It takes a lot of courage to try to release a competitor to Nintendo’s Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Switch, considering how everyone and their mother bought the latest iteration in the life simulator back when it was released in the same day as Doom Eternal, way back in 2020. But that’s what Dinkum, a game published by the people behind Subnautica and PUBG, but developed by a single Australian bloke, is trying to do. By being basically Animal Crossing but set in Australia, it is trying to carve a niche to those who just can’t stand looking at Tom Nook’s ugly mug anymore. Even if constantly getting into debt is still a large element of its gameplay loop.

The world is yours to explore… until you inevitably meet a crocodile.

In Dinkum, you play as an original character living in an ugly, dystopian city with no color of joy. One day, you find out about an opportunity to travel alongside an old lady to a faraway archipelago in order to re-colonize it. Considering how bored you are with your current life, you jump into the boat with her. After building your first tents, you notice some people start taking an interest to your island project, so the objective shifts to actually building a town that’s attractive and sustainable enough to grow with new inhabitants, houses, shops, and whatnot. In the meantime, in order to garner all the resources needed to set up these buildings and businesses, you gotta explore the island, which is packed with different biomes and Australian creatures.

In true Animal Crossing fashion, your daily routine consists of talking to your neighbors, seeing if they need a favor, going out into the wilderness, collect everything you see in front of you (fruit, tree logs, seashells, scrap, bugs, fish, the list goes on), and go back to your town to proceed with other activities. You’ll want to sell your loot at the local store, as the owner loves to pay large sums of cash on things like cicadas and exotic fruit. Inhabitants and passersby will occasionally ask for favors which earn you a lot of money.

That’ll work. I’m sure of it.

This is important, as being able to build houses and shops doesn’t take just a lot of building materials, but they also result in the old lady (who acts like the place’s mayor and secretary of finance) putting the town into debt. And it’s up to you to pay it off. It’s a simple and familiar gameplay loop. You are almost always in debt, and your objective is to pay it off by doing the aforementioned tasks. To be fair, the more inhabitatns you have at your town, the faster you’ll pay off these sums, as they actually help out financially as well. Not by much, mind you, but they aren’t inherently useless.

Aw, what a friendly local! And not at all creepy!

What differs Dinkum from its main (and very obvious) source of inspiration is its overall Australian theming. Everybody greets you with a “G’day mate”, the island is separated by biomes such as “Outback” and “Billabong”, and the fauna, well, ain’t very friendly. Sure, there are turkeys, harmless fish, and bugs, but there are also animals like crocodiles, cassowarries, fire-breathing Tasmanian devils (I’m pretty sure there aren’t animals like this in the real world, but it’s Australia, so you never know), and of course, ginormous sharks. You can actually fend off against them with craftable weapons, but combat and survival mechanics, whilst present, aren’t a particular focus of the story. But it’s Australia, so not having a deadly fauna in your game wouldn’t make it realistic enough.

There’s the issue that the gameplay loop is painfully slow, but I guess the same can be said about pretty much any other life simulator. Dinkum is all about planning your day accordingly, saving enough time to loot, build, sell and interact with people. It’s not the most amazing game in terms of its presentation (in fact, it’s simplistic to the point of looking overly cheap), but considering this project was developed by a single Aussie, I can somewhat ignore that. It’s still charming, despite its underwhelming looks, so there’s that.

It might take ten trillion years for your town to grow to an acceptable size, but it feels so rewarding when it does.

Dinkum ain’t the most innovative or impressive life simulation out in the market, but it has just enough elements to make it feel more than just an Animal Crossing knockoff. Even if it’s a really slow-paced game, which requires a painful amount of patience from its players, it is also incredibly rewarding to see your little Australian-esque archipelago grow from a bunch of sand with kangaroos into a charming village full of friendly characters. Who this game is for is a completely different question – I can totally see its appeal on PC, but considering it’s also on the Switch, I guess its possible target audience is people who enjoy the gameplay from Animal Crossing, but with a bit more action, some minute stakes, and those looking for the most Australian game out there since 2015’s Mad Max.

Dinkum is available now on PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Dinkum was provided by the publisher.