The day before Children's Day is celebrated in China, NetEase, a Chinese app publisher, released a game entitled Tom and Jerry: Joyful Interaction for mobile platforms. The strange part is that the game plays in a way that might feel oddly familiar to fans of the survival horror game Dead by Daylight.
Like Dead by Daylight, Joyful Interaction, which is unfortunately only available for download in China, is a one 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 with the iconic feline and rodent duo, rendered in 2D cartoon graphics, faithful to its source material.
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 of Tom and Jerry. Stripped to its essentials, the franchise consists of a weaker character using violent traps and luck to outwit and survive his considerably stronger hunter. Ultimately, that outline isn't too dissimilar from the brutal, gory slasher films which Dead by Daylight takes 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 of new game modes, in addition to seasonal events and 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 a Tom and Jerry themed package.
Source: Daniel Ahmad/Twitter