492 Words About: Hello Kitty Party for Nintendo DS
Hello Kitty Party, or Hello Kitty no Oshare Party Sanrio Character Zukan DS (mercy me that’s a title) was released for the handheld Nintendo DS 23 November 2009 and I never played it because I didn’t know it existed. After playing Hello Kitty’s Flower Shop I thought it would be fun to hop into the popular Sanrio character’s backlog of videogames, and since I've started to collect DS games it seemed like a perfect chance to try it.
First of all Hello Kitty Party is a videogame that’s obviously designed for young players because the game is just a collection of mini-games. There’s a “plot,” which is that Hello Kitty and her friends are about to throw a party and need the player’s help getting everything ready. Beyond that, whatever narrative exists is largely superficial, but this is forgivable since Hello Kitty Party knows what it is and what it’s trying to do.
There’s one game that involves Kuromi throwing balls of dough on a kitchen floor and the player needs to clean it up. Another game involves a simulated sewing machine to make the various dresses Hello Kitty and her friends will wear. And of course there’s a game that involves picking out dresses for Hello Kitty to wear.
Whoever owned the cartridge before me had Hello Kitty in a LOT of Quincinera dresses, and before you ask, yes, of course she looked bonita.
She’s Hello Kitty, she’s always bonita.
Game cover provided by The Cover Project website.
Since it was designed for Nintendo DS the mini-games involve moving the stylus that comes with the console. In one mini game the player will move My Melody back and forth to clean the mess Kuromi made and moving the stylus left and right will clean the space. Likewise when sewing dresses the goal is to move the stylus across the bottom screen at the correct pitch and speed.
Each of the games are built around the kinetic energy of moving the stylus. Some games require quick short strokes, others involve smaller slower gestures, and some are simply point-and-click interfaces. What all this movement does on a psychological level, apart from engaging with the redonkulously cute aesthetic, is imparting the player with a growing sense of agency as well as training players with basic aspects of software interface. The stylus becomes an extension of my hand, thus creating a new intellectual impression of interacting with computer software.
The mini-game structure further facilitates this because it allows the player the choice on what games to play, rather than having to push through a linear narrative. Put another way, a game that’s just a series of games gives the player freedom to just play.
The aesthetic goal of just about any Sanrio intellectual property is about generating joy and relaxation, and Hello Kitty Party even to the most jaded of players is sure to make them smile at least once.
And, it’s worth repeating.
Hello Kitty is, and always will be, bonita.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
12.16.2024
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