It is so easy to compare Hello Kitty Island Adventure to Animal Crossing so forgive me when that seems like a running theme here. The most glaring similarity is that they are both island-based cozy life sim games full of cute characters with tasks to complete and areas to unlock. The real questions are would an avid Animal Crossing fan get much joy out of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and does Island Adventure stand alone as a decent cozy life sim?
A Review of Hello Kitty Island Adventure
As someone who has played both Animal Crossing and Hello Kitty Island Adventure, it was easy to see the similarities as the game progressed. You arrive on an abandoned island ready to make a new life and new friends, and your first tasks involve building relationships and repairing buildings for visitors.
The friendship aspect of Hello Kitty Island Adventure is cute and I do enjoy the fact you have to befriend these characters in order to progress in the game, but the only drawback is that the process is limited. You can only give a Gift to each friend three times a day which means you can’t really binge-play through the first quests. I personally found it frustrating that I’d have to wait until the next day to upgrade the friendship and start a new quest.
Related | How to Play Hello Kitty Island Adventure
My favorite part of any game is usually the challenges, quests, or tasks. Completing quests pushes that little dopamine button that makes my brain go brrr so that is where Island Adventures wins over Animal Crossing for me. There are lots of little things to do and places to unlock as you go, with puzzles and tasks to complete, it is just a shame you run out of things to do each day when depending on leveling up friendships. Another great thing about Island Adventure compared to Animal Crossing is that you are not at the behest of some mafia-boss money-laundering raccoon-like Tom Nook. At least the Hello Kitty lot seems more like a little family rather than a group of fickle and occasionally annoying acquaintances.
As a standalone game, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is pretty decent. The graphics are what you would expect for a game of this type and it doesn’t feel like a cynical money-grab (although I am sure this is an arguable opinion). The quests and tasks have a good variation although the finding-items tasks can be a little repetitive, and the puzzles are just the right side of manageable without being boring. No one wants a seriously tricky puzzle in their cozy relaxing game! If you are a Hello Kitty fan already you would love it, of course, but even if you are just after a nice cozy game to pick up once a day this isn’t a bad choice. I was actually about to cancel my Apple Arcade subscription but this adorable little island life adventure game has made me reconsider.
Published: Jul 31, 2023 07:11 am