Animal Crossing Gets Four Player Co-Op Treatment In New Steam Game You Can Try For Free

Published Oct 4, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT

Carrie is a Senior Writer at ScreenRant who previously managed Geek to Geek Media and wrote for SwitchRPG. She is particularly knowledgeable when it comes to WoW, Diablo, and cozy games. She has a passion for supporting the indies and always enjoys sharing her passions with others through her writing.

When you want to have some cozy and light multiplayer gaming, sometimes choices can get a bit similar. Thankfully, this upcoming Steam game could mix things up with up to four-player co-op gameplay in a cozy world full of cooking, fishing, farming, and exploring. Of course, it also looks like one that would be incredibly fun just to play single-player too.

There are a lot of games on Steam like Animal Crossing, which try to capture the same joy that took the world by storm when we first played Animal Crossing: New Horizons back in 2020. Generally, they each try to add their own special flavor to the mix, which is exactly what this upcoming game has done. It's more a mix of several games than just Animal Crossing, and playing the free demo that's on Steam right now instantly makes us want more.

Pao Pao Looks Like All The Quirky Coziness We Love

With a lively town, quirky characters, a day/night cycle, and, of course, tons of adorable anthropomorphic animals as characters, the game Pao Pao can catch the attention of cozy gamers really quick. Really though, its gameplay goes beyond just hanging out with friends and brings in quite a bit of Party Animals and Overcooked styles of game mechanics.

In Pao Pao, you are playing in a cozy seaside town where you have your own little restaurant. Either by yourself or with up to four friends, you can run your restaurant by cooking delicious meals for customers and serving them, then upgrading your establishment. However, the game goes beyond the cooking theme.

Grow crops and go fishing to add to your ingredients, or go to the arcade to play a Dance Dance Revolution-style minigame, wander around the town, or smack your friends' characters over the heads with street signs. The game even includes minigames of basketball, water gun fights, food fights, and boat racing to keep the multiplayer fun going.

Pao Pao Is Releasing In Early Access Soon, On October 26

At the time of writing, there is a free demo for Pao Pao available on Steam. The title will be releasing in Early Access format on October 26, 2026, where the devs say they expect it will remain for about 6 to 12 months while they gather player feedback and make tweaks and updates to the development process.

After it is ready for its full launch, there are plans for bringing it to consoles as well, including Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation. Unfortunately, the game was originally planned for 2025 and suffered some delays, but from what we've seen of the free demo, Pao Pao is looking right on track now.