Hello Kitty Island Adventure actually filled the Animal Crossing: New Horizons hole in my heart

Skydiving out of a plane beside Hello Kitty has always been a dream of mine, and after playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure, I can finally tick it off my bucket list. Similar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I've signed up to relocate to a tropical island with a bunch of adorable characters. Thankfully, the people I've signed up for this experience with are pretty friendly and just want to exchange gifts with me all the time, so I think I'm going to like it here.

Since the release of Nintendo's hit game, we've seen countless others inspired by the New Horizons life, and Hello Kitty Island Adventure is no exception. Both games require you to make yourself at home on a deserted island, with cute neighbors and life sim gameplay - but there's something special about Sunblink's game that's got me feeling like it's March 2020 all over again.

I was always going to be more interested in Hello Kitty Island Adventure over similar games due to its connection to the Japanese gift company, Sanrio. As you may know, Hello Kitty and all of her friends have come straight from Sanrio's mascot catalog. This means, while exploring the island, you'll meet the likes of My Melody, Kuromi, Pompompurin, Tuxedo Sam, Aggretusko, and so many more. Getting to hang out and interact with all of these characters first-hand feels like Disneyland for Sanrio fans, but there's more to Hello Kitty Island Adventure than just small gifts and big smiles.

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What dreams are made of

In Hello Kitty Island Adventure, you create your own Sanrio-style persona (either a dog, cat, or bird), customizing everything from the eyes, fur color, body type, and more. Once you're on Friendship Island, you'll need to introduce yourself to your new endearing neighbors. All of the characters have their own interests, personalities, and base on the island. My Melody owns the local gift shop, for example, while Hello Kitty runs the island's cafe, and Kuromi can be found at her favorite haunt: the Spooky Forest.

One thing I enjoyed about Hello Kitty Island Adventure is just how much there is to do each day. Now that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is over three years old, I struggle to find a reason to check in with my island each day. Thankfully in Hello Kitty's island getaway, there's always so many tasks and challenges for me to undertake - whether it's exchanging gifts with the islanders, sourcing items, crafting, baking, catching critters, setting up houses for the various guests that visit, and much more.

Having a new universe that I can hop into over the course of the day again has been really enjoyable, especially since I can play Hello Kitty Island Adventure on my iPad using touchscreen controls, or a set of Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons. Sadly, this does mean that the only way you're able to play is with an Apple device, or an Apple Arcade subscription.

Something Hello Kitty Island Adventure has, that Animal Crossing: New Horizons doesn't, is the random mini-games spread around the island. Every so often, you'll come across an ancient temple that has puzzles of varying levels for you to complete. These puzzles aren't difficult to solve and usually give you useful items, plus they don't take away from the rest of the typical cozy gaming experience - something I was cautious of when seeing the game's first trailer. These puzzles also give you a change of pace when you need things to be shaken up during your playthrough.

Egg Hunt

"I feel like I've played for countless hours now, but there's still so much of Friendship Island for me to explore, with plenty of challenges to complete."

My personal highlight for Hello Kitty Island Adventure so far has got to be the Gudetama Snap mini-game. When I first noticed that my favourite Sanrio character would be in the cozy life sim, I couldn't wait to meet them. This got even better though when I discovered the way that you get to meet them is through an appropriately themed mini-game. For this, you need to keep an eye out for the lazy egg who is scattered across Friendship Island. Once you've found the egg, you take a selfie with them which, depending on the number you take, leads to various Gudetama-themed rewards. For the record, I currently have 40-something snaps in my collection, but there's still so many more for me to find.

Sunblink said that Hello Kitty Island Adventure feels like an AAA experience, and after playing it for the last couple of weeks, I can see what the developer was talking about. I feel like I've played for countless hours now, but there's still so much of Friendship Island for me to explore, with plenty of challenges to complete. I may have only scratched the surface, but I can't wait to unlock even more of Hello Kitty's island resort, try out the game's multiplayer, and track down all 96 Gudetamas.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure is available to play now via Apple Arcade.

Take a look at our games like Animal Crossing list to find out what else should be on your radar.

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.