Now, expensive reader, I perceive your potential confusion upon trying on the phrases in your display, cellphone, pill, nevertheless you occur to be studying this overview. Nonetheless, whereas because of the nature of our topic at present we do in truth have time for the apparent questions, let’s simply transfer previous these for when when the time is correct, lets? As, such, let’s get what background info there may be out of the best way. There doesn’t appear to be quite a bit to speak about with Sunblink, the Boulder, Colorado primarily based developer of our dearest Whats up Kitty’s recreation right here, development-wise. It will seem like simply at present’s title, and a head-to-head citadel protection title named HEROish that was additionally initially launched on Apple Arcade again in 2022, and this recreation’s authentic debut additionally on the Apple Arcade as an unique for just a few years, till the island expanded to consoles and PC, and that’s basically the place we discover ourselves. So, do we discover ourselves in a great place? Let’s take a stroll and discover out, lets?
Thoughts Your Step
You begin Whats up Kitty Island Journey on a aircraft. Why? As a result of it is a life sim, and it’s a must to get to your location first. On this case, your character, and a substantial variety of the Sanrio solid, are on their technique to an island resort to take a trip. All goes nicely, and you’ve got the possibility to introduce your self to everybody, from the titular Whats up Kitty herself, the pink hooded bunny My Melody, the goth-theme bunny Kuromi, and the purple panda Retsuko from Aggretsuko, who I’m quite fairly embarrassed to confess thought was a collaboration character earlier than fact-checking themselves and discovering out she’s additionally Sanrio.
Then Kitty, aspiring to be nothing however good, heads into the cockpit space to get the participant character, recent off the create a personality display and hobnobbing for a bit with the principle solid, some cake to eat. The cakepit promptly begins to malfunction, as you do, and submit Badzt Maru getting verbally fed up with the cake scenario, everybody varieties an orderly line, grabs their balloons, which very neatly function each a parachute and a gliding instrument throughout the island, and soar. After a short skydiving by rings section, you contact down, get the lay of the land from the solid that landed in the principle hub and every day beginning place with you, and, nicely, off you go!
Day To Day, Step By Step
So, we’ve got the set-up, and have arrived on the island, so, what we really do, right here? Fairly a bit, really! Whats up Kitty Island Journey is, at it’s core, meant to be a snug life sim, and it does it phenomenally nicely. You get settled in, journey the island, attempt to discover the villagers that didn’t land on the hub, make instruments, presents for different villagers, collect gadgets, and do numerous quests to progress the story and achieve entry to new instruments to make accessing new areas ever so barely simpler. It’s a Sanrio title, the solid are tremendous good, the music for each space is calm and stress-free, very a lot a low stakes, you-do-you type of deal.
The areas themselves are different, though I’m nonetheless mildly unsure how sure later areas of the sport handle to coexist in the identical common house as each a haunted swamp and a quite peaceable volcanic mountain, though I’ve lived in stranger locations myself. Is what it’s, actually, and every space does a reasonably dang good job of getting it’s personal little arc and persevering with the principle story, which, as I belatedly realizes I forgot to actually go over, typically entails you and the solid studying extra in regards to the island itself, why precisely they appear to be the one residing individuals on what’s presupposed to be a resort island, and a couple of curious spherical ball with a cool hat that retains disappearing and reappearing in entrance of them, in addition to mentioned ball’s relationship with who the inhabitants of the island are and have been.
Don’t Exhaust Your self, You Have Time
As for a way the sport itself performs? It’s precisely what you’d need from a title like this. You will have entry to a great deal of the island from the off, given a bit platforming ingenuity, however Sunblink did a improbable job of making certain the sport can’t be unintentionally or deliberately damaged, in both the ‘getting locations that you just’re not imagined to be fairly but with out what you’d must succeed’ sense, and the making certain every thing runs easily collectively sense. Every little thing in HKIA is built-in neatly with one another, you and the characters all play by the identical algorithm traversal clever. Extra methods get added at a great tempo, and the sport itself gently encourages not attempting to brute power progress, or spending an excessive amount of time with the sport per day.
Every little thing feeds into one another, often fairly actually, as a substantial quantity of the actions contain gathering components from every space, and making meals, largely to make use of to present as presents to your fellow vacationers, they develop to love you extra, they train you how one can dive to succeed in deeper underwater bits of the island, for instance. You discover a haunted mansion with a good friend, you, after pretending that you just didn’t fully misinterpret the passcode for how one can open the door to the subsequent room and gap your self as a direct end result, restore energy to the realm that the haunted mansion is in, and get a bit nearer to studying extra in regards to the island and the way it got here to be. Easy, efficient, excellent and charming recreation design.
Not An Finish, Simply One other Day
And, to paraphrase a clever man, “The phrase of the day is: charming!” That’s what Whats up Kitty Island Journey is, and it has a close to limitless quantity of mentioned high quality. It, as a former Apple Arcade unique, is, so far as I can inform, clearly meant to be performed for a brief period of time every day, so that you, and the sport itself don’t burn yourselves out. Every day you play, you progress a bit additional, be taught extra in regards to the island, get friendlier with the solid, get a bit nearer to determining what’s occurring right here. It’s a comparatively easy, admittedly considerably repetitive, however at all times, as soon as once more, charming and cozy recreation for once you simply need to calm down for a hour or two, often extra.
Whats up Kitty Island Journey is close to good for what it most likely intends to be, a every day sojourn so that you can calm down, hang around with a few of the most legendary characters in Japanese media historical past, and have enjoyable. Whats up Kitty and My Melody, for instance, have been round because the 70s, they’re possible older than a substantial variety of the individuals studying this overview. Sunblink has finished an unimaginable job in treating the characters with the respect they deserve, and an excellent job in making a really snug title.
In case you like Sanrio, or comfortable life sims, can’t advocate this title sufficient. A relaxing trip… presuming you, in contrast to poor, poor Retsuko, aren’t additionally getting every day messages from work on what’s meant to be a trip, or regardless of the gaming equal of that will be. The worst factor I can say about it’s that it may really feel a bit shallow and repetitive at occasions, however that’s a pure a part of the style… and life itself at occasions, let’s be actual right here. Fantastically candy little title, should you want a recreation to calm down with for a bit bit after work, Whats up Kitty Island Journey will 100% assist you really achieve this.
Style:
Cozy Island Life Sim
Launch Date:
August 5, 2025
Overview Copy From Dev/Pub/PR:
Sure
