Hello Kitty Music Party review - An uninspired rhythm-based idle clicker

The draw of Hello Kitty can be so much for some people that they will download any game related to her willingly, no matter what it may entail.

But with her latest outing, Hello Kitty Music Party, an idle game that has you dancing and tapping to the beat of catchy pop songs, it feels like only the die-hard fans will really enjoy the game.

It's bland, paint-by-numbers clicker fare, with bizarre mechanics that add nothing to experience but frustration and confusion to what should be a fairly basic game.

Hi, cat

The main aim of Hello Kitty Music Party is to continually build up a supply of notes, allowing you to keep upgrading the buildings and abilities and incrementally increase the number of notes you earn.

Upgrading buildings gives you more notes automatically, keeping you topped as you progress, but their usefulness is questionable at best, given how few notes they actually offer.

Hello Kitty Music Party

Instead you'll need to be tapping along to the game – and unfortunately for traditional idle gamers, there's a little more to it than just wildly hitting the screen.

Tapping along to the music is the way forward, with successful taps along to the beat meaning big rewards. Continued taps start up a combo, which can fire your Vibe counter even higher.

The problem here is that the tapping is just ever-so-slightly off, and the on-screen metronome is always very slightly out of time no matter what song you're listening to.

What up, feline

To complicate things further, you're tasked with physically dancing around the room to increase your points, though again it's unclear how much this actually changes things.

Plus, dancing around messes up your tapping ability – particularly since while moving, you're more liable to slide the screen around instead of actually scoring a tap.

All this adds up to a frustrating experience that sees progress about as slow-going as it can get, with progress never coming to even the hardest-working tappers in the world.

Hello Kitty Music Party

You can, if you so please, import your own music from iTunes into the game, replacing the inoffensive, upbeat pop music if it really upsets you that much.

But this doesn't really change the underlying problem of the game – it just isn't that much fun to play at all, and doesn't even have all that much Hello Kitty to keep it interesting.

Güten tag, Katze

Overall, Hello Kitty Music Party is an entirely functional idle game wrapped up in a cute, brand-friendly package that will likely pull in a crowd based on its name alone.

But scratch even a little below the surface and you'll find a game that doesn't quite the way it's so clearly intended to, and suffers because of it.

Unless you're hugely invested in tapping away for huge chunks of time, there's very little to find enjoyment from here – even if you love bright colours and cutesy characters to play with.

Hello Kitty Music Party review - An uninspired rhythm-based idle clicker

Hello Kitty Music Party's clunky design prevents it from being anything more than a middle-of-the-road clicker, despite its fresh ideas
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Ric Cowley
Ric Cowley
Ric was somehow the Editor of Pocket Gamer, having started out as an intern in 2015. He hopes to take over the world the same way.