What a journey this one is. A title first dropped as a joke in South Park to make Butters look uncool turns into an Apple Arcade sport and by some means towards all odds is definitely unbelievable. Hi there Kitty Island Journey () may appear like Animal Crossing in screenshots, however that’s actually only one aspect of the sport. There’s a little bit of The Legend of Zelda in right here, and it even jogged my memory of A Quick Hike at instances. How is a sport primarily based on Sanrio characters as intelligent and enjoyable as this? Actually a well-done effort all-around. Let’s take a look at precisely what it’s.
The very first thing you’re offered with is a reasonably restricted character creator, after which you’ll find your self on a airplane with varied Sanrio characters. You’ve the possibility to speak to everybody, after which Kitty causes a large number, Badtz-maru drops a film reference that everybody who has performed this sport has taken a screenshot of, and everyone seems to be compelled to parachute all the way down to the island under. It as soon as performed host to a theme park, and also you’re all there to… you understand, I don’t keep in mind? Go to it? Get it up and operating once more? The necessary factor is that it’s a reasonably large space and never the entire passengers landed in the identical place. Most of you fortunately ended up in a central seaside space that’s good for studying learn how to play the sport. What luck!
The varied characters gives you quests to finish. A few of them are fetch quests. Plenty of them are, actually. Finishing them will in fact offer you some rewards, and may improve your friendship degree with that character. Leveling up your friendships gives you entry to extra quests and extra rewards, a few of that are instruments you should use to discover extra of the world round you. You possibly can truly discover a surprisingly giant space from the beginning, however your incapacity to swim will maintain you from going too far. Ultimately you’ll get gadgets that enable you discover extra completely, and the world opens as much as an incredibly large diploma. There are some overarching objectives that you simply’ll encounter earlier than lengthy, plus tons of smaller ones which will or might not result in one thing necessary. There’s additionally an absolute bucket load of aspect actions to do like fishing and bug gathering. There are even little mini-races that award you with trophies of assorted ranges primarily based in your time.
You’ll additionally generally end up exploring underground, in buildings, and round different buildings. There are honest-to-goodness puzzles in these locations, usually variations on change issues however usually one thing else solely. It’s by no means excessively troublesome, doubtless in deference to the concept younger youngsters is perhaps enjoying, however a few of them do require a little bit of artistic thought. Talking of issue, there’s no actual approach to get harm or die within the sport. At most, you’ll be able to find yourself falling off the display or into the water earlier than you’ve gotten the suitable gadgets, at which level you’ll simply respawn on the final secure place your ft had been touching.
It’s attention-grabbing as a result of whereas there’s loads of Animal Crossing on this sport, there’s additionally much more construction to ship you off on linear threads if that’s what you need. Go resolve the mysteries of the islands and monitor down the opposite characters. Get the entire instruments so you’ll be able to discover totally. Or simply hold round and attempt to bake each single factor doable. Go fishing for a bit. Enhance homes with furnishings that you simply purchase, discover, or craft. Invite friends and full the quests they difficulty. Design some new threads on your character. Put on foolish costumes. Take selfies with the entire hidden Gudetamas. See when you can enhance your island’s Vibe rating. It’s superb how a lot this sport checks off the life simulation containers whereas additionally supplying you with extra conventional gamey bits like exploration and puzzle-solving.
The controls are quite simple, with a digital stick for shifting your character round and some buttons on the opposite aspect for utilizing your collected instruments or speaking to folks. Urgent on the suitable aspect anyplace however the button areas makes you bounce, and you may press it once more to drift along with your balloons. The platforming is a bit clunky at instances and you may simply get caught in locations, however the sport will all the time get you out of any messes you get into. Varied menus let you change your instruments or examine your gadgets, and a sturdy map and quest log make sure you’re by no means stranded about what to do. You can too simply see how a lot of every assortment you’ve completed.
Merely put, Hi there Kitty Island Journey is a sport you’ll be able to actually get caught into for hours. I ran down my battery virtually with out noticing the time go by on a number of events whereas enjoying the sport for this overview. I used to be anticipating a easy Animal Crossing clone as a result of that’s actually all it needed to be. You don’t must flex that tough whenever you’re utilizing characters as acquainted as Kitty and My Melody, in spite of everything. It’s only a sport for little youngsters, proper? However developer Sunblink went and made a sport that I believe nearly anybody can take pleasure in, no matter age or familiarity with video games. I additionally respect how cleverly written it’s. That is among the secret strengths of Animal Crossing that so lots of the video games impressed by it don’t get proper.
Aside from some weirdness with the platforming and clipping, the one actual knock I’ve on this sport is that the multiplayer didn’t work correctly for me throughout the entire time I used to be enjoying the sport. I guess it will be enjoyable, however for now it simply doesn’t appear to attach. I’ve been knowledgeable the developer is engaged on a repair, however proper now it’s what it’s. Fortunately the sport is immensely pleasing in single participant, so it’s not going to harm issues too badly.
I can’t imagine I’m saying this, however I believe Hi there Kitty Island Journey is one among my favourite cellular video games of this yr up to now. It’s a lot greater than I anticipated it to be, a lot greater than it wanted to be, and I genuinely respect simply how compelling it’s from head to toe. I’ve been vocal amongst my friends about how Apple Arcade wants extra causes to subscribe today. Nicely, right here’s one extraordinarily good motive. Butters was proper the entire time.
