, in fact, never getting anywhere fast.””Although it can use improvements in some areas, the Switch version of Hello Kitty Island Adventure is absolutely worth picking up if you’ve been looking for an Animal Crossing-like game to try out and either don’t have an iPhone or are on the fence about getting an Apple Arcade subscription and prefer one-time payments. It plays well with no major performance issues””It provides the charm of an Animal Crossing game, but focuses on the exploration, creating moments of adventure and fun across the way. Taking a mine cart ride through a volcano with your friends is a blast, and wandering through a haunted house with Kuromi the goth character is hilarious.”Have you tried out this game on the Switch yet? Let us know in the comments.About Liam DoolanLiam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He’s been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief.Comments 29Waiting for my physical copy to be released and arrive…I mean, this is embarrassing to say… but I kind of want to play this. haha Is it time to start lying to people and tell them I have a niece that uses my switch?Butters has good taste. I’m glad he didn’t read the IGN review.Also, Retsuko! ❤️That’s some fairly consistent reviews even with the standard IGN outlier.@SoIDecidedTo Nothing embarrassing about it; a game is a game. If it looks fun, you should get it 😀@SoIDecidedToDid you know that, officially, Hello Kitty’s biggest regret in life is that she targeted herself towards young girls for too long, and let down all of the boys and adults that are her fans?So Kitty’s got your back. She understands. We all need some kawaii from time to time. This game is for everyone, and you shouldn’t be embarrassed in the least.Been playing on Switch since launch. Nice game with a very cozy grind. Definitely scratches that Animal Crossing itch. I’ve always wanted a cozy life sim in a Zelda world, and this just barely touches on the concept. Hopefully in the Switch 2 era developers try to capitalize on the cozy genre in epic ways that take the genre to new heights.@ErigenRetsuko just keeps delivering. Every one of her quests is an absolute gem.It’s also so great how she seems like she’s just in a different world. Talk to any other character, it’s cute, cute, friendship, love, talk to her and “WHY IS MY BOSS CALLING ME ON VACATION?”@SoIDecidedTo I’m 40 years old dude and I played girlie games like Barbie, Hello Kitty, Cooking Mama, Fashion games, etc. No need to feel embarrassing. Just play the game and enjoy it.@SoIDecidedTo I admit I may not be the target audience for Sanrio in general. The only Sanrio stuff in my collection are the Animal Crossing-Sanrio collaboration amiibo cards, Sanrio Characters Picross on the 3DS and a Pochaco-Time Wizard from the Sanrio-Yu-Gi-Oh! collaboration at McDonald’s.But if I ever get a chance to play this, I’ll do it without any prejudice or feeling ashamed.I’m someone who once played Super Princess Peach in public at a time everyone was saying I should’ve been ashamed of my manliness for doing it.@LoroTalby If you like cozy zelda-likes, it might be worthwhile trying Infinity Nikki. The advertising catch phrase is ‘The Coziest Open-World Game’. The game borrows a lot from BotW but fundamentally is a cozy fashion game with bug catching, fishing, lots of chill exploring even though there are occasional monster camps, etc. It’s less a life sim and more a fashion rpg, but it definitely has cozy plus zelda vibes.It’s not actually on Switch but it’s on everything else (mobile, PS5, PC) and hopefully will be on Switch 2.I really like cozy games in interesting genres.Have access to this on iOS with Apple Arcade. Guess I may need to check it out!@SoIDecidedTo whatever you need to do. I mean personally this looks extremely boring and not in my taste ie Animal Croaaing, life Sim games…if hello kitty was playing hockey or a metroidvania hello kitty I could get down to it. Plus you’ve done more embarrassing things then play Hello Kitty. Heck I watched Power Rangers into the 6th grade now that was embarrassing@awp69 you should! There’s actually more areas available on the Apple Arcade version that don’t have an ETA on other platforms. I have the switch version but went back to Apple Arcade.@SoIDecidedTo Better yet, don’t be embarrassed and let yourself have fun. Sanrio has something for everyone.@Xoterin Nice. Good to know!I don’t think “getting anywhere fast” was ever my priority when playing a game like this. Looks like it has a lot more to do than ACNH which, if I’m honest, was a pretty big letdown after New Leaf.@Anti-Matter I think a lot of games aimed at kids are pretty boring, but so long as you aren’t playing games with kids you don’t know or something, just enjoy what you enjoy.@SoIDecidedTo nothing wrong with indulging in a harmless guilty pleasureLove to see even more positive reception to this game (except for IGN, but that’s expected at this point) – looking forward to playing it myself when my physical copy arrives and I have the time to play it!@SoIDecidedTo As others have said, just enjoy the game if you think you’d like it! Worrying about what others will think is a sad way to live (and mostly they are not thinking about you at all).@rvcolem1 It’s not really hockey, but it’s a bit like air hockey: have you ever played Sanrio World Smash Ball for Super Famicom? I’m a lifelong Sanrio fan and will usually at least attempt to play their games; that was my favorite Sanrio game for years until recently they decided to start knocking it out of the park first with their rhythm game (Happiness Parade) and now this game.I love it how this got a review here but major release Phantom Brave 2 did not (not that HKIA is bad or anything Im interested myself)Well… This certainly wasn’t on my radar.”Arguably the best game of this console generation. Needs a dwarf class though. 9/10″ – Leopold “Butters” Stotch@FishyS I’ve not played, but from what I’m hearing, Nintendo needs to take note of Infinity Nikki and be worried. A F2P game that’s this popular is going to eat into sales of things like Animal Crossing.@World I didn’t even know what Sanrio was until I read this article, so no I havent had a chance to play itAnimal crossing clone this is definitely NOT. There are a lot of very complex puzzles that will have you scratching your head, especially the haunted house which resembles Luigi’s Mansion 3 in a lot of ways. There’s a lot of complex overlapping quests all through the game too. Don’t let the cute appearance of this fool you! This is a game for all gamers. Unless you need something super easy like Animal Crossing. In other words, if you’re looking for a sandbox game, this isn’t it. Great game tho, and I’d rate it a 10.Definitely planning to pick this up. I hope it is simple enough for our kiddos to play.@rvcolem1 Haha, that’s definitely fair! If you ever have access to it though, it’s a good one for that arcade/puzzle air hockey vibe with Sanrio characters.@SoIDecidedTo No need to feel embarrassed! Enjoy what you want, as long as you aren’t harming anyone with it who cares? If someone does give you grief for it, tell them to eff off. Show CommentsLeave A CommentHold on there, you need to login to post a comment…Nintendo Reconfirms Release Windows For Major Upcoming Switch Games… and the Switch 2!69 Games You Should Pick Up In Nintendo’s ‘Supercharge’ eShop Sale (North America)Every game we scored 9/10 or higherEx-PlayStation Boss On Switch 2’s Name: Nintendo Created So Much “Brand Value””Why would you mess with that?”Rumour: Switch 2 Game Cases Might Take Up More Space On Your ShelfHere’s how they could compare to the current Switch cases”Nintendo Is Probably The Easiest To Scam” – Devs Discuss The Current State Of The eShopThe rise of “eSlop”Game 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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