February 22, 2004
Introduction
If you know what Animal Crossing is about, I suggest you skip this part.
Animal Crossing is about as anti-of a game as you can get. There are no bosses, no levels, no ultimate goals. Instead, the premise of the game is that you're moving out on your own, in to a town inhabited by friendly animals. You immediately are moved in to a house, thanks to the kindness of the local shop-keep. However, the debt of the house is expected to be paid off over time. In addition to simply paying of your debt, the game entertains you with silly local residents, town events, collectable and playable NES games, furniture to decorate your house with, a singing dog that comes on Saturday nights, and many other little things that make this game just... really darn charming. One of the neatest things-in my opinion-is the fact that because of the Gamecube's built in clock, the game runs in real time. If it's six o' clock in real life, it's six o' clock in the game. If it's Christmas time in real life, there are Christmas lights in the trees in your town. If it's the fourth of July, a fireworks show dazzles you thoroughout the night in the game. In theory, the game could last you about thirty years without you actually "beating" it. That's allota' game.
Why it's New-Old School
I first bought Animal Crossing when it was released in September of 2002. I played it for quite a long time, but the game ended up not being as deep as I had hoped (or falsely expected) it would be. I enjoyed it quite a bit; I loved the collectable NES games, NPC interaction, and about a billion other things about the game. It was great, wonderful, even brilliant, but for some reason I ended up setting it down for about a year.
Recently, remembering how awesome this game was, myself and someone very close to me began to goof around with my old character. Instantly, I was hooked right back in to the world that I thought I had escaped long ago. Mind you, I'm not complaining. This game is fun.
So here I am again, scrounging through the bottom of my dresser-drawers trying to find my old Animal Crossing E-Reader cards so I can unlock that cool bird feeder piece of furniture I wanted. Here I am spending hours writing people in the town letters, and downloading the Excitebike game I won in Tom Nooks monthly drawing to my GBA and taking it to school. Here I am getting a kick out of the funny letters my girlfriend sends to me when she plays. Here I am trying to figure out where I'll be on Saturday nights, hoping I'll be able to listen to that singin' dog, Totokeke. Although he likes to go by K.K. Slider, just so you know.
The amazing thing about this game isn't apparent when you first play. It's not even apparent after a month of playing. The truly amazing thing about this game is that it keeps things alive for years. Town members move in and out, your house gets expanded, you start wondering what you're going to get for Christmas... from a video game character. You might not want to play this game every day non-stop, but if you have some cool people in your house that play it with you, you WILL want to play this game every day, for at least fifteen minutes. Hop in to town, sell some stuff, buy some stuff, go fishing, catch some bugs, design some cloths, send some letters check your mail, and then hop off. See you tomorrow. A friend comes over who also has the game, pop in his memory card; take the train to his town. Pick some of his fruits, say hi to his townspeople (one of them gives you a rug), see what your friend has to sell you in his gyroid.
I could go on.
This game won?t overwhelm you with things to do all at once. You don't have a checklist, you don't have much of an agenda. But when you take a step back and look at how you are, essentially, living an alternate life in a forest-town full of animals and having a great leisurely time doing so, you slowly start to realize how great of a game this is.
Animal Crossing is one of the gaming world's best kept secrets. It is truly an addictive, fun, laid back game. It?s one of those things you?ll remember playing when you?re older. It?s one of those things that just? classic. This is a New-Old School game.
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