Last week we pointed your attention to iPad title Castaway Paradise, which has striking similarities to Animal Crossing and some aspects that would be familiar to Harvest Moon fans; all with a dash of micro-transactions, of course.
Footage of the title, already out in countries such as Canada and New Zealand and arriving elsewhere later in the year, naturally prompted plenty to accuse it of being a 'clone', though that's hardly a rarity in the modern games industry. Developer Stolen Couch Games has now issued some comments to Eurogamer to assert that the title draws inspiration from multiple sources; the company also states that Nintendo has no issues with the title and, perhaps amazingly, the studio is considering bringing the free-to-play release to the Wii U.
Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon and The Sims are all inspirations for Castaway Paradise. What we tried to do is create an experience similar to those games but for all platforms, including mobile and Steam. We've taken the best aspects of life simulators and improved and expanded on these aspects.
Some people are concerned of Nintendo's opinion of our game. All I can say it that we've been talking to Nintendo for years. We've showed Castaway Paradise to them and everything is fine. We're even considering bringing Castaway Paradise to the Wii U. There are many differences between the before mentioned games and Castaway Paradise.
So there you have it. Let us know your thoughts on these comments from the developer and whether you'd welcome this title to Wii U, either adjusted for the platform or even as a rare free-to-play release. If you want to decide for yourself on how much of a 'clone' it is, video footage is below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 37
if its free who cares?
Uh, can I just have Animal Crossing on Wii U?
nah...the artstyle is terrible imo
animal crossing has more soul if you know what i mean
Hard to spot the differences
Well somebody should bring some type of sim game to Wii U. Besides Animal Crossing there's also Tomodachi Life and Disney Magical World on 3DS. And The Sims itself. And Story of Seasons is coming. Did AC:CF not sell well on Wii?
Those amiibo could really use a place to call home rather than just being accessories.
@Tsurii897 While I agree that I would rather wait for Animal Crossing U, I'm seriously interested in the PC (Steam) version. It doesn't seem all that bad, except for the fact that everyone looks like Salvatore from Wind Waker.
Well... if it's free on the Wii U version as well, I'll try it out and see what's so special about it.
I don't care if it is free. If this iOS garbage arrives on Wii U before an official Animal Crossing game, I'm going to lose my religion.
They've been talking to Nintendo for years?
I'd be curious to know in what capacity.
Why would Nintendo have an issue with it being on Wii U? They would see money from it and its shallow expierence would drive people to the real thing. Until Apple and Google get their crap together there's not much Deva can do when their IPs get cloned as court cases rarely make back the money they cost on these small time crooks.
I suppose as long as there are some differences. I don't really care. I have no desire for a life sim that is visually unappealing, given how much time you spend looking at the same things. Wild World looked good fora ds game but City Folk was really ugly. That was just one reason I disliked it. New Leaf got it right. Tomodachi Life has so many strange animations and scenes. Harvest Moon: A New Beginning is about the worst a life sim can look before I lose interest. The bland green textures, clunky animations and terrible 3D get old, but the game is fun.
This game doesn't look good or sound that fun though. Too bad, I guess. Micro transaction filled, real-time farming games get old. I would take Harvest Moon over Farmville any day because I can pause or save Harvest Moon and put it down.
At least someones doing it.
People thought Nintendo would sue for similarities XD.
If Ittle Dew (recent example) made it to other platforms and Wii U with its similarity to legend of Zelda, I don't see the problem with this. If it does come for the Wii U I hope they get rid of the f2p and just have the one time price.
New Leaf is enough for me, big pass.
I know art is in the eye of the beholder... But man those graphics are flat out awful.
@Tsurii897 I feel like slapping people who make those kind of statements....
I'm willing to give this a chance, even though I'm not a big fan of free to play.
I actually don't mind the art style, haha. However, I hate free-to-play games, so I probably wouldn't try this unless they changed the model for Wii U.
HAhahahahaha ok.
Give me a real Wii U Animal Crossing as the 700 hours I have spent in New Leaf has worn me out on the game! Animal Crossing for Wii U will surely be amazing!
@DragonbornRito hahaa at the Windwaker reference
There was already an Animal Crossing clone on a Nintendo console once, some witch-school-themed game for the DS, published in Europe through Konami. Forgot the title but played it once on the Games Convention way back and it left a very good impression on me. Nice graphics and design and it felt somehow tighter than AC, due to its witch theme and the idea purpose that resulted from it. Seemed to be very much addressed to teenage girls, though.
@wayneyrob22 It's not free, it's "free".
That is why I hate "free to play" as an euphemism, almost as much as I hate the "mature" rating nomenclature.
@bezerker99 Same thoughts. This is EXACTLY how people choose phones over consoles, they've got a similar thing that's pretty much that. So? They don't need the Wii U & 3DS. It's THIS kind of thing that the market holds back on from Nintendo. -_-
"Improved and expanded"?!? Good one... Especially with microtransactions, I don't see any improvement over the latest life sim games.
I liked the animation style. It's got a weird charm to it
Whether you agree with the idea of Nintendo putting it's games on platforms other than it's own first party hardware or not, I think this is a perfect example of where Nintendo is missing a trick.
Certain Nintendo games and franchises just seem so suited to the likes of smartphones and tablets, most of Nintendo's touchscreen DS games for example, that if I were running Nintendo I'd at least be putting a bunch of the older DS touch-centric games on mobile devices at this point (especially in these tough times). If the games are old enough, meaning they've already sold bucket loads on the DS anyway, then I really don't see the harm in this and especially if it's games that are ideally suited to touch devices because all this does imo is show all those casual mobile gamers out there how great Nintendo's games actually are. If after playing those older DS games on their mobile devices they actually decide they want all the latest Nintendo games too they would still have to go out and buy one of Nintendo's own consoles to get them, which might happen more often than you would think if those experiences are strong enough and we know with Nintendo games they usually are (certainly, most of Nintendo's best DS games poo all over 99% of current mobile games), and that can only be a good thing for Nintendo. Extra sales of it's older touch titles on hundreds of millions of mobile devices and potentially millions of satisfied mobile customers giving it's dedicated hardware a try just to get more of that [up-to-date] Nintendo gaming experience from the only place they can get it.
To me, in this particular case, I think porting some of the best touchscreen-centric DS games to mobile devices is a win win situation for Nintendo actually.
Plot Twist: Stolen Couch are releasing this game on Wii U as Animal Crossing: Paradise Island, agreed with Nintendo on this!
@Kirk Uhm, so instead of buying nintendo hardware to play nintendo games (remember, the 3DS is backwards compatible) people should buy these games for cheap on a phone store ?
That is everything BUT a win win situation.
Sure, consumers will get washed out DS games on their phone, but nintendo sits on its devices. I know a lot of people who bought a 3DS to play some older DS titles too
@Einherjar
It's sort of like you didn't even understand a word I said.
@Kirk Oh, sure i did But using it to make people "realize how good nintendo games actually are" is stupid.
You cant compete on a smartphone market without an extremely low pricetag. So, they need to give away their games for cheap. Once these "newly aquired customers" see the retail price of a real DS game, you pretty much lost them right away.
People who are into smartphone "games" arent willing to pay more than a couple of bucks per game. Heck, people are even complaining that VC games are too expansive. Nintendos 1st party games rarely lose value and mostly keep their retai price (Mario Kart DS still kosts 40€ here). You cant win them over with this, nor should anyone care.
So it would just mean another market to cater towards without much income, that potentially distracts from work on nintendos own systems.
@Einherjar
I'm really not bothering trying to detail all the specifics and details of this to you, you clearly can't see beyond the way things are now, so just continue to believe whatever you want.
YES!!!! So happy!
Influenced by Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and The Sims? Looks more like ripping off Animal Crossing with slight influence by Harvest Moon and the financial tactics of modern The Sims titles.
...Seriously, Nintendo? lol
Nintendo is used to being aped, even on their own systems. And they're fine with it as they know these games won't ever sell as well as Nintendo's own offerings, but will serve to cement Nintendo's influence and exellence.
The truth is, Nintendo was drunk when they said they were fine with this.
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