Taken for a Quickie | Castaway Paradise

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Stolen Couch Games’ Animal Crossing-inspired life-simulator, Castaway Paradise, hits Xbox One and PlayStation 4 this week, so grab the factor 50 and join us on a trip to warmer climes for our latest quickie.

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by Liam
​Andrews

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​@liam_andrews5

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Developer: Stolen Couch Games
Publisher: Stolen Couch Games
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Steam, iOS, Android, Mac
Players: 1

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It’s inspired by Animal Crossing, you say?

​Very much so. There’s a bit of Harvest Moon-style farming thrown in for good measure, but, for the most part, Castaway Paradise is an homage to Nintendo’s incredibly popular life-sim series.

Anthropomorphic animals abound, each with their own personality, and it’s your job to help them out and turn the island paradise you all inhabit into a thriving community. Your house (once purchased), character and surrounding landscape can all be customised with a multitude of in-game items, allowing players to personally  tailor their own tropical experience.

It’s sounding very familiar so far…

While it does stick close to the winning Animal Crossing formula, Castaway Paradise adds a few minor twists on classic genre tropes that help to set it apart from the source material.

Such as?

​Players unlock bridges leading to other parts of the island with puzzle pieces, earned through quests and levelling up, and mission checklists help give the game a more structured feel whilst also making it easier to stay on top of daily activities.

Fishing, a classic life-sim pastime, is also a little more intuitive in Castaway Paradise, with players able to aim while casting out and use special bait to attract bigger and rarer fish in their quest to top global leaderboards.

Castaway Paradise is an homage to Nintendo’s incredibly popular life-sim series.

Would you recommend it?

Whilst Castaway Paradise doesn’t quite have the level of charm or polish to compete with its original inspiration, the game’s light-hearted nature and sense of progression should be enough to satisfy those looking for an Animal Crossing fix on non-Nintendo platforms.

Wait, no Switch version?

​Sadly not, no. Stolen Couch haven’t entirely ruled out a Switch port, but, despite it being a perfect fit for Nintendo’s hybrid console, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting one any time soon.