Hello Kitty is not the sort of property that you would expect to get a good video game adaptation. It’s a brand built on getting Kitty and her friends onto as many products as possible and selling them at often insane prices. And while Hello Kitty video games are most known for their place in bargain bins, Hello Kitty did have a much-loved Animal Crossing release on Apple Arcade recently that players (my girlfriend included) really love. It would only make sense for that title to come to consoles, but instead we get another mobile game ported to the Nintendo Switch by the name of Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade.
Hello Kitty is the sort of property that can have several games on the market at one time because that’s just how parent company Sanrio rolls. But unlike the Animal Crossing clone that’s making waves on Apple Arcade, Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is the Android title that I think released first though Netflix that fancies itself a sort of walking rhythm game roguelike that while not great, does some interesting things for music game fans.
Like most Hello Kitty video games, Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is a clone of other successful games. That said, this one takes the standard timing-based music game as puts its own spin on it with the parade mechanic. You select three Sanrio characters and take part in a small parade through various areas of the world. Music plays and you tap one of three buttons to move down the parade route in time with the music. It’s an incredibly simple premise that manages to work and is just different enough to add a bit of challenge to it. I just wish it took more chances to help it really stand out.
Essentially you have three buttons to control the action, mimicked on each side of the Joy Con for whatever hand you best like to play with. Left will make your character move left, right goes right, and down stays in the lane you have selected. There are three lanes, so you’ll have to move in time to the song playing down the parade path. You can also play with motion controls for those still into that. Along the way there will be obstacles that can cause damage to you and lower your health. When you take enough damage you character will die and you’ll be left with two characters, then when they die, you’ll have just one. When everyone dies the current run ends.
Your main goal is to reach the end of town and unlock a new friend. The world uses an Outrun inspired course which means you can get several different endings, each of which will allow you to unlock new characters that you can play with. And these characters are more than simply new cute friends to play as on your parade adventure. The three characters that you select can be swapped in their position in line with the press of a button that also works with the beat of the music. You can do this to save a character that’s taken too much damage, but also because they each have their own special powers.
One might be able to shield you from damage for a short time, another might be able to take over enemies to join the parade, another might turn coins into hearts to build back health, another might collect coins with a magnet, and more. With so many characters you can play with your favorite Sanrio characters or with ones that help you play better, or at least those that might make the game easier to complete. It’s a fun system that helps make the game feel a little deeper than it truly is. Add in an RPG aspect that lets you level up the characters you use to make their abilities stronger, and you have reason to play over and over again like any good rhythm game.
Another cute addition is the photo mode that can happen multiple times during a given march. During a stage a banner of a specific character that you have in your group will appear. If you switch to them in time and pass under these, a photo mini game will take place. You’ll be required to use the right and left trigger buttons and tap them in time with the rhythm in order to get points for a given pose. It’s the simplest part of the game but serves as a fun little mix-up to break up the basic gameplay Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade uses.
On the surface Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade should work really well. It has the bones to be a really interesting music game, but with so many amazing rhythm games out there it simply doesn’t stand out from the crowd enough. The game, ignoring a few strange difficulty spikes, is pretty easy and clearly aimed at kids. If you’ve played any music rhythm game in the past, you’ll breeze through this one without much trouble. This means it’ll be a grind-heavy game for most people with a music library that isn’t deep enough to warrant playing over and over again to unlock every character. It’s not bad by any means, it’s simply the most okay rhythm game that one could create.
If you have kids that are really into Hello Kitty and they aren’t big gamers, then Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is going to be right up their ally. If you are looking for a deep and rewarding rhythm game with a great soundtrack, then you’ll be better served picking up almost anything else with an expansive catalog of songs. That said, Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is a decent start to what can turn into a potential series that can expand on what was laid out here.
Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is a great way to get kids into the rhythm game genre but fails to offer any depth for experienced players
Final Score:
Reviewed on the Nintendo Switch / Code provided by publisher for this review
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