I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m excited for a Hello Kitty game. The Sanrio character and her cute cadre haven’t exactly set the video game world on fire with their projects, but “Hello Kitty Island Adventure” is different.
Coming out on Apple Arcade on July 28, this title by the developer, Sunblink, takes the Sanrio characters and blends them with “Animal Crossing”-style game. It’s a cozy life sim game that follows the crew as My Melody was invited to open up a gift shop at Big Adventures Park at Friendship Island. It sounds like a promising opportunity, but when the Sanrio crew arrives, they discover that the locale is in disrepair.
It looks like a Scooby Doo ghost town, but not to fret, Hello Kitty and friends rally and decide to fix it up. That takes players on a 45- to 50-hour initial adventure.
“We’re bringing a triple AAA game to Apple Arcade,” said Julian Farrior, Sunblink CEO. “It’s multiplayer, open-world game that’s about personal expression. It’s endlessly extensible.”
THE LAY OF THE ISLAND
Players create their own animal avatar and help spruce up the park, which has several themed biomes including an underwater realm, Mount Hothead (home of Aggretsuko), Spooky Swamp and Gemstone Mountain. Each region and its shops feature a Sanrio character. For example, Hello Kitty runs the cafe, where players can bake sweets for the island’s inhabitants and visitors. My Melody takes on the Tom Nook role and assesses the player’s overall vibe score while also selling items.
Each Sanrio character plays a role in the “Island Adventures” systems. The Hello Kitty cafe offers up a cooking mechanic and the treats players create help raise the friendship level for other friends they meet along the way. Increase a friendship high enough and players can invite the Sanrio character to help them explore the world.
The benefit of a partner is that each one provides a bonus. With Hello Kitty, she gives players a boost to cooking, and that’s helpful when visiting places such as Mount Hothead, which has a pizza oven.
Upgrading friendships also unlocks new side quests, cosmetics and upgrades to crafting, which is another system in “Island Adventure.” Players need to craft items to harvest resources and create gifts for the other Sanrio characters. Those presents are another way to increase buddy scores. Everything in the game is all about leveling up those friendships.
CUSTOMIZING CABINS AND A PUZZLE ELEMENT
In addition, players will uncover empty cabins in the park. In another nod to “Animal Crossing,” players can decorate it each one and that will attract visitors. If a cabin has the right furniture and baubles, a rotating visitor may even decide to stay.
Farrior said that the visitors open up new storylines and it’s a way for Sunblink to create more content beyond the initial campaign.
One of the elements that makjes “Island Adventure” more different from Nintendo’s life sim is that Big Adventures Park is large, and to help players move around quickly, they can unlock fast travel points courtesy of Cinnamoroll. That’s unlocked via mailboxes.
Another focus of the project is puzzles. The game is full of them, and Sunblink compared them to shrines in the newest “The Legend of Zelda” games. If players solve them, they can earn key items to boost a friendship, high-value furniture, hats and important crafting resources.
Unlike “Animal Crossing,” “Island Adventure” has an an internal day and night structure. One day in the game is about 24 minutes and then it cycles to night. Different critters come out at specific times to encourage exploration. Unfortunately, there’s no seasonal variety, but the characters will celebrate holidays with the first one being World Friendship Day, shortly after launch.
“Island Adventure” allows a friend to come in to help, and the game has three saves per account. That means if a sibling wants to jump in there own world, they can.
Bonus: If players can’t wait for “Hello Kitty Island Adventure,” they can start on another cozy game. Apple Arcade just launched the brilliant “Stardew Valley+” on its service. The plus part of this entry is updated single-player content including new town upgrades, dating events, crops, fishing ponds, hats, clothing and pets.
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