![]() ![]() The 2014 visuals present bland polygons, dull colors, and scant animation. I was close, as it actually started as a Facebook game a year earlier. When I first started playing Castaway Paradise, I thought it looked like a mobile game from 2015. But if you wanna bust out your virtual rakes, “evolve” crops, and earn puny achievements - “Lettuce turnip the beet,” - you’ll be kept busy. ![]() It’s likely the latter, as the Switch has become saturated with farming sims. Farming seems to be more emphasized here, for better or worse. FarmingĪ two-fold meaning, as you will farm for experience and currency. The level-up system is mobile-like in nature. Content isn’t an issue it’s the question of whether it’s compelling or not. Still, the implementation feels a bit odd for this type of game, and it comes off more like busy work than entertaining gameplay. Unlocking achievements, completing daily challenges, earning rewards, gaining experience to level up, spending in-game currency on time-sensitive deals, and having to unlock new parts of the island could attract completionists. Donating is a fun, if familiar, gameplay element. Lastly, you can also enjoy the different seasons I’m writing this in Autumn, and I agree with the game that it’s “the most amazing season of the year.” All this sounds familiar, and there are even more comparable elements. You can even collect and donate a variety of fish and insects to Blathers’, I mean Harold’s museum. Besides animal chatting, you can customize your village, accessorize yourself, and work on your green thumb. that there are many similarities between this game and Animal Crossing. The length of conversations can vary, as does the animal’s friendliness, but chatting will soon give way to gameplay such as fetch quests. Chit-chatting with them doesn’t add to any overall story per se, but there are some interesting topics for discussion. Once the tutorial ends, you can start meeting (and helping) the island residents (all animals). Let’s clean up first! Nice to meet you…now get to work! The mayor puts you to work immediately, asking you to pick up litter, which doesn’t make for the most charming intros. Being covered in kelp is a mildly clever way of concealing if you’re a boy or a girl until you select it. A storm marrons you on a tropical island. But there’s also the question of how this game will fare for those without AC experience. It’s partly why I agreed to take on Castaway Paradise, hoping it could capture some of that magic so to speak. Even spinoffs like amiibo Festival and Happy Home Designer (the latter whose poster graces my home office) charmed me. I’ve been hooked from Wild World on the DS to recent mainline entries like New Leaf and New Horizons. To be clear, I’m writing this review as a fan of Nintendo’s social sim. Castaway Paradise can’t surpass AC, but can it come close to matching it, offering a fun alternative? A good example - with Switch representation - is Arkanoid’s emulation of Breakout. A curmudgeonly critter’s caution.Ī good clone doesn’t just try to imitate its source material it tries to match or surpass it. Indeed, the publisher says they are “Inspired by Nintendo,” while the developer says point blank, “It’s like Animal Crossing!” I’m taking them up on the comparison since they’ve invited me to do so. The Castaway Paradies team makes no secret of cloning AC to give credit where credit is due. But in the case of Castaway Paradise, it can’t be helped. After all, it’s a minimal-effort explanation that often needs to discuss nuances further. ![]() I’m generally hesitant to use such terminology when describing a game. Castaway Paradise is an Animal Crossing clone, plain and simple. ![]()
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