Hello Kitty is only five apples tall, and so she was very brave to bring all these pink-wrapped boxes and creamy bonbons to Hello Kitty Island Adventure, the Sanrio life sim that is once again celebrating its Valentine's Day Hugs & Hearts festival event.
As was the case with its past two iterations, Hugs & Hearts requires you catch wiggly lovebugs in exchange for gifts – now through February 19. But this year, as if anticipating that I needed it, Friendship Island will also be full of fragrant chocolate for the first time.
Dark chocolate roses, peanut butter cup lampshades, and milk chocolate truffle pillow sets are only some of the decadent rewards Hello Kitty players can expect, now that bonbons and heart-shaped chocolate boxes have unexpectedly become event currency. Like with lovebugs, players will need to comb the environment to find this chocolate money scattered around Friendship Island. Then, they can be used to redeem chocolate outfits, furniture, and more gooey, sweet goodies.
Do you understand? Can the non-chocolate mind even comprehend the exquisite hedonism that waits for us on Friendship Island? I'm biased because I ate two oatmeal cookies with buttercream frosting for lunch, but this year's Hugs & Hearts candy presents feel so much more decadent than past years' more generic love-themed rewards. There's bonbon wallpaper, a bonbon writing desk, bonbon flooring, so many bonbons…
"LIKE OH MY GOD," begins one Reddit thread about this year's Hugs & Hearts celebration, "IT'S SO CUUUUTEEE."
"But also makes me hungry," adds a commenter.
