Hokko Life
Review

Hokko Life (2021) is a community simulation game like Animal Crossing. You pick a town and set up your home, before spending time helping the place develop into a charming rural idyl everyone loves. Even though it's the creation of one person, it has most of the features of Animal Crossing. The novelty is that you can play it on non-Nintendo platforms. On PC the designing, building and customising benefits from the mouse controls.

You explore the town and take on various tasks to gain new items and make friends. You can craft and combine materials in a detailed way, offering a more open customisation than Animal Crossing. You can also create houses for other people to live in. Collect flowers, mix paints and use them to design wallpapers, flooring and clothing.

As you progress you can expand the town, placing buildings ready for new villagers to move in to. In the forest there is an abandoned mine where you can dig for resources. Take them to your workshop to create your own unique items. Use the design table to build your own furniture, combining different shapes and materials in a simple but powerful editor. Customise the interior and exterior of any home, choose designs and place furniture to make a home your new friends will love.

Along with the building you can use various fishing spots to catch fish for your collection. There are also a whole range of insects to catch and collect. Like Animal Crossing, you need to be in the right place at the right time to catch some of these.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Hokko Life 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 13 months ago.