Animal Crossing, the beloved life sim filled with animals and furniture collecting from Nintendo, is finally getting a lookalike on PC in the form of Hokko Life. The appeal of Animal Crossing is here on full display, from the chattering animal residents to the colorful rivers and vibrant trees.

Hokko Life wears its inspiration on its paw with its home designing, fishing, and talkative neighborhood residents. In terms of gameplay, however, it might just surpass the Nintendo title. The trailer shows a fully positionable pillow which can be propped every which way on the couch, houses that can be dragged and dropped, and customizable T-shirt designs. And unlike Animal Crossing, which has (until now) placed houses at designated spots in the world, Hokko Life allows players to rotate and place the homes of their animal friends.

Not everyone owns a Switch, but most people own a PC. Hokko could end up being a good competitor to Animal Crossing in the same way Temtem could keep Pokémon on its toes. When an IP goes unchallenged for too long, it can get lazy, as seen in the recent Dexit controversy. Temtem provides a great alternative without a subscription to transfer your monsters, and with Animal Crossing possibly dipping into the slippery slope that is microtransactions, it’s good to have another game to play once the Switch release drops.

This isn’t the first studio with its own take on an existing lifesim. My Time at Portia took the Harvest Moon/Rune Factory Formula, launched it on Steam, added voice actors, and ported it to all platforms. As long as games aren’t blatant ripoffs or using the same assets (such as Flappy Bird’s Mario Pipe) they can generally survive copyright infringement. In this way, it’s better to see games like Temtem or Hokko as alternatives, rather than rip-offs. Considering the amount of time and love put into these titles, they might be the more enjoyable experience for some players.

There’s no news on when Hokko Life will drop, or at what price, but the developers are giving a tentative release date of January-June, 2021.

Source: Gamespot