The latest installment in Nintendo’s Animal Crossing isn’t officially available in mainland China. But a mobile game that goes by Animal Crossing’s Chinese name recently appeared on Apple’s App Store in several markets.
Calling the game a clone wouldn’t be accurate -- other than the name, this looks nothing like New Horizons, the hit Nintendo Switch title. Instead, think Super Mario Bros. in a Chinese jungle, featuring a crawling panda instead of Mario. While the game briefly reached the top five in Taiwan’s iOS Adventure Games ranking, according to App Annie data, players everywhere soon realized it wasn’t what they were looking for at all. “Junk game,” said a one-star review.
Nintendo does have an official Animal Crossing mobile game, Pocket Camp, that’s not available in Greater China. The popular series has yet to hit PC, though, prompting rivals to try to fill the void. Team17 Digital is working on a PC game called Hokko Life that looks heavily inspired by Animal Crossing, judging by the trailer.