Sanrio Animal Crossing successor Hello Kitty: Island Adventure gets off to a strong start on Steam, and a lot of fans are making the same 19-year-old South Park reference

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Hello Kitty: Island Adventure is now on Nintendo Switch and PC

Hello Kitty Island Adventure screenshot showing Hello Kitty, a chibi-style cat character with white fur and a pink bow, smiling while waving
(Image credit: Sunblink Entertainment)

Sanrio's frosting-sweet Animal Crossing descendant Hello Kitty: Island Adventure has just landed on Nintendo Switch and Steam, where nearly all of the 2023 game's most popular reviews reference the same 19-year-old South Park episode.

"Butters personally recommended this game to me," says a review with over 300 "helpful" ratings. "He's a true gamer, and I got to say, his recommendation was spot on. 10/10, definitely pick this one up."

Butters – the most innocent child in South Park – unintentionally shares a crystalline vision of the future in a 2006 episode. While all the other boys in town are working on their World of Warcraft builds, Butters decides the MMORPG isn't for him.

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"You said you're on your computer all the time," Cartman scoffs in front of all their friends.

"Yeah," continues cutie Butters, "but I'm playing Hello Kitty: Island Adventure." The room is silent.

It took nearly 20 years, but developer Sunblink eventually avenged Butters – though, Sanrio first teased making an Island Adventure game in a 2008 April Fool's joke. Either way, fans can now honor Butters by grinding coconuts on Apple Arcade, or Switch, or PC.

"I don't play World of Warcraft," one Steam review with nearly 150 "helpful" ratings says bravely, "but I'm playing Hello Kitty: Island Adventure."

Animal Crossing's "obscure references" were all "localized out completely" before its debut in the West, as Nintendo felt it needed to "change everything."

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.