Why was the Last of Us ripoff "The Last Hope" delisted from the Nintendo eShop?

Over the past few weeks, a little-known game called The Last Hope has blown up in popularity. This Nintendo Switch-exclusive indie title from West Connection Limited has garnered much attention from netizens for being a blatant copy of Sony's acclaimed third-person shooter, The Last of Us. The similarities are especially evident in the rip-off Ellie character model featured on the game's cover art.

Now, The Last Hope has been removed from the Nintendo Switch eShop after a period of ridicule and backlash.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the opinions of the writer

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What is the controversy behind The Last Hope on Nintendo Switch?

More than a bit of an eyesore (Image via West Connection Limited/Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Players trying to find The Last Hope on the Nintendo Switch eShop are met with an error saying that the page does not exist. It is likely The Last of Us publisher Sony requested Nintendo to make the move. While both game companies are yet to provide an official statement, it is easy to deduce why.

The first element to grab players' attention was the cover art for The Last Hope. It features a young girl and an older man with their backs turned to the player. This sunset-soaked picture blatantly plagiarizes the box art for 2013's beloved The Last of Us. The girl, in particular, has been modeled after the PS3 classic's main character Ellie - down to similarly designed clothes and face.

Can it get any more obvious? (Image via West Connection Limited/Sony Interactive Entertainment)

The official trailer for The Last Hope, uploaded to YouTube by V.G. Games, has also been taken down. Fans seeking the trailer have been greeted by a copyright strike filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. This is understandable not just because of the IP infringement with the Ellie ripoff but also since the actual game is pretty bad.

The Last Hope is a third-person shooter where protagonist Brain Lee travels to the future to find a way to stop an impending zombie apocalypse. This sees him and the players fight through a series of short poor-crafted levels with broken design and bad visuals.

We all know the Nintendo Switch is by no means a powerhouse, but this game looks like it is straight out of the early 2000s.

All assets have low resolution and detail. Most, if not all of them, are from the Unity asset store. While that is not necessarily a bad thing by itself, they have not been modified or enhanced to fit the project.

Without further wasting the reader's time, just know that The Last Hope is a shoddy cash grab that seems designed to waste the player's time and money with its unsavory performance.

What this does prove is that Nintendo needs to enforce stricter screening, or set up one in the first place, for independent studios pushing their games onto the platform. This is not the first time the eShop has been flooded with pointless shovelware that drowns out the good games.

Since Sony's takedown has been successful, there might be some hope after all.