Some licenses lend themselves to an obvious route into gaming. Speed Racer was always going to be a racing game, for instance, and (to stick with the Wachowski theme) The Matrix was always going to be about slo-mo fighting and shooting. And odd plot developments. Everything else, it seems, is suited to being a 3D platformer, obviously.
But the Hello Kitty licence is a bit of an enigma, in some ways. Born in Japan in 1974, Hello Kitty was in reality nothing more than a picture of a cute cat. It’s evolved far beyond that, of course, but at heart it’s simply a cartoonish and Japanese style icon. However, it’s also massively popular across the world, and the use of the licence in a video game holds understandable appeal for Empire.
“Transferring Hello Kitty to gaming, and especially the Nintendo DS format, is a perfect match, as it is a gaming console that has an audience of young girls who are clamouring for titles such as Hello Kitty,” says Empire Interactive product manager Rob Lightbody.
“However, when creating the actual game you first need to understand the Hello Kitty brand and its appeal to ensure that the game you are creating holds true to the values portrayed by [Hello Kitty creators] Sanrio. The Hello Kitty brand is about friendship and Big City Dreams reflects that by featuring over 20 of her friends that the player must help.
“We have spent a lot of time ensuring that their characteristics and their individual mannerisms of the characters are maintained as well as their likenesses. The finished result is very fun, cute and is the Hello Kitty game that we set out to make, providing the quality and authenticity that Sanrio’s brand deserves.”
The title is fundamentally an adventure game, packed with a number of mini-games. It sees Kitty moving into her own apartment in the ‘Big City’ – but not happy with making do with the lowly ground floor abode, she has a dream of making her way up to the penthouse. Don’t we all?
“Hello Kitty Big City Dreams will be supported by a major television campaign running across children’s TV channels including CITV and Nickelodeon,” Lightbody adds.
“Both pre-teen and girls teen magazines will be targeted with editorial stories and competition-based editorial, all of which are currently being finalised as we speak. We’re also looking at a number of major competitions across national and regional media. We will also have a significant online presence with a dedicated mini-site and various other online activities.”
Empire has already enjoyed great success with the Hello Kitty brand, but its enthusiasm for its move to DS is wholly understandable considering the target market that both share.
“We’ve had success with Hello Kitty in the past on PS2 and Xbox, and during that sell-in process the question always came round to ‘when will Hello Kitty be available on DS?’. It’s taken us some time to complete Hello Kitty, but in that period the license has become stronger than ever in the UK.
“The brand is such a good fit for the young female DS audience that we are confident that Hello Kitty can hold her own against major licenses in the Christmas top ten.”
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