Nintendo is apparently "fine" with this unofficial Animal Crossing-like mobile game

Castaway Paradise is a new town-building game that seems to borrow heavily from fellow titles Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon. Developer Stolen Couch Games has stated that Nintendo has seen the game and that "everything is fine."

As you can see from the Castaway Paradise site, its visual presentation falls quite close to the Animal Crossing series, not to mention the fact that its village is populated by animal residents, along with other similarities. It also has a farming mechanic similar to Harvest Moon.

Despite this, studio co-founder Eric Diepeveen told Eurogamer, "Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon and The Sims are all inspirations for Castaway Paradise. What we tried to do is create an experience similar to those games but for all platforms, including mobile and Steam. We've taken the best aspects of life simulators and improved and expanded on these aspects."

At the time of writing, Castaway Island is available on iTunes in Canada, Australia & Vietnam.

"Some people are concerned of Nintendo's opinion of our game," he continued. "All I can say it that we've been talking to Nintendo for years. We've showed Castaway Paradise to them and everything is fine. We're even considering bringing Castaway Paradise to the Wii U. There are many differences between the before mentioned games and Castaway Paradise.

"I hope everyone will check out Castaway Paradise and let us know what they think of the game, when it launches [in the UK] later this year."

What do you think about the similarities between Castaway Island and Animal Crossing?