sanriotown
Latest
MMO Family: A parent's look at Hello Kitty Online
MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family. Hello Kitty Online is the first of our Parents Guide selections that's aimed squarely at teens and young adults rather than the kiddie set. Say what? We were surprised, too -- but given the mind-bogglingly persistent popularity of Hello Kitty among grownups with more discerning taste (and expansive wallets), it stands to reason that developer Sanrio would want HKO to reach as broad an audience as possible. What HKO brings to the keyboard, then, is less a kiddie game than a crafting-oriented, sunshiny, Hello-Kitty-themed version of an MMO. Sure, it's 2-D. Sure, it's free-to-play. But despite the precious proliferation of pink, you'll find gameplay that's more in line with traditional, fully developed MMOs -- a purrfectly friendly MMO choice for your teen daughter.
HK-Day arrives: Hello Kitty Online launches in NA and Europe
You've felt it -- the tingle of anticipation, the twitch of desire, the color of pink. And now, after years of waiting, it's finally here: Hello Kitty Online has officially launched across North American and Europe. While the game's been widely available for some time now, Sanrio Digital considers today to be the first of many glorious days of cats and their peppy greetings. It's a double celebration of sorts, considering that this is Sanrio's 50th anniversary. While you and your family can download Hello Kitty Online for free, Sanrio hopes that you'll go the extra distance and head out to a retailer to pick up the premium edition of this kid-friendly MMO. Hello Kitty Online Premium Edition includes a grab-bag of treats, such as $15 in Sanrio points for item shop purchases, an exclusive pet, the game manual, and postcards. The MMO is tied in with SanrioTown, the company's official Hello Kitty social network, which provides fans with tools to share their love of this world. Obviously, Sanrio is hoping that the worldwide Hello Kitty phenomenon will propel this F2P title to success. You can check out HKO for yourself at the official site.
A look into the world of Hello Kitty Online
The citizens of Sanriotown are missing, and it's up to you to save the day! Ok, that's the most cheeriness you're getting out of this article from us. We're not sugar-coating the rest of this, because the game has enough sugar in and of itself. We don't need to sprinkle any more atop the candy coated world of Hello Kitty Online.Our good friend Tipa over at West Karana has taken the brave plunge into HKO, and she's resurfaced with a long post of first impressions from the game. While she goes in-depth with the combat, crafting, harvesting, and minigame aspects of HKO, she doesn't have much praise to heap on the game. Most of her complaints with the white cat stem from a severe lack of documentation that gives the player direction. For the most part, players of HKO are dropped into the world with no clear objective of what to do when they get there -- not that good for a game that's directed at children.While Tipa's first impressions are lengthy, be sure to check out our first impressions of Hello Kitty Online, coming soon to the blog near you!
Hello Kitty Online paints Beijing in pink and white as game's newest city
The team at SanrioDigital and Typhoon Games has lovingly re-created the city of Beijing as you've never seen it before -- through the pink-lensed glasses of Hello Kitty, heavy on the star motif. Well, more stars than the real Beijing, in any case. They've even put some of Beijing's landmarks into Hello Kitty Online and have posted screenshots of the HKO version of the city, with a brief introduction. They write on the Sanriotown blog: "To start things off, we'd like to showcase the new, never-before-seen city that's been added to the game: Beijing! In it you'll see some narrow streets, red lanterns, unique buildings, and walls surrounding the heart of the city." Some of the places they've included are the Bubble Dome and the Forbidden Museum. Sanriotown also adds that Hello Kitty Online will have '14 new adventure maps, 8 of which make up Beijing's surroundings.' You can check out the screenshots in the Sanriotown blog announcement.
Valentine's Day event in Hello Kitty Online open to everyone
The day will eventually come when the world burns itself out and society as we know it collapses. In the final days, tin foil hat theorists will suggest many reasons for humanity's demise, ranging from Skynet to MMO addiction and everything in between. Regardless of how or why it happens, once we're gone, the cockroaches will evolve into a global hivemind and inherit the earth as nature always intended. All they will know of their simian Mountain Dew-guzzling predecessors of the ancient world is one thing: they apparently worshipped a cute little animal with an off-kilter pink bow, the cat-goddess Hello Kitty. The day they encounter her is the day they will know their new master, and labor to rebuild the world in her image.It's true -- well, not the apocalypse bit -- Hello Kitty will remain an enduring aspect of our times, if the past 35 years of her reign as a cultural symbol is any indicator. The world's ultimate iconic character from Sanrio has adorned 'all our stuff' since 1974. Perhaps more than ever, kids (and quite a few adults) are absolutely in love with Hello Kitty. The estimated USD 1 billion per year she's worth confirms she's hardwired into our pop culture consciousness, a fact which isn't lost on the game industry. We've already seen a legacy of Hello Kitty games spanning multiple iterations of consoles and handhelds, as well as PC releases. Hello Kitty's involvement with gaming is about to enter a whole new era though, with her introduction to the world of massively multiplayer online games through Hello Kitty Online.
Hello Kitty Online Founder's Beta opening Oct 8th
"Hahaha I pwnedz0rz j00!""You cheated. Your class is overpowered. If I had my [insert popular class here], you wouldn't have a chance""STFU newb, go play Hello Kitty Online"It may have become the butt of as many jokes as Chuck Norris, but Hello Kitty Online might actually prove to be a major contender in the MMO space. Sure it probably won't compete on the same level with something like Warhammer Online, but in the ever-increasing niche MMO market, it has the possibility to become a hit online game.On October 8th at 22:00 EST, the HKO Founder's Beta will begin, opening the game to many more players than the previous beta that's been going on for months. To find out more information on becoming a Founder (which operates much like a special pre-order program for when the game launches), you can check out the Founders FAQ or the game's FAQ itself. They even get bonus points for offering a Torrent version of their beta download!
Hello Kitty Online Founder's Beta announced
Collector's Editions, in-game exclusives, and headstarts aren't limited to hotly-anticipated MMOs in the fantasy genre. More casual MMOs are now offering additional incentives and benefits to gamers who are devoted to their given IP. A case-in-point is Hello Kitty Online and their newly-announced Founder's offer. The Hello Kitty Online Founder's Beta will allow those selected to play the game ahead of launch while participating in special in-game events. Here's how to become a Founder in two easy steps:1. Sign up for a SanrioTown.com account.2. Using your SanrioTown account, send a BLANK email to hkofounder@hellokitty.com.That's it. Founders should have some new things to look forward to from Hello Kitty Online, according to the official site: "an improved interface, new monsters, new maps, new items, and the opening of London and Paris. The Founders' Beta will also introduce gameplay changes such as an improved skill system, pet systems and team-play oriented enhancements." If you're curious about this title, either for yourself or for one of the little people in your life, don't wait too long to become a Founder -- this stage of beta testing begins on October 8th. If you're thinking about giving it a shot, be sure to check out the full details in the Hello Kitty Online News and Update page. [Via MMORPG]
HKO's social features are more than meets the eye
There's a certain temptation to believe that so-called casual games are inherently less complex than their more hardcore cousins. Whether it's born of experience, arrogance, or just plain ignorance, most people probably assume that a game like Hello Kitty Online is going to leave them wanting for features. Having just read an interview with Ali Aslanbaigi, Game Master Manager for HKO, this blogger can say that this certainly doesn't seem like the case.Aslanbaigi explains how they plan to integrate email, blogging, and user video from the Sanriotown portal into the game experience itself, making Hello Kitty Online a social media hub as much as it is casual MMO. Say what you will about the relative complexity of an Age of Conan -- Hello Kitty Online isn't just trying to compete with the big MMOs on the block, it's looking to take its place alongside Facebook, MySpace, and other social media giants. It's ambitious, to say the least.
MMO Mash-up: Age of Hello Kitty
Welcome to a new column here at Massively, where I'll take two massively multiplayer online games and chop them up into little pieces, so I can put them back together with electrical tape and staples. This is the MMO Mashup, where you can expect to see everything from the startlingly strange to the ubiquitously unusual.Lets get straight into it then, with the pink-yet-dark world of Age of Hello Kitty.In the dangerous and dark Kingdom of Floweria, your wits are your best weapon. Though pastel-colored blade and lovely embroidered shield may help fend off the slavering demon-kittens, they are only as powerful as the warrior wielding them.
What do you think of HKO Insider?
We're a good part of the way through our first day here at HKO Insider, so we figured now might be a good time to get some feedback from the community about what you think of the new focus of our site. Do you miss the green forests of Ashenvale or are you sold on Sanriotown? Is class QQing sounding pretty good to you right about now or are you krazy for Keroppi?Our overlords at AOL directed us this morning to switch focus to a more popular MMO (since Wrath of the Lich King doesn't even have a release date yet), and some of our readers (and, frankly, writers) are a little uncomfortable with the change. But what do you think?%Poll-11998%Choose your opinion in the poll above (and post a comment below, if you like), and let us know what you think about the changeover to cover Hello Kitty Online 24/7 instead of our usual World of Warcraft coverage.
