Hana Deka: Animal Paradise – so good it gets multiple US releases

I think we’re at something like 35 DS pet games now, but who’s counting. A press release from Empire Interactive reveals that it will be bringing Animal Paradise to North American Nintendo DS owners. I guess representatives from the company walked into a GameStop, looked at the DS game wall and decided that there’d be plenty of room for one more pet title.

There’s an interesting twist here, for those who care enough to look. Empire Interactive says that the game will feature Yoneo Morita’s HanaDeka pictures and 18 different pets. There was a Japanese DS game with these features called Hana Deka Club: Animal Paradise. You’re probably thinking it is no big deal – so another Japanese game is being translated and localized. Except O3 Entertainment is already reportedly localizing and releasing this game in North America according to Gamefaqs – as Pocket Pets. Pocket Pets was supposed to be out December 4, 2007, but retail sites like Amazon and Wal-Mart are listing it as a pre-order item that should be available in June.