november-rain's Full Review: Animal Crossing for GameCube
Following the success of Animal Crossing in Japan, Nintendo took a risk and released it into the American market, which proved to be a smart move after all – it became a hit for the second time. Animal Crossing is somewhat of a surprise, fitting into the genre of life simulation, which previously saw only The Sims reach a discernible height of popularity. In a market dominated by games that are action-packed and fast-paced, it’s quite astonishing that Animal Crossing sold as well as it did. I purchased this title because the unique concept appealed to me – unfortunately, it was a concept that got old pretty quick.
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Life simulation games allow the player to live a virtual life: make a variety of decisions, perform basic duties and interact with other characters on a day-to-day basis. The concept of Animal Crossing is as previously described, with the game running on a real time 24-hour clock. (What this means is that the time inside the game will parallel the time in the real world: play the game at 4:00 AM and it’s 4:00 AM in Animal Crossing.) The scenario is this: you’ve left home to live an independent life, but have nowhere to go. On the train, you meet a sly cat by the name of Rover who just happens to know a friend willing to sell you a house. The next thing you know, you move into a town populated by animals, but with only a measly 1,000 Bells (money) to your name, which is not nearly enough to buy your own home. Fortunately, Tom Nook, the resident businessman, allows you some time so you can work and sell things to pay off your debt. From here on, your life in a video game begins.
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Despite what looks like a good number of activities in the game, it became pretty limited. The initial appeal was meeting the townspeople, finding new things to do and collecting items, but it quickly faded after doing the same things for a couple of days. Afterwards, the fun factor took a huge dive that made Animal Crossing essentially worthless to play.
In the world of Animal Crossing, you can:
--Interact with your neighbors
Speak to them frequently and do them favors, which usually involve picking up and delivering items to others. Also, they demand that you write them letters to keep them happy. In order to do this, you’ll have to use an onscreen keyboard, which takes loads of time and can be a real pain in the butt. If they like your letter, though, they’ll send one in reply, along with a gift.
--Decorate your house
This is perhaps the only reason why I kept playing. You can design your own patterns to post on your door and pick and choose your wallpaper, rug, furniture and accessories to furnish your pad. If you’re into interior decorating like me, this could be really fun – it’s wild!
--Buy/sell/collect items
You get items by picking them up from the dump (yeah, really), doing favors for your neighbors, writing letters, checking the Lost & Found, along with buying and trading them. With a huge number of different items in Animal Crossing, there’s at least some variety here.
--Go fishing, catch bugs, gather fruit, and dig up fossils
None of these activities were fun after five minutes. Who can spend the rest of their “life” doing such menial tasks, anyway? The best you can do with the results is selling them for Bells or giving them to the Museum to be put on display.
--Join in seasonal events and special occasions
Announcements of such are usually posted on the town bulletin. Read the notices to get in on what’s going on around town: a fortuneteller visits, famous carpet-maker Saharah will sell her wares, a New Year’s countdown will be held December 31st and etc. Many of these holiday gatherings are nothing more than a bunch of your neighbors meeting together to... sit around. The only events worthy of your attendance are when special visitors arrive or there’s a competition going on.
--Visit other towns, travel to an island, and collect rare items
If you’ve got friends who play Animal Crossing, you can visit their town by slipping their memory card in slot B. You can also connect to Game Boy Advance to access an island and use the e-Reader to download items you would otherwise not have. To get your greedy little hands on as much as possible, it can get a bit costly.
--Play NES games
Perhaps the best thing about Animal Crossing is the NES emulator and the games, which include Donkey Kong and Tennis, among others. However, your chances of acquiring all the NES titles in the game would take quite a bit of time. If you used the free memory card that came with Animal Crossing, you’ll get a letter and a gift from Nintendo: two random NES games and a K.K Love Song.
In my experience, the cycle of activities hardly ever change – in fact, the word ‘change’ shouldn’t be synonymous with this game. Aside from characters moving in and out of town, their personalities remain the same as does their opinions of you. I don’t see any real growth in Animal Crossing, except, perhaps, in the size of your wallet and the option of upgrading to a bigger house. There are no side stories whatsoever to pique my interest or keep the animals gossiping. I came upon Sue E and her boyfriend Punchy storming around with huge rain clouds over their heads, so asking a few questions was naturally in order. What I get from them was different versions of “Leave me alone…” Couldn’t they have stuck a mini storyline in there?
Aside from what I would’ve liked to see in Animal Crossing, there is a fair amount of favorable and unfavorable aspects. The game’s slow pace and open gameplay is relaxing as you’re not forced to do anything you don’t want to. Up to 4 players can play alternatively, and you’re encouraged to invite your family to live in your town for added interactivity. This can definitely work, as the interface is easy enough that anyone can pick up the controller and carve themselves into the game. However, the real time concept has its pros and cons – while it can be amusing to wake up your neighbors at 2:00 in the morning, many of the events in the game takes place when you’re most likely unable to be there. Because I tend to play games late at night, there’s usually nothing happening in Animal Crossing. That’s when I find myself resetting the time in the game – it’s a shame, I know, but I definitely do not recommend scheduling your life around a video game. Just how much lasting value this game has really depends on the person.
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One may wonder just what an ugly game like Animal Crossing is doing on a next-gen console like the GameCube. The reason for the unattractive graphics is that title was originally slated for release on the N64. As you can see, it didn’t happen that way and what we’re stuck with is the ugliest graphics I’ve seen on any next-gen system. The environments and characters look like badly drawn cartoons and the town has just enough detail to distinguish one thing from another. While character models are pretty cute to look at, they are very blurry up-close, with squiggly lines and fuzzy features. Their attitudes and feelings are best expressed by stuff like bulging eyes and “HA HA HA” flashing over their heads. The town itself is pretty large and is divided into acres, (such as Acre A-5) although it looks as though it was cut out from construction paper. Still, the bright colors and outlandish graphics work in some way by adding to the game’s individuality.
-| s o u n d |-
In Animal Crossing, there’s a “town melody” that plays as you’re running around doing what you will. It differs from time to time, but what I can remember about it (if I can at all – it’s pretty unmemorable) is how annoying it is. There are no instruments that I can recognize since they all sound like muddled notes in midi format. Fortunately, you can compose your own town melody if you think you can do better, but in the end, nothing’s really different as the number of notes is pretty limited. Sound effects are pretty standard and nothing to rave about – just enough to make things seem a bit more realistic. The one thing that irks me is that it sounds like wet boots squishing when I’m walking around. (How gross is that?) The animals speak Animalese by default – funny-sounding voices pronouncing letters in quick succession as if to “talk.” At first, it was horrid, but then, I couldn’t imagine listening to the silence.
-| v e r d i c t |-
Animal Crossing is a game that won’t appeal to everybody. For some, it can be played forever since there’s really no end, but for others like me, the shortage in variety can quickly get lifeless. It was cool to play for the first few days I had it, but when there’s a lack of better things to do, I realized it had its limits after all. I’d recommend it, though, because it’s a different game, a true family game, and a pretty good life sim at that. To be sure you don’t get tired of the taste too quickly, play an hour a day and don’t fast-forward “life”.
This game has a 24-hour clock where something new happens in real-world time -- as day turns to night in the real world, it also happens in Animal Cro...More at Amazon Marketplace
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