DAY 134 / GAME 134
Animal Crossing
Back in my mid-twenties for about a year I lived in a house with a few friends. We all shared the living space and with that the TV and game systems. Every once in a while someone would bring a new game home and we'd all get to check it out. One day, someone showed up with Animal Crossing and at the time it was completely new to me.
Animal Crossing is a very unique social hoarding neighbour simulator. It's hard to describe exactly what the goal of this game is, there's a number of things you can focus on. In short, you arrive at a small town and within this town you basically start a new life. You make friends with your neighbours, renovate your new house, collect things and furnish your rooms. You can send mail around town, dig for treasure, plant flowers and go fishing.
There's really no simple goal to Animal Crossing. I guess it's kind of a zen thing. The appeal is that each day runs based on a normal day/night cycle that matches your time zone and each day there are things to do. The weather changes and so do the seasons. If you're interested in fishing or collecting bugs, they vary throughout the year so simply playing for 8-10 hours in total will not do the trick if you want to sink your teeth into this game.
There are a number of sequels to this game on various platforms, though they are all very similar. The first release was on the Nintendo Gamecube, which was the version I played with my roommates 10 years back. They then released 'Wild World' for the Nintendo DS, 'City Folk' for the Wii and most recently, 'New Leaf' for the 3DS. Each release varied only in added features as the core gameplay is very much the same.
The neat part about having played this game in a household of a few gamers was how the multiplayer functioned. Up to four (if I remember correctly) players can set up housing in the same town. Only one player could go about his or her business at a time, but the town is persistent so changes made by one person were seen by all who 'logged in' afterwards.
So, with that in mind, you can only imagine what kind of nonsense went on. We were known for gifting shirts to fellow villagers with rude messages on them about each other, which the villagers promptly wore because they were so happy to receive a gift. We graffiti-ed each other's houses with big penises and other novelties and we planted 'pitfall' traps for one another to fall into. It was a blast.
More recently with the latest version on the 3DS I've been having a blast. Graphically updated with nice little additions to the town and internet functionality, New Leaf is addictive as ever. Being on a portable system means it's easy to switch on for a few minutes (or hours) to check out what's going on in the town, collect a few things, say your 'hi's and then put it away for the next day. Perfect for commuting.
Animal Crossing is one of those games that is enjoyable on a different level. There is no finite play structure, no end game, no bosses, no shooting and no killing. Not that I don't love those things, but it's nice to play a game once in a while where the social aspects, both real and fictional are the focus. Plus, you know, collecting bugs. That's a blast.
Animal Crossing
Back in my mid-twenties for about a year I lived in a house with a few friends. We all shared the living space and with that the TV and game systems. Every once in a while someone would bring a new game home and we'd all get to check it out. One day, someone showed up with Animal Crossing and at the time it was completely new to me. Animal Crossing is a very unique social hoarding neighbour simulator. It's hard to describe exactly what the goal of this game is, there's a number of things you can focus on. In short, you arrive at a small town and within this town you basically start a new life. You make friends with your neighbours, renovate your new house, collect things and furnish your rooms. You can send mail around town, dig for treasure, plant flowers and go fishing.
There's really no simple goal to Animal Crossing. I guess it's kind of a zen thing. The appeal is that each day runs based on a normal day/night cycle that matches your time zone and each day there are things to do. The weather changes and so do the seasons. If you're interested in fishing or collecting bugs, they vary throughout the year so simply playing for 8-10 hours in total will not do the trick if you want to sink your teeth into this game.
There are a number of sequels to this game on various platforms, though they are all very similar. The first release was on the Nintendo Gamecube, which was the version I played with my roommates 10 years back. They then released 'Wild World' for the Nintendo DS, 'City Folk' for the Wii and most recently, 'New Leaf' for the 3DS. Each release varied only in added features as the core gameplay is very much the same.
The neat part about having played this game in a household of a few gamers was how the multiplayer functioned. Up to four (if I remember correctly) players can set up housing in the same town. Only one player could go about his or her business at a time, but the town is persistent so changes made by one person were seen by all who 'logged in' afterwards.
So, with that in mind, you can only imagine what kind of nonsense went on. We were known for gifting shirts to fellow villagers with rude messages on them about each other, which the villagers promptly wore because they were so happy to receive a gift. We graffiti-ed each other's houses with big penises and other novelties and we planted 'pitfall' traps for one another to fall into. It was a blast.
More recently with the latest version on the 3DS I've been having a blast. Graphically updated with nice little additions to the town and internet functionality, New Leaf is addictive as ever. Being on a portable system means it's easy to switch on for a few minutes (or hours) to check out what's going on in the town, collect a few things, say your 'hi's and then put it away for the next day. Perfect for commuting.
Animal Crossing is one of those games that is enjoyable on a different level. There is no finite play structure, no end game, no bosses, no shooting and no killing. Not that I don't love those things, but it's nice to play a game once in a while where the social aspects, both real and fictional are the focus. Plus, you know, collecting bugs. That's a blast.
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