Game: Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Genre: Simulation, Adventure, Lifestyle
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows) and Apple Arcade)
Developer | Publisher: Sunblink
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3+
Price: US $39.99 | UK £35.99 | EU € 39,99
Release Date: January 30th, 2025
Review code used, with many thanks to Forty Seven PR.
Join Hello Kitty and her friends on a tropical vacation in Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Landing on a mysterious island, can you uncover the mystery, restore the island and make it a paradise?
Although there are various games in the Hello Kitty franchise, like Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade, I’ve had very little experience of the whole Hello Kitty world, so I’m curious to know whether this will limit my enjoyment of Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
As winner of the Apple Arcade Game of the Year in 2023, will it be a winner for me?
Heading for a Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Once greeted by Hello Kitty, you have the opportunity to customise your character. There are 6 different animal types to choose from, with various facial features, and different fur/colour palettes. There are a handful of tops and bottoms to select from, and with the intriguing greyed-out options of items to find, it’s pleasing to know that you can update your character at any mirror you find.
You find yourself aboard a plane heading to Big Adventures Park. It’s located on a strange island, which no-one has heard about for years, yet suddenly it’s open again. By chatting to all the other passengers, you learn a little about their character (especially useful if you are new to Hello Kitty) and their thoughts on the island.
You also learn that My Melody received a mysterious invitation to open a shop on the island and with your help, she is sure that it will be successful.
After a small ‘incident’ on the plane, and a little mini-game to land, you find yourself in the resort plaza of Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
The Hello Kitty Island Adventure Guiding Light
Some games just drop the player into the action and leave them to work out what to do. Hello Kitty Island Adventure has the opposite approach, not only do you have exclamation marks showing a quest, but also the quests are tracked on screen and just in case you are still unsure, you can follow the guiding light which will lead you to the exact location. I was concerned that it would be too prescriptive, however, at the click of an option, you can turn off the on-screen tracking and extinguish the guiding light.
To begin learning how to play, Hello Kitty needs you to find My Melody, and Pochacco gives you a strawberry to give to her as a healthy snack. When you find My Melody, she explains in detail about gifting and friendship. This is such a key factor in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, that when you are requested to go to My Melody’s shop for the next quest, she reiterates the gifting process.
As your friendship level increases with an island resident, you unlock gifts, quests and the companion ability. This allows you to ask that resident to join you on your adventures around the island. Doing so will give you a special ability, maybe the chance to craft an extra item, or cook an additional dish.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a quest fest and collector’s paradise. The quests come in thick and fast, although some will require specific friendship levels or other quests to be done before you can unlock or complete them. However, with gifting limited to three per real-world day (resetting at 7 am GMT), there is a slight cap to how much progression can be made with some of the quests each day. That said, with real-world daily and weekly quests, and seasonal events, there is still more than enough to keep busy for several hours per day. Giving items as part of a quest does not count towards the three gifts, but can still increase the friendship.
Other Activities in Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Apart from working out the best gifts to progress the friendship as quickly as possible, there are plenty of other activities.
Fishing is unlocked when Badtz-maru is at friendship level 3 (not too difficult to achieve). Once you’ve made a rod, he will explain how to fish, by keeping the white arrow as close to the centre of the bar as possible. Fish can be gifted or traded and with over 40 types, there are plenty to catch.
Perhaps you’d prefer to use a net rather than a rod, then there are plenty of critters to catch around the islands. Just befriend Keroppi and unlock the Nature Preserve to start collecting them.
Some fish and critters are only available at a certain in-game time. There are 4 in-game time periods in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, lasting in total about a real-world hour. However, when you get your own cabin and bed, you can alter the in-game time of day as needed.
Hello Kitty, who decides to run a cafe on the island, will explain how to cook. Select the ingredients and a cut-scene takes over the cooking part. There are various cooking stations scattered across the islands, focusing on a different type of food. You can cook cakes in the cafe, pizzas near the volcano, and make ice cream and sodas in the desert area. These items can then be gifted.
As well as collecting over 130 comics and more than 150 music discs, which are scattered around the islands, you can also photograph Gudetama, who are cute, little egg creatures.
For a change of pace, you might want to play a mini-game, hosted by one of the Nul’s (who love to swap hats) or maybe solve one of the many puzzle rooms.
There really is so much to do, collect, and achieve in Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Uncovering the Hello Kitty Island Adventure Mystery
The main story quests in Hello Kitty Island Adventure focus on opening up the Big Adventures Park and solving the mystery of who TOPHAT is. Each area requires a specific quest and three power crystals to uncover the next instalment. Although you can collect some of the power crystals prior to the quest, the main priority is to increase the friendship of the particular island resident to unlock the task.
Exploring the Hello Kitty Island Adventure world is a highlight of the game. The swamp is spooky, the desert is dusty and the volcano fiery. Plus, once you get the snorkel, diving in the reef is amazing. Cinnamoroll (who has to be my favourite Hello Kitty character) will give you access to fast travel, once you locate the mailbox in that area. The map shows the fast travel points, where each resident is, your cabin and any quests.
At points I felt like I was breaking the ‘rules’ by trying to climb up cliff faces, but no, this is part of the Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Explore as much as you can, because there will still be more to uncover when you get the next tool or increase your stamina wheel.
And just when you think Hello Kitty Island Adventure can’t give any more, you learn you can invite other Hello Kitty characters to visit. Each visitor has a list of requirements and if achieved, they might visit, spending a real-world day on the island. Some visitors are seasonal, so there is plenty to look forward to! When you get a visitor, they’ll give you a quest, which on completion increases your friendship levels. And if you befriend them enough, they might decide to make Hello Kitty Island Adventure their home.
Gameplay
The controls for Hello Kitty Island Adventure are straightforward and on-screen prompts appear if required. There is no touchscreen functionality and unfortunately, I was unable to test the online co-op play.
There are some frame-rate issues, but nothing which really spoils the flow of the game. Annoyingly, Hello Kitty Island Adventure seems to default to tracking at least one quest, most noticeable on reloading a save file. Sometimes I struggled with selecting a tool on the tool wheel, as it seemed sequential, rather than directional.
With a game full of exploration, I did manage to get stuck in places I shouldn’t have tried climbing to, but Hello Kitty Island Adventure was prepared and immediately reset my player location.
There are three save slots, but the game only autosaves at key points, so it’s important to use the manual save available to ensure no gameplay is lost.
Conclusion
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a wonderful combination of building friendships, questing, exploring, and collecting, all set in a bright and colourful world.
I wasn’t sure if the Hello Kitty cuteness and the daily nature of progress would work for me, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the game. Even though we are at the start of 2025, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a strong contender for one of my games of the year.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up 
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