Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams: Old Kitty, New City Company: Empire Interactive Fans of the Hello Kitty universe should find a new treat next month with a new Nintendo DS title called Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams. It seems that Hello Kitty has decided to move to Big City, but she doesn't really know anyone in the area and is living on the lowest floor of her apartment complex with dreams of someday living in the top-floor penthouse. So your goals in Big City Dreams involve making new friends, helping others and earning points to help you rise in the apartment complex. In order to do this, you will guide Kitty around the city meeting various people (including some familiar faces) and helping them in mini-games. These mini-games include actions like making sushi, washing cars, fishing, using a crane to pick up toys and taking pictures while on a boat (think Pokemon Snap). Doing so will earn you friendship points which you can use to buy plush animals for your apartment (or to give to friends), clothes for Kitty or themes for the apartment itself. One of the focuses of Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams was to create a family friendly game that teaches kids some basic values like sharing and helping friends, memorization and finer motor skills. The developers at Empire claim that it will take about five hours to rise in the apartment complex, but it will take quite a few more to actually unlock everything, and many, many more to get all of the collectible items that are scattered throughout the game. One of the ways the game helps to encourage good values is in its friendship point award system. These are the points you need in order to go into new apartments and buy things for your existing apartment. You earn points by interacting with different people and playing games. For instance, when playing with the crane to try and get stuffed animals out of a bin, you can choose to keep the doll (to put in your apartment) and you will get some friendship points, but if you give it to someone, then you will earn even more. There are a total of 16 mini-games in Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams (8 complex ones like the sushi prep game and 8 simpler ones like the crane game). When asked, the developers claimed that the mini-game involving making sushi was really interesting to them since it really uses the DS' touch screen to its fullest. Here you will take the rice and roll it and you also gain points based on how well you cut the fish. This particular mini-game sounded like it had a very Cooking Mama feel to it. Interestingly enough, the more times you play a mini-game, the harder it gets, so if you find yourself really good at a particular task, you will find yourself having to work harder and harder to earn points at it, which is a good way to get the players to experience more of the game instead of focusing on specific games in the hopes of beating it that way. As an added note, Hello Kitty and the rest of the characters will also show up in 3D for this game, as opposed to the standard 2D animation found in the anime series. This change should really give fans of the license something new to look at since you will get to see a whole new depth to the characters (pun very much intended). Long time fans of the characters and universe of Hello Kitty should be aware that Sanrio Co. (the license holder and creator) has had a major hand in the game. Not only did they push a lot to make sure everything was accurate and looked right, they were heavily involved in the game's story and overall production. So you should feel safe in the way the license has been treated. With an ESRB rating of E, and a price point of $29.99, the game is targeted towards the 8 - 12 year-old market, but the game seems to have generated a bit of interest from longtime fans of the license, so if you are a fan of the characters, or know someone who fits into the game's target demographic, then you might want to keep an eye out for Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams when it comes out November 28th. -J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer Related Links: Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams Official Home Page Hello Kitty on Wikipedia