Hello Kitty Island Adventure is such a clever game in so many ways. Superficially, it looks like Animal Crossing, and will no doubt attract a similar audience for that reason. But it’s also a game that has an identity all of its own once you dig beyond the superficial, and while it’s a super relaxed and largely aimless experience, it’s one of the best showcases of the Sanrio character brands that we’ve ever seen.
Related reading: Also available on Switch is Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade. Our review.
So for those who aren’t so familiar with Kitty (beyond perhaps recognising the character): In Japan there is a company called Sanrio. It is most famous for Hello Kitty, but it has created dozens upon dozens of characters over its long history. Unlike, say, Disney’s Mickey Mouse, which became popular after appearing in movies and TV shows, or Nintendo’s Mario, which became iconic because of the video games, Sanrio’s characters aren’t actually in anything. They are created and then thrown into merchandise and then flooded into the market.
This is an enormously successful business model in Japan. Sanrio is a billion dollar company with 630 employees, a global business model, and even a theme park in Japan. Its success has been substantial enough that rival companies that sprung up to do the exact same thing (such as San-X and, famously, Rilakkuma). It’s popular because the characters are cute and appeal to the “kawaii” subculture, but also because there is a cultural resonance. Via Shinto the Japanese believe that everything has a spirit, and consequently there is a thriving culture for mascots that represent the personification of those spirits. Everything from cities to government agencies, individual products and entire businesses is a consequence of that mindset. Thanks to that there’s a market for companies that simply exist to create mascots.
In that context the largely aimlessness of Hello Kitty Island Adventure actually makes sense. You’re not there to do anything but hang out with your favourite characters, but if you’re playing the game the chances are that you have a favourite character, so hanging out with them is going to be enough (for me, it’s Pekkle. Pekkle is basically an ultra-cute Donald Duck. I also like Donald Duck).
The game on Switch is essentially the same as the Apple Arcade original, so the rest of my review will be a retread of that: The premise is simple. You – a self-created animal-like avatar – have joined Kitty & Co on a flight. Then, for some reason, everyone jumps out of the plane and lands gracefully on a massive and mysterious island. Your first goal is to reunite with everyone, as they’ve been scattered about the place. Your second goal is then to unlock the mysteries of the island and return the place to its thriving glory days.
You do this by completing tasks. Lots and lots and lots of tasks. An endless stream of tasks. You’re given tasks to track down things for pals, to build things using resources and a crafting table, to solve Zelda Breath of the Wild-inspired dungeons (albeit far simpler ones), and to solve puzzles to unlock more parts of the island. Then there are minigames to play, fishing and bug catching to indulge in and even photography tasks to complete. This is why Kitty differs from Animal Crossing. That game is really about existing in a space. Sure, there is stuff that you can do, but it’s almost a work of absurdism for the way it presents aimlessness and a lack of ambition as the ideal state of being.
Kitty, meanwhile, is very task-oriented. There is never any pressure or urgency to actually complete the tasks if you don’t want to, and the incentive – that you get to wander around the colourful world and interact with some of history’s finest mascot characters – is reward enough. However, it’s no exaggeration to say that Island Adventure makes Ubisoft games look relaxed on the task list. These tasks are at least enjoyable and can quickly result in hours whizzing by, but they do give the game a totally different texture to the Nintendo property that most people will compare it to.
While the entire Sanrio cast is way too expansive to squish into Island Adventure, the main ones are all there. You’ll get to hang out with Kitty, and My Melody, and Cinnamoroll. Retsko (from Aggretsuko) and Pekkle (otherwise known as the absolute best duck) even put in an appearance. Now, I will say that the developers could have done so much more to inject personalities in here. Each of the characters only has a couple of lines for the player, and they’re more there to give you quests and rewards, and occasionally let you give them gifts. It seems also a waste to have a mascot-driven game not do anything to enhance people’s understanding of the mascots. Last week’s Disney Illusion Island (battle of the islands!) did a better job as far in driving character and give people context about why these characters are so great.
But then again, Sanrio’s mascots were never about having a defined personality (with the exception of Retsko, of course). They were always blank slates so they could be a cuteness delivery system, and Island Adventure has that in spades. There is so much joy and bright wholesomeness in the presentation that you’ll have a big ol’ smile on your face every time you bump into one of the denizens.
The aesthetics are both simple, but effective. Island Adventure is a truly massive place to explore, and regions are broken up into various themes – volcano area, swamp area etc). Each of those spaces is a colourful feast for the eyes, and makes exploring and playing around in each of them bright and fun.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is one of those games that could only come from Japanese culture. There aren’t many other cultures that see an inherent spirit and soul in a mascot, and to most of the rest of us, mascots are tools to use for branding and marketing, or otherwise become famous because of their association with a product like a film or a game (hello Mario and Mickey Mouse). It’s rare that a mascot IS the product. But that’s what has happened with Hello Kitty. Before today, most Kitty games came across as a cheap effort to extract more cash from that lucrative product, but Hello Kitty Island Adventure is different. This is a genuinely worthwhile use of your time, and the fact that it’s also free of predatory microtransactions is the sweetener on top.
I am absolutely obsessed with this game… I don’t even want to look at how many hours I’ve played since it launched in late January. (I checked anyways. 55 hours quickly increasing, which averages out to about 4.5 hours daily.) It is so beautiful, especially underwater. The characters are all cheerful, death does not exist, and simply running around everywhere to collect everything possible is remarklably soothing. It is one of those games I can play when my everything is acting up at once because there’s zero frustration at any point.
Yeah it’s a super relaxed game. I tend to play it a bit later at night as a way to properly unwind before sleep. We need more of that kinda game.
Too bad Retsuko didn’t really catch on domestically, there was pretty much zero merch with her in Jaoanese stores. So it’s one of the few things she’s actually in.
But there’s also Gudetama wearing a slice of bacon as a blanket, so that’s automatically a win.
Thanks for the review, I really didn’t know what the game was beyond cute.
Retsuko is a bit different in Japan too – actually quite an experimental effort by Sanrio, as Retsuko was actually created for a purpose (the anime), and there isn’t all that much merch of her, even in Japan.
Not sure how popular she is over there in the grand scheme of Sanrio characters but she also doesn’t tend to rank highly in the polls they run from time to time. It’s a pity as I do like her as a different spin on the “Sanrio formula.”
Pekkle’s still my favourite though 😀