Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a fun life sim that is only held back by its technical performance on the Nintendo Switch. Outside of the frequent frame drops, the title is filled with pleasant activities to take part in and charming characters to befriend.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Developer: Sunblink
Price: $40
Platform: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PC, and Apple Arcade
MonsterVine was provided with a Switch code for review
I know little about Sanrio’s characters beyond last year’s Yu-Gi-Oh! collaboration, but I do love a good life sim, so I was more than down to check out Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Like most life sims, it turned out to be a cute and relaxing game to wind down with, though there were a couple of lingering issues present in the Switch version.
If you’ve ever played Animal Crossing or Disney Dreamlight Valley, you likely know what to expect from a game like Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Most of your time is spent interacting with familiar characters and performing tasks like fishing, bug-catching, swimming, and cooking. There are no time limits or punishments, so you’re free to do whatever you want whenever you want. This formula suits the adorable characters of Hello Kitty well, as living a relaxing daily life alongside them feels oddly fitting.
The game gets going pretty quickly, providing you with plenty of nearby characters to get to know, as well as activities to take part in to learn the ropes. Shortly after making your own character, you’re befriending folks like Hello Kitty and My Melody and exploring the mysterious island you’ve landed on. As you befriend each villager, you take on quests to unlock the ability to swim, fish, catch bugs, and more. It’s a brisk pace that can keep you busy for a good while right off the bat, which I appreciate.
“There are even more characters you can bring to the island by fulfilling requests, giving this game what will likely be a hefty lifetime …“
There are quite a few different biomes to explore, from a Wild West town to a spooky marsh area. Each one has a fitting character or two residing there, which makes it feel like you’re always making new friends as you explore the island. There are even more characters you can bring to the island by fulfilling requests, giving this game what will likely be a hefty lifetime, as the number of characters you can bring in is quite high.
One of the ways to attract these characters is to decorate houses with their requested items. Decorating houses is an enjoyable way to spend time, as you can find furniture pretty much everywhere to decorate with. The process of decorating feels a little bit cumbersome at first, but once you’re accustomed to it, it becomes quite enjoyable to set up aesthetically pleasing houses.
The only problem with Hello Kitty Island Adventure comes from its performance
My one major problem with Hello Kitty Island Adventure comes from the game’s performance on the Nintendo Switch. The frame rate would frequently drop and even freeze at random times, with seemingly little reason. I tried out the Apple Arcade version and didn’t seem to run into such issues, which leads me to believe it’s a Switch-exclusive issue. Unfortunately, I ran into heavy stuttering so often, as this was the only real issue I had with the game, but it proved to be a fairly large one.
Otherwise, the visual style is a delight. The locales are colorful, your avatar is incredibly cute, and the beloved characters you’re surrounded by are adorable. Hello Kitty Island Adventure doesn’t feel derivative of other similar titles because of how clearly it takes from the cutesy Sanrio aesthetic, from the charming visuals to the bubbly sounds that come with the dialogue.
The Final Word
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a delightful life sim that suffers from performance issues on the Nintendo Switch. The breadth of content to take part in is impressive, and the characters and dialogue are filled with charm. It’s a shame the technical performance is so all over the place because the game itself is a blast all around.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
