The science behind making something feel cozy is quite simple, video game developers tell me. The more frigid and imposing the outside world is, the more heightened the sense of coziness tends to be.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of Hello Kitty Island Adventure in 2025, the Apple Arcade chart-topping mobile phenomenon that is now coming to Switch. The characters of Hello Kitty crash their plane, declaring there are cakes on the plane (a clever Samuel L. Jackson reference), and players must brave all sorts of terrain, including swamps and volcanoes, to finally encounter beloved mascots like Kuromi and Retsuko, the heavy metal-loving red panda with her own Netflix show. Hello Kitty debuts on console this week and simultaneously on PC, and namely, the Steam Deck, but does not have any plans for PlayStation or Xbox just yet.
