Hello Kitty is a property I’ve never really interacted with much throughout my life. Despite being everywhere, I never managed to get my foot in the door for one reason or another. That changed this month with Hello Kitty Island Adventure, which is available now on Nintendo Switch and PC. This tropical adventure is filled to the brim with content, so much so that I think you could easily play the game every day for two hours and still have things to do a year later. With 2025 just getting underway, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a great choice if you’re looking for your next relaxing getaway.
Welcome to Big Adventures Park
Hello Kitty Island Adventure starts with a bang—you and your pals end up jumping off a plane before it crashes, leaving you stranded on an island filled with mystery. This deserted island has homes already built, a resolute theme park, and more. Now, it’s up to you, Hello Kitty, and the others to restore the theme park as the perfect island destination resort.
There is so much to do on this island, it’s almost unspeakable. Right from the get-go, you’ll open up your map and see just how large it is. There are so many different regions to discover, with some you might not even expect like a spooky pumpkin and ghoul-themed area. From the outside, it might seem that Hello Kitty Island Adventure is almost identical to games like Animal Crossing, but that could not be further from the truth.
While Animal Crossing focuses on customizing every little aspect of your own island, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is exactly what the name implies—an adventure. Fancy a dive? You can swim through the water and dive beneath it to discover coral reefs. Wish you could cook your dream recipe? Gather some ingredients and get cooking with your friends. Additionally, you can even scale mountains, allowing you to climb areas that might seem inaccessible from below. And that’s truthfully just the beginning.
As you play through the game and unlock new areas of the map, your character’s abilities will grow, too. I really appreciated this as it offered new gameplay mechanics to keep me engaged. While sometimes life simulator titles can get a little monotonous in mechanics, Hello Kitty Island Adventure pushes past that to deliver fun and engaging gameplay. New friendships will unlock new mechanics, too, so you’ll naturally have more and more tools at your disposal.
My favorite parts of Hello Kitty Island Adventure were discovering new places on the map and learning more about the island’s mysteries. As I’ve mentioned, this map is massive. So massive that you have to scroll with the sticks to view the entire thing—it cannot fit on one screen. Even with a map so large, Sunblink has managed to keep things fresh with events like weather shaking up the environment and inviting new creatures and items to discover. When I didn’t find myself exploring or playing through the story, I engaged with arguably the biggest system available in the game: the power of friendship.
Making Friends
As you progress through Hello Kitty Island Adventure, your biggest task is to grow your friendships with the other island inhabitants, which will progress the story, unlock new items, and so much more. This is the core system in the game, and it is driven through Gifts. You can gift each character items that they like to grow your bond, with up to three gifts allowed per day. Different characters like different things, so you can expect to spend some time learning about each of the characters and what they like or don’t like.
The limited number of gifts ensures that you can only accomplish so much in one day, leaving room for more adventures tomorrow. This also applies to certain quests and events, which will require you to wait until the next real day for progress to be made or something to be unlocked. I think this feature is something that could be frustrating to some players who wish to just progress as they please, but like Animal Crossing, it is designed with the intention for you to spread your playtime out. Hello Kitty Island Adventure can easily be a game you play for an hour or two daily—and the game wants you to do that.
Despite the incredible amount of content, there are a few areas I wish had more variety, specifically with the quest structure. After a while, it’s hard to not feel the fetch-quest structure in many instances. You’ll often find yourself running to find items to craft a gift for one of your friends in hopes of raising that friendship level. This loop continues essentially endlessly, with new quests and items to find popping up as soon as you complete your current objective. There is a handy light ball that will take you exactly where you need to go, so you won’t run around endlessly searching for things unless you want to.
I only had time to play around 25 hours of the game, so it’s possible that this structure does indeed change as the game goes on. However, in my experience, it remained largely the same, and I believe this is something you should keep in mind, especially in the early hours of the game. Those looking to play a few hours each day without any shakeups will find Hello Kitty Island Adventure to offer a perfect gameplay loop. Just don’t come in expecting wild deviations from day-to-day life.
Some Technical Hiccups on Switch
With the Nintendo Switch version, there are definitely some compromises (mainly frame rate), but the game looks great for the most part. However, I did run into multiple frame drops and stutters where the game froze for a few seconds and slowed to single-digit FPS. These were kind of common, and it’s pretty jarring when it occurs.
Additionally, loading screens are very frequent on this Nintendo Switch version of the game. While it is to be expected with the hardware, sometimes these can be so frequent that it can take away from the atmosphere that the game tries to build. I found that for the most part, every building has a five-second loading screen when you enter and exit. Your tolerance may differ, but this was a very noticeable aspect of the game for me since they were so frequent.
Ultimately, for players who purchase a majority of games on Nintendo Switch, this might not be as noticeable for you. In my case, however, I felt that the loading screens were a bit too much at times, and those stutters were a little unpleasant. In regards to the technical issues, I think these can be easily ironed out with a patch or two, so it’s not something that should completely rule out buying the Switch. However, I think if you want higher frame rates and minimal loading times, Steam is the way to go—the system requirements are a breeze for almost anyone.
Your Next Cozy Adventure Awaits
If you are a big fan of Sanrio, I cannot recommend Hello Kitty Island Adventure enough if you’re looking for a new cozy game to start your 2025. This game is ginormous, and I expect you can easily be occupied for hundreds of hours. I don’t have any prior experience with many of these characters, but even I can tell just how much love was poured into each and every aspect of these characters and your interactions with them. Sunblink has crafted a very well-rounded title that is sure to keep you busy.
One hope I do have in the future is potentially the chance for cross-saving, as I know many on Apple Arcade will likely be disappointed their progress cannot be carried over to Nintendo Switch or PC. This feature would allow players to pick up and continue their adventures from any device they have the game on.
At the end of the day, though, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a tropical vacation worth taking. It’s the ultimate Sanrio celebration packed with all kinds of fun for people of all ages. Sunblink has provided countless free updates since the game launched in 2023, and I’m interested to see how the team evolves these with the game out now on PC and Switch. Even if it’s Winter, now’s the perfect time to jump in and kick off your island adventure.
Disclaimer: Sunblink provided Final Weapon with a Nintendo Switch copy of Hello Kitty Island Adventure for review purposes.
