The day before Children’s Day is celebrated in China, NetEase, a Chinese app publisher, released a game entitledTom and Jerry: Joyful Interactionfor mobile platforms. The strange part is that the game plays in a way that might feel oddly familiar to fans ofthe survival horror gameDead by Daylight.
LikeDead by Daylight,Joyful Interaction, which is unfortunately only available for download in China, is aone versus four asymmetrical survival game, in which one powerful player is pitted in battle against four weaker players, all of whom must work together to defeat their stronger opponent. Here however, it’s all done withthe iconic feline and rodent duo, rendered in 2D cartoon graphics, faithful to its source material.
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While the game initially comes across as a bizarre mixing of genres and characters, the actual gameplay loop starts to make more sense upon further analysis of the core concepts ofTom and Jerry. Stripped to its essentials, the franchise consists of a weaker character using violent traps and luck tooutwit and survive his considerably stronger hunter. Ultimately, that outline isn’t too dissimilar from the brutal, gory slasher films whichDead by Daylighttakes much of its inspiration from. After all, what’s the plot of a standard horror movie but a game of cat and mouse?
Joyful Interaction, like many mobile games, keeps its player base engaged by the introduction ofnew game modes, in addition to seasonal eventsand items. The game monetizes itself through these seasonal items, as well as various other cosmetics.
English information on the game is, unfortunately, rather sparse. Most of what’s available to be found on the subject needs to either be translated, or gleaned from interpreting the raw gameplay.
Nonetheless, even though there’s almost no chance that the game will ever see release in markets anywhere outside of China, it at the very least makes for an interesting factoid. Because, as it turns out, in China, there’s a very popular app that plays like a survival horror game, and its all wrapped up in aTom and Jerrythemed package.
