Hello Kitty Island Adventure Is Good Actually
From passing reference in a South Park episode, to full-blown playable game, Sunblink Entertainment’s Sanrio-themed adventure looked to be another cynical cash-grab. I didn’t think it could be anything more than another miserable, thread-bare, micro-payment infused casino masquerading as a game. I was very, very wrong.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is based, actually.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is… really good actually.
And not just in an “oh it’s funny how a game about Sanrio characters is actually passable” way. I mean this game is astonishingly, ridiculously good for a game about Sanrio characters.
At a glance it looks like a two bit knock-off of Animal crossing and, indeed, it adopts some of the franchise’s tropes- you’ll explore, gather resources, craft things, catch bugs, fish, we all know the drill. But upon putting far more hours than I’d like to admit into this game, I found at least as much in common with Bugsnax or A Short Hike. HKIA is a casual, relaxing, slow paced adventure built around a mostly linear narrative that guides you through unlocking and exploring new regions. But it’s not just a simple adventure- it has puzzle shrines, albeit simple ones. That’s not the only thing borrowed from Breath of the Wild; you’ll also find yourself contending with a very familiar looking stamina wheel as you climb or swim your way around. As such the lure to try and sequence break, stubbornly climbing your way up things that perhaps should not yet be climbable, is strong and – of course – I managed to break the game by having items I probably shouldn’t have.
It has fishing and … puzzle shrines!!?
It’s a simple game. But I like simple games. The older I get, the more I want something I can just lose myself in without thinking too much.
Gameplay is stretched over multiple days, but not in a “you must wait 24 hours for this house to finish building, or spend £1.99 to build it now” way. Hello Kitty Island Adventure tries to dole itself out in measured daily doses, limiting what you can do each day. Only three gifts to each character, resources won’t respawn, that sort of thing. Sometimes this means you’re totally roadblocked for progress and must put the game down until the next day.
The game’s economy – unlike the cash-driven capitalist dystopia of Animal Crossing – is fuelled by friendship. There are more common resources that are almost a stand-in for cash, but there’s no explicit currency. Everything is traded for, which may mean swapping some resources for an item, or giving gifts to level up the friendship meter of each character. Gifts are reciprocated and levelling up friendships grants access to bonus items and meters out the game’s story quests.
Much of the crafting economy feeds into this gift-giving process. You can level up friendships faster by giving more appropriate, rarer gifts and these are often attained by finding the raw materials and crafting them yourself. You can also bring new visitors to the island by crafting furniture and furnishing little single-room villas, each of which must be unlocked with yet more resources found on the island. You don’t have your own home, either, your role in the game is altruistic almost to a fault. You are – at least – afforded the luxury of swappable outfits and you can even recreate your character on a whim, giving you the opportunity to try out the new colour swatches you’ll unlock along the way.
Decorate houses. Decorate yourself. This is a friendship and altruism simulator that’s a far cry from Animal Crossing’s dystopian capitalist rat race.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure also works with the Razer Kishi, which has been gathering dust since I stopped playing Bugsnax. That’s a game controller you clamp onto an iPhone, for the uninitiated. It’s a lot easier to play the game with a controller, though some UI elements – such as the item select radial menu – are still easier to tap. And you can do just that- using a controller doesn’t prevent you from using the touchscreen and vice versa. I suppose it makes sense to have comprehensive controller support, since there are macOS and tvOS versions (though mouse and WASD work just fine in macOS).
There’s clearly something to this Apple Arcade. I activated my free trial to play Hello Kitty and I don’t regret it. This is the first mobile game I’ve played since dabbling in Genshin Impact, and it not only not awful, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It’s absolutely refreshing to be able to play something on my phone that isn’t saddled with a dizzying array of nonsense currencies, gambling and deliberate attempts to frustrate you into paying to skip gameplay. And yes, I’m absolutely the kind of snarky git who’ll respond to a mobile game press release with: “Why would I want to pay to NOT play the game!?” Miss me with that garbage, please. More games like Hello Kitty Island Adventure, please!
So uh, don’t wait up, give the game a try and send me your Gudetama selfies.