Hello Kitty Island Adventure


Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a 2023 life simulation video game. Based on the Hello Kitty brand, it was released for Apple Arcade on July 28, 2023. A port for Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows also released on January 30, 2025, and a port for PlayStation 5 released on August 5, 2025.

Gameplay

Hello Kitty Island Adventure takes place on an island inhabited by Sanrio characters. The gameplay involves adventuring and puzzle solving, with new areas being added regularly. The quests involve 3D platforming with occasional puzzles, with many new quests unlocked by becoming better friends with the Sanrio characters. Optional quests include platform time attacks, house furnishing, and photographing Gudetama.
The game includes 18 Sanrio characters. Most are well known characters appearing in the Sanrio Character Rankings like Hello Kitty, Kuromi, and Cinnamoroll. But it also includes the rarely seen crocodile character Big Challenges, originally from 1978. There is also an original character called Tophat who was created for the game.

Development

Hello Kitty Island Adventure was developed by Boulder, Colorado-based game studio Sunblink Entertainment. In an interview with TouchArcade, two of the employees, Chelsea Howe and Tom Blind, stated that they wanted a game that combined cozy simulators such as Animal Crossing with more exploration-based gameplay.
Critics and fans noted that the game shares its name with a fictional one that Butters Stotch from South Park mentions playing as part of a gag in the 2006 episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft", which became an Internet meme used as shorthand to refer to a casual game. Sanrio later used the meme in practical jokes. However, a marketing executive at Sanrio stated there was no association or tie-in to South Park.

Release

The original game was released on July 28, 2023, as an Apple Arcade exclusive.
In the June 2024 Nintendo Direct, ports for Nintendo Switch and Windows, as well as PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, were announced, set to be released in 2025.

Version differences

Apple Arcade

This edition of the game gets the earliest and most frequent updates to the game. There are currently some locations in the game that are not yet available elsewhere.

Deluxe Edition

While the Deluxe Edition does not include any exclusive content, it does provide an easier start for new players with additional start-up content.

Reception

According to review aggregator Metacritic, the game received "generally favourable" reviews based on 19 reviews.

Sale

In 2023, Hello Kitty Island Adventure was the seventh most-downloaded title on Apple Arcade. The following year, it became the third most-downloaded game on the service. In March 2025, Sunblink announced that more than 500,000 copies of the game had been sold within 30 days of its release on Nintendo Switch and Windows on January 30.

Awards

Hello Kitty Island Adventure was awarded Apple Arcade Game of the Year at the 2023 App Store Awards. It was also nominated for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2023, as well as Mobile Game of the Year and D.I.C.E. Award for [Family Game of the Year|Family Game of the Year] at the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.