As I write this mere hours out of 2022 ending, I felt like this one sneaked in this year for me as one of the best games I played in this year.

Dinkum is what I would call the perfect alternative to Animal Crossing. However whilst not quite a clone of the the top tier Nintendo title, Dinkum certainly sets itself apart and stand on it's on two feet. The best I can describe this game would be using a the Family Guy meme of the two guys crashing and accidentally inventing peanut butter and chocolate. Except in this the meme would be Animal 'Crossing-over' with Stardew Valley albeit set in Australia. This is a welcome setting for myself as an Australian, it isn't very common a game will use Aus as it's worldly inspiration.

Dinkum is fun, relaxing and addicting and I could not imagine just how good this game must be on the Steam Deck. (I cannot wait for the device to launch in Australia for this game alone now.)

Dinkum can be enjoyed with friends in a fully co-op world where you can work together to build and survive. This is a very welcome addition to the game and I wouldn't fault the game without this at all.

All said, this is the perfect game to pick up if you're a fan of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley and I am absolutely going to sneak this in to my top 5 games of 2022, perhaps top 3.

The story behind the creation alone reminds me of Eric Berone's story of Stardew Valley and I cannot wait to see how far this game could possibly go with more marketing, console releases, mobile ports and expanding features.

All this, and it's in early access as of the time of writing this.

Play this game.