Hello Kitty and Friends: Happiness Parade

Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is maybe a bit above the typical licensed game you’d see on a store front in terms of what it has going for it. It’s accessible, maybe even insultingly so, but it really hits down the aesthetic, especially with the menus.

Overall, Hello Kitty and Friends: Happiness Parade is a delightful rhythm game that offers seasoned players a new challenge, but it can also cater to those who may need that extra help. The game would do well to include more branches of difficulty to suit more players and give them a more enjoyable, customized experience. The music and visuals are fun, especially the photo shoot mode, and really With the ESRB rating being Everyone, gamers across all ages will enjoy Hello Kitty and Friends: Happiness Parade but it will mostly appeal to younger audiences or people who cherish the Sanrio world. Happiness Parade is not an essential buy but it’s a fun game to pick up that’s reasonably priced, without any micro-transactions, fun characters and challenging premise. Prepare to have Jawberry’s “So Nice to Meet Ya” stuck in your head, it’s a great bop.

Overall, I think that if you love Hello Kitty or rhythm games, then this game should definitely be on your radar. I played it on Switch and I felt that the $19.99 price tag is fair, but may be pushing the ceiling on what is an acceptable price.

The core gameplay and roguelite loop of Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade likely won't hold the attention of rhythm game fans for long. Its J-pop charms, however, may be enough to win over Hello Kitty fans or those who just enjoy happiness in general.

While absolutely cute, colorful, and pretty light rhythm game fun, the basic nature of the controls also limits its longevity

If you want to strut down the street as your favourite Sanrio chums while listening to cool pop tunes then this is a must-play game.

While the game has a lot of room for improvement, it’s also the best Sanrio game I’ve played so far across a number of different platforms over the years, and a lot more thought was put into it than just “tap to the beat to march Sanrio characters down a path.” I say give it a shot and see if it’s for you, especially if you love Sanrio and have a good time with rhythm games.

While Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade might not be expansive and, at times, a little tricky, its most impressive quality is that it radiates fun, like a Hello Kitty game should. This rhythm game is downright jubilant, even in its limited scope, which will make it easily playable and entraining for an extended audience. Particularly as its music is the driving force, the game has a simple, entrancing quality that can forgive a lot of its milder, frustrating parts.

I couldn’t have been more surprised. Hello Kitty and Friends: Happiness Parade Hops is a great rhythm game. It’s the perfect combination of great controls, great performance, an addictive gameplay loop, and an impressive library of stupidly catchy tunes. I never thought I’d end up playing a Hello Kitty game that did not suck, let alone playing a Hello Kitty game that would win me over, but this little gem did so.

Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is one of those games that simply struggles to stand out. It’s an endless runner/rhythm game hybrid that has great potential in theory, but its monotonous gameplay, uninteresting art style, and grindy moment-to-moment loop make it a difficult recommendation. If the game were to offer something more than exactly what justifies its existence, it could have been a great time, but instead, Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade provides an unexciting rhythm game with Sanrio characters and absolutely nothing more.