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There are few things I treasure more in gaming than a slow-paced adventure in a peaceful world, as the real world is challenging enough. Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been my faithful companion since 2020. And though long stretches of time go by that I don’t play at all, I still love wandering its quiet beaches and talking to my villagers like it’s day one. I work on island projects when inspiration strikes or I dive into the game when real life compels me to seek comfort in my virtual world.
Recently, another cosy island has been calling: Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Although it was already available on Apple Arcade, we can now play the game on the Nintendo Switch and Steam, too. It’s coming to PS5 in 2025 as well, but there is no exact date yet. Most of our readers know I’m a big fan of Animal Crossing, and I’ve had some people asking which of these two games is best, Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Hello Kitty Island Adventure. But honestly, who could ever pick between Isabelle and My Melody? I will try, though, by exploring the little differences that make each game special.
The World You Live In
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, your island starts as a blank slate. The island only has a maximum of 10 animal characters, and is not crowded at all. You choose where to place houses, where rivers flow, and can eventually terraform cliffs and lay down paths. It’s truly your space. Every flower, bench, or fencing detail is up to you, and there are a lot of variations to choose from.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure, meanwhile, drops you into a lush, vibrant world that’s already quite beautiful and full of life, but it’s not as customizable. Each biome, like the snowy mountains or tropical beaches, has its own theme and layout. You can restore areas, but you don’t get to reshape the world in quite the same way. It’s more about exploring and reviving, rather than building from the ground up.
Customising Your Character and Space
One of the joys of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is dressing up, whether you’re going for chic city style or a full frog costume. The game offers a huge wardrobe, and with the Able Sisters in town, your fashion choices grow every day. Hello Kitty Island Adventure brings in that same dress-up fun, with cute themed outfits and accessories (Sanrio style, of course).
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, your house becomes your personal museum of taste, with room expansions, wall patterns, and carefully-placed furniture. You can also decorate the animal’s rooms when you tie in the game with Happy Home Paradise.
In Hello Kitty Island Adventure, you can also decorate your cabin and the ones that visitors will inhabit. It’s just not as evolved as in New Horizons. You can’t even put things on the tables, and the appliances don’t actually work. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you are tied to a few rules, but you can make your home and the ones from the animals as special and full as can be. Just the way you like it!
Friends, Neighbours, and Building Bonds
If there’s one thing Animal Crossing: New Horizons excels at, it’s the feeling of a living, breathing village. Your animal neighbours have their own quirks, catchphrases, and moods. Some bring you gifts, some sing on benches, and others just need a little chat to brighten their day. The longer you live with them, the more they feel like real friends. The only downside is that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has a few stereotypes for its characters, so that might get repetitive.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure offers its own sweet take on friendships. As you complete quests and give gifts, you build bonds with characters like Cinnamoroll and Badtz-Maru. These friendships unlock story scenes, furniture, and even new areas to explore. It’s more structured than Animal Crossing: New Horizons, less about small talk and more about staying on top of it and dutifully giving them all three gifts a day to progress. You can’t actually have much of a conversation with the characters, as they tend to stick to the quest at hand.
Seasons, Time, and Daily Play
New Horizons mirrors real time, and that’s part of its magic. When it’s spring outside, it’s spring on your island. Events unfold according to the calendar, and time passes even when you’re not playing. There’s something comforting about logging in each morning to see what’s new, even if it’s just a new flower blooming. It can, however, be a challenge when the only time you can play the game is during the day or at night. You would never experience the joy of nighttime in the game or an early morning sunrise.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure uses its own in-game clock, so it’s not tied to your real-world seasons. Still, it features time-based events and encourages daily check-ins. Seasonal content arrives through updates, and there’s always something new to do—but to me, it doesn’t quite have that same “living calendar” feeling Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans might be used to. I feel the time of day doesn’t really matter in Island Adventure.
The pace at which things evolve and the multitude of things going on in Hello Kitty can also be overwhelming, but that depends on your personality, as some people might find the slower pace of Animal Crossing: New Horizons more boring.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure has mini-games, which Animal Crossing: New Horizons does not. Personally, I never like mini-games, and I don’t think I’ve done more than a handful in Island Adventure.
Things to Do, Places to Explore
What keeps me coming back to Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn’t just the decorating, it’s the little daily activities. Fishing, bug catching, planting flowers, digging up fossils… it’s like a to-do list, but one I actually want to do. There’s no pressure, and no task you have to complete. Eventually, the island feels like home and holds no mysteries anymore, so exploration isn’t a factor. Being able to see other people’s islands, for example, through their Dream Address, does expand your fun.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure has its own set of cosy tasks. You’ll glide between biomes, fish in sparkly ponds, collect ingredients for recipes, snap photos, and help friends with quests. It’s more goal-oriented, with a clearer story, but it still allows space to simply be in its world. And yes, there’s treasure to find and furniture to collect. But striving to complete quest after quest can start to feel a bit empty.
Playing Together
One of my favourite memories from New Horizons is visiting a friend’s island, trading flowers, or just sitting together on a bench watching the sunset. Multiplayer in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a delight, even though a lot of people just play on their own, and it can be hard to find an open gate. Working with the Dream Addresses and visiting other islands as if in a dream can give a lot of inspiration and expand your world.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure includes online co-op, though currently limited to two players. You can visit each other’s cabins, help complete tasks, and explore together. It’s more structured than Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but still adds that lovely feeling of shared adventure.
The Vibe of the Soundtrack
Both Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Hello Kitty Island Adventure use music to really set the mood, but they go about it in different ways, and that can really shape your experience as a player.
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the soundtrack is famously subtle and changes every hour. The hourly tunes are gentle, relaxing, and often minimalist, meant to complement the ambient sounds of island life without getting in the way. Over time, the music becomes part of the rhythm of your day, giving a sense of time passing and creating a peaceful backdrop that encourages you to take things slow. There’s also seasonal music and event themes, which add variety and keep things feeling fresh throughout the year. Animal Crossing playlists are a fan favourite to listen to while going about your daily business too.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure, on the other hand, leans into a more whimsical and upbeat vibe. The music here is cheerful and playful, matching the bright and colourful aesthetic of the game. It doesn’t shift hourly like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but it adapts to different areas and situations, whether you’re exploring the island, chatting with Sanrio friends, or completing quests. It’s a bit more like background music in an animated film, noticeable, catchy, and mood-lifting.
Final Thoughts from a Cosy Gamer
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has become part of my routine—a digital home I return to again and again. It’s open-ended, player-driven, and full of little joys. But Hello Kitty Island Adventure offers something different: a charming, story-led experience that feels like stepping into a warm, colourful book at a fast pace with loads of exploration.
If you’re the kind of player who enjoys setting your own pace, shaping your world, and chatting with your villagers over morning coffee, Animal Crossing remains unmatched. But if you’re after something guided, whimsical, and full of sweet little quests to complete with friends, diving into Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a lovely way to spend your time.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure comes close to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and at the same time, it’s a very different game. If I’m looking for comparison, I think Hello Kitty Island Adventure is more like Disney Dreamlight Valley. In my eyes, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still unique, and I think only the next Animal Crossing game will be able to equal it.
But really, who says we have to choose? There’s always room for another cosy island in our hearts!
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