It Came From Canada: Castaway Paradise, a Free-to-Play Take on Animal Crossing

Castaway Paradise was first mentioned to me as Animal Crossing but for iPhone, though I played the iPad version because I'm a rebel. And really, that just about nails it on the head - except Stolen Couch Games have done what Nintendo has yet to do, and that is make it free-to-play. Castaway Paradise is currently soft-launched in the tropical paradise of Canada, and I take it for a spin in this edition of It Came From Canada!

Players control a person who washes up on shore, and finds themselves in a land of fellow castaways who washed up on shore. However, no one really seems to be all that set on getting home - there's an entire village that's popped up, even with a mail delivery boat! So, the player is made to build a new life here, because who knows; maybe this is all the dream of the Wind Fish and leaving would be disastrous.

[img id="CastawayParadise-8-600x450.png"]So players then just do tasks for the various residents, like building fences and harvesting crops. The early missions are structured to introduce players to the things they need to know to live their island experience and to see more of the village. Menial tasks to earn currency to buy more supplies and customizations is the name of the game here.

Players have the ability to customize the look of their dwelling and of their character, but the intro to the game provides one moment regarding this that needs to change. See, the game starts off with the player being just a walking glob of seaweed washed ashore, immediately forced to do chores by Viktoria, one of the villagers. Then, for some reason, she asks which binary gender the player is. This choice is the sole determining factor in how the player first appears: typically male or female.

This is incongruent with the customization options provided, because male characters can wear dresses and traditionally feminine hairstyles without anyone saying anything about it. The character's gender doesn't seem to play much of a role, so why is it the very first thing that players are asked to choose as far as customization goes? Why not instead let players determine their initial design based on how they want to look from a set of basic customizations, and make gender an entirely irrelevant factor in how the player wishes to present themselves in this world?

While the free-to-play elements perhaps take away some of the innocence of Animal Crossing, where everything must be earned, there's also no Mr. Resetti here - so, win some lose some. Time will tell if this is successful, or if this is the Pepsi to Animal Crossing's Coke - or if it's just store-brand cola.