Hello Kitty Island Adventure Review – Review

Taking us again to 2020, folks flocked to the breakout Change hit Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a life-sim island sport the place you collect sources to construct homes in addition to friendships. These new neighboring inhabitants grew to become your finest mates, and amidst the pandemic, that’s one thing that everybody sorely wanted. Each day pleasant interactions and endorphin-releasing duties are a number of the extra poignant bullet factors on the record of many who made Animal Crossing: New Horizons lightning in a bottle. But, it by no means actually hit for me.

Bringing us ahead to 2024, I used to be given the chance to play Hiya Kitty Island Journey on the Nintendo Change at Summer season Recreation Fest, and I used to be shortly enraptured. Its use of the Hiya Kitty IP to create such a heat and welcoming setting for gamers drew me in, however then it expanded additional with an enormous island map to discover. I used to be excited for the long run, particularly because it was already a success on Apple Arcade, with a 12 months’s price of content material ready to switch over. The one factor that caught out again then although, was the efficiency, which actually left one thing to be desired. Inconsistent body price and hitching have been just some points to call, however I can fortunately say that these worries are nearly totally solved.

Beginning off our journey into the Hiya Kitty world, we’re given our personal private customizable avatar, then we’re shortly dropped out of a aircraft into the aforementioned island. From right here it’s a smattering of quests to search out your folks, acquire objects, and unlock an increasing number of sections of the sizable map. Discovering and assembly the characters is a fast and simple technique of exploration, however they arrive with such diversified personalities that I all the time needed to study extra from them. Badtz-Maru is a mischievous but in addition conspiracy-having cool man on the island, all the time prepared to commerce comedian books with you. Pochacco is a health fanatic who needs to get you hyped on pictures. They even have visitor character Retsuko, the indignant, metallic music loving crimson panda from the Netflix sequence: Aggretsuko. Contemplating I’m somebody who feels utterly ambivalent in direction of the Hiya Kitty franchise, this was all new to me.

The characters are lovable, enjoyable and all convey one thing new to the desk. What actually drew me in although was the exploration. The island is definitely fairly huge, with a variety of actions strewn about to maintain me energetic. With Animal Crossing, I felt the enjoyable was somewhat too passive for me, however right here, I used to be all the time trying to find new objects, quests, and characters, making new discoveries alongside the best way. The world map is peppered with sources, upgrades, and a variety of actions that span foot races, mini puzzle dungeons, picture ops and even mine cart rides. Normally these sorts of video games can overwhelm me, however this was that excellent candy spot of content material. My exploration normally led to a brand new dungeon and even a wholly new a part of the map. It felt somewhat extra participating to me than what I had skilled beforehand in different related video games.

Hiya Kitty Island Journey additionally continued to broaden in sudden methods for me. Each time I felt like I had explored a lot of the island, I’d uncover the haunted island or interwoven underground mines, and even the underneath sea kingdom. The development pacing is ready in such an effective way that you simply by no means actually end an space, earlier than the following is unlocked, full with (after all) extra new characters, quests, challenges and crafting supplies. It was actually form of stunning how a lot this hooked me in.

Dipping deeper into the mechanics, usually talking Hiya Kitty Island Journey is a scavenging sport, discovering all kinds of things littered on the bottom in each nook and cranny. Climbing a volcano will most assuredly result in a rarer crafting materials, whereas strawberry bins discovered throughout the island might be gifted to sure mates. It’s a extremely satisfying loop of exploring for brand new supplies to finish quests, craft or present to mates to spice up friendship ranges to unlock new cosmetics or quests. Crafting is nice for making new instruments for exploration, and even crafting furnishings to embellish houses equally to Animal Crossing. Not often did any materials go to waste.

The dungeons, then again, are just like Breath of the Wild. Chew sized mini puzzles that educate a brand new mechanic, awarding a particular chest as soon as accomplished, and an non-compulsory hidden chest for the extra intrepid. They’re inoffensive little one-offs which are breezy however forgettable. I truly discovered that there weren’t practically sufficient of them, and needed extra from this a part of the island’s options. Nonetheless, there’s much more to find within the sport with cooking, bug accumulating, hat buying and selling, egg pictures and a lot extra. Every time a brand new mechanic was launched, I used to be excited to re-explore the island with a brand new purpose that recontextualized what I used to be seeing.

That additionally speaks to the stay service side of Hiya Kitty Island Journey itself. There are each day login bonuses, quests, and a gradual stream of occasion updates that may introduce much more to the already bustling island. This may be seen on the unique Apple Arcade launch which has been going sturdy with updates since its unique launch in 2023. On high of the promise of a lot of future content material, evidently developer Sunblink has additionally found out the body price points and muddy visuals that plagued the Summer season Recreation Fest Change demo. The sport’s body price does a great job at staying regular for probably the most half. however there’s nonetheless some choppiness in sure gameplay transitions. It’s not excellent however an enormous enchancment. The visuals are additionally crisp and look nearly as good as Animal Crossing did on Change.

As somebody new to the Hiya Kitty franchise, I’ve fallen in love with Hiya Kitty Island Journey. It offers the attraction of an Animal Crossing sport, however focuses on the exploration, creating moments of journey and enjoyable throughout the best way. Taking a mine cart trip by means of a volcano with your folks is a blast, and wandering by means of a haunted home with Kuromi the goth character is hilarious. The body price and visuals have seen an enormous enchancment from earlier demos. Whereas I do want there have been extra of sure actions just like the dungeons, I can’t wait to log again in to see what new adventures will await my subsequent 12 months of updates. Hell, I’m excited to log again in to do my dailies! I all the time form of understood the Animal Crossing sequence, however Hiya Kitty Island Journey is what I’ve all the time needed them to be. At this price, I higher begin buying on the native Too Cool retailer for Badtz-Maru merch. That character simply will get me.