Hello Kitty Party for Nintendo DS review

I accepted my invite to the Hello Kitty Party for Nintendo DS by buckling down and getting myself my own copy to play. Hello Kitty is to cake as Jinra is to fat kid. After playing the game in its entirety, I’ve concluded that while it’s unbelievably cute and all kinds of adorbz, I’m probably too old to be partying with Hello Kitty.

The game is comprised of 25 mini-games, all related to the idea that you’re supposed to help Hello Kitty coordinate the party of the century. The guests include all of the Sanrio-favorites; Hello Kitty, Keroppi, Badtz Maru, Usahana, Kuromi, My Melody, The Little Twin Stars, Shirosa and Kurosa. The 25 mini games are all divided into 5 different tabs or categories that you return to after playing each mini-game. Every game is played with the DS stylus.

The first tab asks you to tap the screen until the first mini-game comes up. As you tap different Sanrio characters their names are announced, making you feel like you’re about to encounter a minigame. Unfortunately, this first tab only has one mini-game and in this game you’re to deliver invitations to all the Sanrio members by matching names with cute Sanrio character faces. This, was super easy.

The rest of the game proceeds in a similar fashion of super easy mini-games. A lot of them having to do with matching. The next tab is the stage of making Hello Kitty’s clothes — the most challenging mini-game involved matching buttons moving down a conveyor belt into matching button bins. The least challenging mini-game involved cutting out a dress pattern of your choice by tracing your stylus along a numbered pathway. Followed by this is a tab dealing with cooking, actual party games and picking out Hello Kitty’s outfit. If you’ve played Cooking Mama before, the cooking stage of the game is a little on the underwhelming side.

At this point in my gameplay, I realized that although I’m still a new to playing Nintendo DS games, Hello Kitty Party is more for younger kids. Kids of the age to get excited to be matching items to things. Being too old for it isn’t really a complaint. I’m 25 — my love for Hello Kitty isn’t very forgiving. Overall, I liked this game and thought it was totally cute but, if you’re not a wee tyke, you’ll only be playing this game once every blue moon.

Head here for more cute screenshots of Hello Kitty Party.