Hello Kitty Island Adventure Switch review

It’s been a while since I played Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and with its arrival on Switch, I was more than happy to dive in once more. It’s not common for me to play anything as cute as this. Sure, I played the hell out of Animal Crossing New Horizons, but I never thought I would love Sunblink’s life sim quite as much as I did. Since it came out, I’ve purchased two Tuxedo Sam plushies and been gifted figurines of the guy. It’s pure and good and innocent, and the world needs more games like this.

Not only is it sweeter than candy, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is also a really good game. I reviewed the mobile version back in 2023, and much of the game is exactly the same as it was back then. You can read my thoughts on that, but as for the Switch version, it looks magnificent on the OLED screen. When docked, I did have a few issues with temporarily freezing while exploring the island, but for the majority of my time it ran rather well.

After diving out of an aeroplane alongside Hello Kitty and friends, you’re introduced to the mechanics straight away. You don’t feel as empty as you did when sleeping in your tent in Animal Crossing, and while you don’t start off with somewhere to live, there’re plenty of quizzes to get stuck into. That’s the focus here. Quests are never few and far between, and while you do have quite a lot of fetch quests to do, meeting a range of characters from the Sanrio franchise and getting to interact with them never gets old.

There’s always lots to do, whether buying a gift for islanders that match their personality, craft some new items or get a house ready for a visitor, explore the secrets of the island or help out a friend in need. Animal Crossing never really featured quests as such, but Hello Kitty Island Adventure is full of them. It’s never a dull moment on the island, and doing it all as your own customised and individual character makes it so much fun just chilling under the beautiful sun.

As you play throughout the year, the island changes to match the seasons, and there’s always something beautiful to set your eyes upon. It also has a range of minigames and puzzles to participate in, giving it more variety than other life sims around. Getting to play without the confines of an Apple device means playing on a big screen from the sofa helps to maintain that cosy feel you get from fishing, gardening, or playing on this gorgeous island.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure on the Switch is giving players a chance to finally get their hands on one of the biggest surprises of the last five years. While it may not be as good as games like Animal Crossing, it never tries to copy or replicate. In fact, it does a lot of things better, and offers a ton of content for you to do every single day you play. If you love the cute mascots of Sanrio and want to exist in a world with colourful characters like Kerropi, Cinnamoroll, and Badtz-Maru, there’s no better Hello Kitty experience than this.