Parent's Guide: Hello Kitty Kruisers - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

What is Hello Kitty Kruisers?

Hello Kitty Kruisers is a sugary sweet racing game starring the eponymous Hello Kitty and her friends, as they take to the tracks and jostle for first place. Players pick one of the lovable Sanrio characters, from favourites like Hello Kitty and Chococat to more obscure faces like Tuxedo Sam and Hangyodon, and leap into a vehicle of their choice, before putting pedal to the metal, racing around tropical islands, rainbow roads and city centres, pelting friends and foes alike with all manner of weapons to try and get the upper hand. Kruisers mixes things up a bit by adding in flying races and boat rallies too.

How do you play Hello Kitty Kruisers?

Multiplayer is the name of the game here really, with Hello Kitty Kruisers supporting up to four players on one console, across all the different race types. Versus races are pretty straightforward, with players simply trying their best to make it to first place, either in single races or across a four-race-long 'tour' that takes in car, boat and flying races all together. One issue though is that in multiplayer, boat races have a fair amount of slowdown, making them a bit juddery and jumpy, making them a bit harder to play, although not impossible either - it's also not an issue in single player. For lone players, there's also a single player 'adventure' mode which consists of twenty short missions that see you collecting cupcakes, driving through rings, tackling time trials and grabbing as many apples as you can - a nice change of pace from Kruisers' usual racing mode.

How easy is Hello Kitty Kruisers to pick up and play?

With tracks that are generally fairly simplistic and well-designed, computer controlled characters that aren't particularly good and, of course, lovable characters, it's the sort of game that'll strike a chord with the youngest of the young of Hello Kitty fans. Reading isn't necessary, and about the only real stumbling block is getting used to the slightly different handling of the different vehicles - planes move in three dimensions, so you'll need to move it up and down as well as steering from side to side, whereas boats feel bouncier and slower to turn as they bob along the water's surface. Both are more complex than the straightforward car races, but the tracks tend to be simpler to compensate too.

Aimed at a young audience, Hello Kitty Kruisers is as squeaky clean as her cutesy image suggests - there's no swearing, sex scenes or bloody violence whatsoever. About the closest she gets to violence is pelting someone with a cupcake to spin them around and slow them down mid-race.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo Wii U