Summary
A very questionable piece of software that had seemingly been attempting to imitateThe Last of Ushas now been removed from the Nintendo Switch eShop. The game in question, calledThe Last Hope: Dead Zone Survival, attracted some attention when it arrived on the eShop for appearing to be a subpar copycat of Naughty Dog’sThe Last of Us,
The Last Hopewas made available on the Switch online store in early July, prompting derisive mockery from fans and critics. Many commentators pointed out that the game’s title, premise, main character designs, and more appeared to be not-so-subtle imitations of the widely beloved 2013 classicThe Last of Us.The store page forThe Last Hopewas not even tagged correctly, being marked as a first-person shooter despite very clearly having a third-person perspective, leading many to conclude that it was just another example of thescams that plague the video game industry.
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Following widespread backlash,The Last Hopehas now been taken down, as an investigation by Nintendo Life confirmed that the game can no longer be found on the US or UK version of the Nintendo Switch eShop. While no official statement has been released about the takedown, it almost certainly came as a result of a copyright claim by Sony Interactive. This is strongly suggested by the fact that the trailer forThe Last Hopeon YouTube has also been deleted, and a message attached to the now-removed video confirms that its demise came after a Sony copyright claim. This outcome is perhaps unsurprising, ascopyright claims from big gaming companiesare often handed down for much less than whatThe Last Hopeattempted.
Prior to its removal from the eShop,The Last Hopewas panned ruthlessly by critics, with videos such as the one linked above showing off how sloppy, lazy, and practically non-functional the game was. When done well,clones of classic franchises likeGrand Theft Autoand others can turn out to be high quality, beloved games in their own right. The overwhelmingly negative response toThe Last Hope, however, indicates that the project did not come close to those standards of quality.
The story ofThe Last Hope: Dead Zone Survivalis reminiscent of the plague of lazy asset flip titles that flooded Steam a few years back. It is somewhat odd that Nintendo allowed such a dubious product to be posted on its eShop platform in the first place, but it comes as no surprise that the game has now been taken down. While fans still findthings to love aboutThe Last of Usa decade later, it is safe to assume that no one will be missingThe Last Hopenow that it’s gone.
The Last of Us Part 1is now available on PC and PS5.
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