Back in 2023, Sunblink and Sanrio launched Hello Kitty Island Adventure exclusively for iOS s on the Apple Arcade, but now, they’re putting the game in even more players' hands with a launch on the Nintendo Switch and PC. While PlayStation and Xbox s will eventually also gain access to this marvelous Hello Kitty adventure, they will unfortunately have to wait a little longer as an official release date has not been shared for those consoles yet. Regardless, 2025 appears to be shaping up to be a great year for Sanrio fans all around.

For those who will be venturing to the island for the first time, Hello Kitty Island Adventure follows the story of Hello Kitty and friends who are embarking on a peaceful island getaway to see My Melody, who has been invited to open a new gift shop there. Unfortunately, due to some issues during travel, all the engers end up separated in Big Adventures Park, which is also found to be seemingly abandoned. However, all is not lost as players will work alongside various Sanrio friends, after creating their own custom Sanrio-style avatar, to restore the resort to its former glory and solve some mysteries along the way.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure Is Everything Players Hoped For

Being Cozy, Addictive, & Cute, Hello Kitty Island Adventure Clearly Knows Its Audience

Since its initial announcement, fans speculated that Hello Kitty Island Adventure would essentially be Animal Crossing, but with Sanrio characters. While it’s not exactly like Animal Crossing, a game that coincidentally had an official collab with Sanrio, there’s no doubt that Sunblink has delivered something that exceeds expectations, especially for what was initially a mobile exclusive. Unlike Animal Crossing, where players play as the only human among a village of anthropomorphic animals, Hello Kitty Island Adventure allows players to fit in with Hello Kitty and friends.

Players have five general avatar bodies to choose from, including ones that resemble a Bird, Horse, Sheep, Bunny, Cat, and Dog. From there, players are welcomed to the island by an incredible number of residents, where they can not only get to know all of their favorite Sanrio characters, but also engage in a plethora of other cozy activities. These include gardening, shopping, fishing, gathering, and more, all while completing quests to help restore the island, with the help of an optional guide.

Additionally, while players do have their own home that they are free to decorate, as is the case for most games like this, Hello Kitty Island Adventure goes one step further by allowing players to decorate what feels like an endless number of cabins for visitors. Furthermore, if you’re one of the few who often contemplate wiping your Animal Crossing save file and starting over just for the fun of it, that won’t be necessary with HKIA as it offers every player three unique save files, so players can keep their initial progress while enjoying a fresh start over and over again.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure’s Unique Touches Help It Stand Out In A Saturated Genre

Certain Quality-Of-Life Improvements Make Hello Kitty Island Adventure

Beyond just cozy things, Hello Kitty Island Adventure also offers a genuine story that involves all the residents on Big Adventure Island. Similar to Disney Dreamlight Valley, players will spend time leveling up their friendships with various Sanrio characters who will, in return, open up quests, provide companion abilities when accompanying the player, and overall just add to the experience of the game. In addition to the recognizable characters, Sunblink has also worked with Sanrio to create a couple of new faces, including Nuls and TOPHAT.

Nuls are not one, but several small blob-like creatures designed to assist around the island. Their purpose is to ensure that even if a character is preoccupied elsewhere, players can still use the shops as normal. Additionally, one Nul in particular serves the incredible purpose of collecting an item of your choosing. With various materials to collect around the island every day, hunting them all down can be a bit exhausting, so the collection Nul does it for you, once a day and for one item of your choosing.

It may not sound like much, but in a game where players will already spend a great deal of time doing tedious tasks, these small quality-of-life features are huge, as is the heavily appreciated addition of Fast Travel. Another major change in HKIA is the fact that there is no traditional currency system. Instead, Hello Kitty Island Adventure operates on an exchange system, where players are required to trade items they collect from around the island for goods at various shops.

Not only does this cut out some of the monotonous grinding for money that is frequently present in cozy games, but it also provides a genuine reason for players to gather all the items from their island every day. Furthermore, a lot of items are only obtained through residents in exchange for gifting them something, so it also encourages interacting with your local island community. While still clearly taking inspiration from the games of this genre that came before it, Hello Kitty Island Adventure seems to have found the perfect balance of cozy vibes and quality gameplay.

Mobile To Console Is Usually A Rough Transition, But In This Case It Works

Despite Its Start On Apple Arcade, Hello Kitty Island Adventure Feels At Home On Consoles

Making the jump from direct mobile to console is not something the gaming community sees very often, as it’s nearly impossible to make a game perfectly suited for both. More often than not, for the games that do try to make it work, it's typically a console original that is then simplified down to allow for a mobile release. That being said, Hello Kitty Island Adventure may be the best example of a mobile game that has seamlessly made its way onto consoles, and that may be due to its delayed release there.

At launch, Hello Kitty Island Adventure had a relatively limited amount of content available, which was okay for a mobile game, but not so much for a fully priced console release. Since then, however, it has received numerous updates to expand the game, giving it more than enough content to justify a console release now, even at the steep price of $40 for HKIA's base game and $60 for the deluxe edition. Especially since Sunblink has stated it has no intention of including microtransactions on any platform.

As for how the console release will affect mobile players, the simple answer is that it won’t. The highly acclaimed mobile game will continue to operate as usual alongside the console and PC versions. However, a bigger problem among the community recently has been the game’s approach to longtime players and new players. For example, for some of the recent holiday events, players were divided into Year 1 and Year 2 players with only the latter receiving new content while the former played through 2023 content they missed.

This means that while players could access the same content, eventually, new players were forcibly unable to catch up with day-one players. Since there is no cross-platform play nor cross-save feature, and everyone will be required to start fresh, this won’t be as much of an issue for Switch or PC players if the trend continues, but it's still unclear how this would work alongside the mobile version of the game. Moreover, even if console players are behind mobile players, it will not impact the individual experience as the events themselves will still be simultaneous for players on all platforms and new to each player.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

Screen Rant Gives Hello Kitty: Island Adventure 9/10

Overall, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a mobile game that fits seamlessly into the world of major consoles. With newly available access to a wider player base, expanded content since its initial release, a cute and cozy atmosphere, and addictive gameplay, there’s no doubt that Sunblink and Sanrio have cultivated a game with the potential to see similar longevity to the likes of Animal Crossing. Players are able to explore every inch of the world freely through jumping, climbing, diving, and more, all while completing quests, making friends, and even just photographing Gudetama.

While it may not be worth the switch for players who have been putting in time on the mobile version, given the lack of cross-save, those who are just now looking to get into Hello Kitty Island Adventure will not be disappointed. This fun Sanrio-themed adventure is all players could've asked for and more and is likely to receive from Sunblink for years to come, making it well worth the initial investment, even for non-Sanrio fans.

A digital review code was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.