Hello Kitty and Friends: Freeze Tag Party

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen / Local Wireless)

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Review:

Hello Kitty and Friends: Freeze Tag Party (from here on referred to as Freeze Tag Party) is a family-friendly Arcade-style game released in 2025 on Nintendo Switch. In this game, players compete in an asymmetrical 2v6 contest where two “hunters” aim to seek down the remaining players (“challengers”) and zap them with a magic wand, making them float in place. If the hunters nab all of the challengers, they win. If there is still at least one challenger remaining uncaught when the clock ticks down to zero, that team wins.

Before playing, I found myself wondering why to the best of my recollection I hadn’t seen freeze tag represented in videogame form before. And then I played the game and realized why. Freeze tag just isn’t a great game – the moment someone is “frozen”, they’re stuck doing nothing until an uncaught teammate tags them to free them (represented here by teammates waiting nearby as a short timer ticks down). And an uncoordinated team can doom even the best individual player.

That’s not the only problem in Freeze Tag Party, though. Movement speed is really slow here, especially if you’re a challenger. There’s not much variety in what you can do – each character has one special move with a cooldown and that’s it. There’s not much variety in location types – the game contains multiple maps but only two “skins” for those maps.

But most damning of all, this game only supports up to two players, when freeze tag is inherently a multiplayer-focused game. This omission strikes me as stunning – why force players to contend with AI-controlled teammates instead of ensuring that what should have been a Party Game allows all your friends to play? Those AI-controlled teammates are pretty dumb, by the way – even at the highest difficulty, challengers will often stay in place as a hunter approaches them until they get up close.

The presentation at least is fine, using cel-shaded 3D visuals backed by lighthearted upbeat soundtrack. It’s nothing extraordinary, but it works well enough for this game’s family-friendly theme.

In the end, while I have tons of complaints about Freeze Tag Party, I will admit it still has a charm that makes it enjoyable despite all of those problems. But the lack of variety and lack of a multiplayer mode that supports more than two players make it hard to recommend this game when plenty of better family-friendly Party Games exist, and the $40 price tag seems way too bloated for a game this repetitive and simple. Even if you’re a Sanrio fan, I can’t recommend this one.

tl;dr – Hello Kitty and Friends: Freeze Tag Party is a family-friendly Arcade-style 2v6 game where players take the role of “hunters” or “challengers” in a game of freeze tag. This game is shallow, slow-paced, and lacking in content, especially for a game priced at $40. All but the most dedicated Sanrio fans are better off looking elsewhere for a fun Party game.

Grade: C-

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