Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp arrives next month

Nintendo has bolstered its mobile game library with a smartphone version of its popular role-playing game Animal Crossing.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp puts players in the shoes of a “camp manager” and tasks them with designing the “layout” of the camp in a bid to bring in as many “visitors” as possible, The Daily Telegraph says.

The gameplay mechanics will be relatively unchanged compared to the original console-based games, adds the newspaper, but while older games had players running errands for small villages, Pocket Camp has a greater emphasis on “helping fellow campers” and other people in the village.

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There’s also multiplayer elements, The Verge says, which allow gamers to “meet up with other players from your friends list and trade items”.

Pocket Camp is free to play, but will feature “microtransactions” for players to unlock new features by spending real-world money, the website says.

This is the third Nintendo game to launch exclusively on smartphone platforms, following Super Mario Run last December and the Fire Emblem Heroes in February.

Traditionally, the Japanese games giant only launches its own titles on Nintendo-badged consoles, but it has since decided to capitalise on the growing smartphone market.

Nintendo says the game will be available to download on both Apple iOS and Android app stores next month, although there’s no word on a specific date yet.

In the meantime, gamers can register their interest here to receive updates on the launch date.