Dinkum – Review

Dinkum comes from the Australian colloquialism “fair dinkum,” which means genuine (more or less). Don’t confuse it with my rinky-dink Macbook Air or your dinky-dink Converse. Dinkum is a compact and adorable reimagining of Animal Crossing that highlights the rugged beauty of the Australian outback as imagined in Minecraft.

The game entered early access on July 14 and is doing well on Steam, likely due to its similarity to other popular simulation and sandbox titles like Stardew Valley and The Sims. If you’re still not convinced that Dinkum is the right sim for you, consider the following.

People who spend excessive amounts of time in Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing. The game’s backstory will be familiar to either group: your protagonist moves to a new, mostly deserted town and begins farming, fishing, and hunting in order to support himself and build up the area. Similar to Animal Crossing, you can use a net to snag insects and listen to gibberish from the game’s non-playable characters. You can act like a quaint farmer, just like in Stardew Valley. The grass is constructed from a variety of blocks, just like in Minecraft.

Although Dinkum doesn’t do anything particularly new, fans of established sims will likely find the game’s gameplay to be as satisfyingly familiar yet adaptable as ever. Permit Points can be earned through daily and long-term activities and spent on acquiring new skills like logging and excavation, honing existing ones, or purchasing items with cash (referred to as “Dinks”). Animals and poisonous plants can deplete your health bar and cause you to pass out, but the game encourages you gently to survive in the reddened wilderness, with the only real consequences being the loss of a few Dinks. Fun, seasoned, Australian-style daydreaming and catching imaginary fish is what dinkum is all about.

Paprika, adobo, and sriracha tones. Numerous sunsets that reflect brilliantly off the water. It resembles less cutesy but similarly bobble-headed Animal Crossing or a smoother, play-dough version of Minecraft. Simulator veterans will appreciate Dinkum’s gameplay, and find the game’s visuals to be soothingly unremarkable.

The worst that can happen is that the crocodile snaps at your bobble head, causing a red mist to appear on the screen to indicate damage taken, and your health completely drains, causing you to briefly pass out. So, yes. The wild beauty of Dinkum’s paprika map, however, is what makes it truly unique. The game doesn’t punish you too harshly for being curious about whether or not you can eat this thing or be eaten by that thing. Not only does it award Permit Points for dying, but also for taking damage. I need to go light my main character on fire.

The $19.99 PC and Steam early access game is out now. The game’s press kit states that additional platforms will be announced at a later date.