Sanrio Co Ltd.'s fictional characters may not appeal to everyone, but they do have a certain goofy quality that this reviewer had (and still has) a liking for, such as Hello Kitty's (and other Sanrio feline characters') visual lack of mouths. Perhaps they would look disconcerting to some, but so would many other fictional characters intended for children at the time, be they Oriental or Western in origins.
It was with this admiration that this reviewer sought to play this game by Character Soft, which is a subsidiary/brand name of Sanrio Co. Ltd. With a title like Sanrio Carnival, this reviewer had thought that it would be an action-adventure game. Unfortunately, it is not, but is instead a match-three-blocks puzzle game.
In this game, the story is all but non-existent. Other than some sparsely animated visuals of Hello Kitty and friends who appear to suggest that the player is going to have fun just because Sanrio's cute characters are involved, there isn't anything else to imply a plot of any kind. Despite this, a backstory is not a critical aspect of block-matching puzzle games, which are understandably difficult to craft stories for.
The player has to drop and match ever-falling blocks that have portraits of Sanrio's characters on them. Matching blocks causes them to disappear, which has the player accruing points and gaining one step closer to the completion of the current level. It does appear to have been inspired by earlier match-three games, especially Dr. Mario. However, there are a few slight differences (which may or may not have been introduced by Sanrio Carnival), the most major of which is that blocks in this game, if they extend out beyond the platform of blocks that they drop on, will detach from the string of blocks that they were a part of and fall down. This feature does encourage strategic thinking in order to time the clearing of many blocks at once.
Unfortunately, the game offers little more depth than this. Other than gradually introducing a new block (with the face of a Sanrio character) now and then and increasing the initial speed at which blocks fall, there isn't any more variation in between levels.
Graphics is pretty much what one can expect from match-three puzzle games: the same block designs are repeated over-and-over. This is of course, a trait that is critically important to such puzzle games, but Sanrio Carnival does not attempt to make said blocks more interesting than they are. The faces on said blocks are static and a few of them are terribly similar to each other, resulting in frustrating mistakes that add more seconds to the time needed to complete a level.
The audio is sparse. For sound effects, there are a few clinks for blocks coming into contact with each other, but there is little else. The music, as expected, uses a soundtrack associated with Hello Kitty's shows, but there is only a single soundtrack which seems to have been strained through 8-bit filters. While it has a catchy tune, listening to the same soundtrack for so many levels in a row is not exactly enjoyable. (In fact, this reviewer still recalls the tune all too well even after so many years.) The game can be played with the volume completely toned down without much consequence.
In conclusion, while this game is a functional puzzle game, it does little justice to Sanrio's characters and the fun that it offers gets stale rather quickly.