In the 20 years since Animal Crossing first debuted on the N64 and was then ported to the Gamecube, the life simulation genre has undergone many changes. We’ve seen games stick to the Sims-style from the late ’90s and seen some more realistic-looking takes on the Animal Crossing formula with games like Re:Legend on PC. Now, thanks to Wonderscope and Team17, PC players will be able to enjoy something more akin to a straight up Animal Crossing game with Hokko Life. The game itself was announced a couple of months ago – so it isn’t like the game is only getting announced due to New Horizons, but Team17 publishing it is new info and pretty interesting.

The company doesn’t really have anything quite like this in its catalog and there’s definitely a desire for more console-centric sub-genres to hit PC. We’ve seen games like Temtem do a modern-day Pokemon formula better than the current games and while Hokko Life does appear to crib a lot from AC, there’s always room for improvement and having to be a bit different just to avoid being a total copycat could help things out. You’ll be able to be more hands-on with designing things as you can now paint and color things in your town.

This is one area where Hokko Life has a chance to really shine because you’ll be able to craft things in the world and tailor their designs in a more open manner. Like AC, you can still farm, fish, and bug hunt – complete with bragging about your catch. Hokko Life is set for a release at some point this year and it will be interesting to see just how the final product turns out. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the game as its release draws near – and with a new AC game out there, Hokko Life will have its work cut out for itself.