Animal Crossing
Reviewed by JPeeples
When Animal Crossing hit U.S. gamers on 9/17/02, we
had no idea what to expect. Nintendo did a great job
of shrouding this game in secrecy, and it paid off.
When you buy this game, you will have no idea what
you are getting into. However, once you put the game
in your GC, and fire it up, you will be treated to a
game with more life and personality in it than any
other game on the market. It starts off simple
enough, you meet a cat on your train ride to your new
town, which you can name. This cat, as small a part
as he plays in the game, is still given a lot of
personality. Merely based on the five or so minutes
that he is in this game in the beginning, you will be
able to see his personality. He's a quirky little
fellow with a funny walk and small legs, and he's as
goofy as could be. He laughs at his own jokes, and
does everything he can to make you happy.
He's a warm, compassionate soul, and when you tell
him of your plight (see, you kind of forget to make
housing arrangements before moving, just a SMALL
problem, and yet another example of the hilarious
logic gaps you have to overlook when playing a
Nintendo game, although, to their credit, Nintendo
pokes fun at themselves quite a bit in this game,
making it even more entertaining), he hooks you up
with a place to stay. Now isn't that nice of him? Of
course, he kind of forgot to tell you that you would
be paying through the nose for your housing, but it's
the thought that counts. If you think that little
adventure was something, just wait until you get
deeper into the game, keep in mind that this review
is based on seeing a limited amount of the game, as
is every review on the game. This game, just judging
by the events calendar, has years of things for you
to see. Of course, since this, or some other review,
will cause you to rush out buy the game, that won't
be an issue, since you can see it for yourself and all.
Anyways, Animal Crossing is all about living the life
of the character you create in the game. When you
first start out, things might not quite seem so cool.
You won't be wearing the snazziest duds in town, nor
will you live in a palatial estate. Instead, you will
be busy working part-time in an effort to pay off
your debt to Nook, the man that the cat gets you in
touch with to find you lodging. After finishing up
your part-time work, and paying off chunks of a debt
that makes NASA's bills look minute by comparison,
thing really start to open up for you. While you will
have access to two random NES games relatively early
in the game (thanks to a letter from Nintendo which
you can only receive if you are using the memory card
provided with the game, renting the game will NOT
allow you to get this letter), you won't really be
able to enjoy them until you are done working for
Nook. I'm just going to harp on about the inclusion
of the NES games for a minute here. Nintendo's
inclusion of these games gives a younger generation
of gamers who may not have experienced them a chance
to enjoy them. The Big N has seen fit to include some
bonafide classics in the game, such as Punchout and
Excitebike, while at the same time, balancing it out
with oddities like Donkey Kong Jr. Math and Clu Clu
Land. There are at least one dozen NES games in
Animal Crossing, happy hunting.
You might be thinking to yourself, "So, you spend the
whole game doing boring stuff like work, and then
playing a bunch of ancient games? Wow, that's
amazingÉ" If you are thinking this, you need to A.
open your mind up, and B. play the game. Remember
that part where I said you get to live the life of
your character, and how things will pick up once you
are done working for his Nookness? That's kind of a
wee bit important. Living your character's life means
that you can do all sorts of things you have never
been able to do in any other game. Living a life in
Animal Crossing consists of visiting the towns of
friends (thanks to a secret password system) and
sending letters to your friends. This kind of
interactivity has never been offered before in a
game, and it only gets better.
In Animal Crossing, you have the ability to customize
the daylights out of your town. You can teach animals
to say things (pretty much any word up to seven
letters); you can also make friends with the animals
in your community by running errands for them.
Conversely, you can make some pretty good enemies if
you aren't social. As long as you aren't a hermit,
you will be fine. To further the personalization of
the game, you get to customize nearly everything
about your character, and his dwelling (I would call
it a home, but at the beginning of the game, that
thing is barely a closet.) You can customize what
your character wears by creating a clothing texture,
which can also be used around your dwelling as a
wallpaper or a floor. If, for whatever reason, you
don't like the texture you have created, you can just
change it to suit your liking. This addition of a
personal touch that you, the player, can add to the
game whenever you so desire really helps make the
game a more enjoyable experience. It may be a small
detail, and since you are reading this, you probably
haven't had a chance to try it out for yourself, but
believe me, this single addition to the game adds
quite a bit to the overall feel of the game. Since
you will probably spend quite a bit of time in your
dwelling (it becomes a home later on, don't worry)
playing NES games, musical compositions, and/or
rearranging furniture so well that Christopher Lowell
would blush, you will want it to be something that
reflects YOU.
You can make it look futuristic, elegant, rustic, or
nearly anything. You are bound to either find, or
create something that adds a little bit of your
personality to the game. If you get bored of the
game, just try to add a bit more of your personality
to the game. Make use of the bulletin board in your
town and post messages to your fellow townspeople to
add a little flavor to the mix. Or, to add to your
social standing in town, offer to help out others.
There's always something to do in Animal Crossing if
you make use of the tools provided to you in the
game. Speaking of tools, Animal Crossing gives you
the chance to, literally, dig for buried treasure,
and even plant a MONEY TREE. Now how cool is that?
You can buy a fishing rod to fish, which will enable
you to really rake in some dough, if you are good at
it. You can also take up bug catching, which can net
you some dinero as well to help you upgrade the look
and status of your ever-so-fancy dwelling.
Now that I've explained to you just how the game
works, I'm going to tell you why it works so well. I
believe the key to the greatness of this game lies in
what it gives back to you, and what you add to it.
You can add touches of your personality in it, for
example, and your reward will be a more enjoyable
game. You can also choose one of the activities in
the game, such as bug catching or fishing, and make
that your primary source for an income, depending on
which one of the two you enjoy the most. This game
has a very unique charm that carries over into each
and every aspect of the game. Each character in the
game has a personality, not one of the characters
resembles any of the other ones. Odds are, you will
find at least one character with personality traits
close to those of someone you know, which can, and
probably will, give you more enjoyment from the game.
It will also give you the chance to add yet another
personal touch to the game. I believe that the key to
enjoying a game is to find the one thing you can
connect to, and using that trait to its fullest. This
game gives you many opportunities to find this single
thing, and, if you are lucky enough to find more than
one thing that latches you onto the game, you will be
good to go for quite some time. Now that I am done
explaining to you the finer points of this game,
which the game showcases wondrously, it is time to
give you a general overview of the game.
The control in AC is spectacular. The button layout
is logical, and really does add to the game. The
control scheme works with the player, and makes
everything as simple as pushing a button, or moving a
joystick. The C stick is used logically to give you a
closer, more personal view of the action unfolding in
the game. This is one of the few times I can think of
where it is actually used well. The controls are
responsive, and will aid you in your journey in this game.
The graphics in the game certainly won't amaze you
when you first fire up the game. At first glance, you
will see a game that could have been done on the N64,
which makes sense since the first game was an N64
game, before being scrapped and brought to the GC (in
the U.S. anyway.) However, after giving the game some
time, you will see that there are a lot of little
things in this game that simply couldn't have been
done on a lesser system. Little things such as the
many different kinds of emotions shown by each
character in the game. You will see, through the
course of your journey, each character use body
language to convey their emotions, and their
personality. You will see citizens laugh hysterically
for no apparent reason, and see others get angry at
you if you do something that they don't approve of.
The sheer volume of emotions exhibited in this game
is amazing. However, not all is splendid with the
graphics. While these lesser details probably
couldn't have been done on a lesser system, most
everything about the game could have been. The game's
many environments lack a level of detail that will
knock your socks off, the same goes for nearly
everything else in the game.
The sound features in the game, much like the
graphics, won't win any awards, but more than serve
their purpose. The music could have been done on a
SNES, as could the sound effects, but and this is a
big BUT, none of that matters. You see, the music in
the game, even though it could have been done on a
SNES, is fantastic. Much like the music in many SNES
RPGs, you will be astounded by the sheer volume of
quality music in the game. The sound effects follow
that same lead, yet, again, their technical
deficiencies are moot due to what they provide the
player. The sound effects go hand-in-hand with the
emotion and personality displayed by the game's many
characters. You will hear each character in the game
give off little quips here and there that help define
who they are since they are done at just the right
time. The sound effects also have a unique charm
about them. They make simple things such as the
letters being called out to you as you type them a
joy to behold. This game thrives on simplicity, and
once you play it, you will be able to enjoy it due to
that attribute.
The replay value of AC is, as you can imagine,
limitless. You have got a game that never ends, and a
near-limitless supply of things to do in it. It is a
game that gives you many reasons to love it to death,
and rewards you for your actions. What more can you ask for?
All in all, Animal Crossing is a game that you will
never forget. On a technical level, it is sub-par,
yet it transcends that to become an unforgettable
game. It combines everything with meaning in gaming,
and takes out the superfluous crap that doesn't need
to be made the focus of in a game. Keep in mind, this
review has only covered what you can get out of the
game using only a GameCube, if you have a Game Boy
Advance and a GC/GBA link cable, you can get EVEN
MORE out of this game than you ever thought possible.
You can get rare items, more money, or even free
customization to your character (it costs about 300
bells (currency in AC) to customize a texture without
the GBA/GC link-up. If you want a game that sucks you
in and never lets you go, pick this game up as soon
as possible.
Overall: 10 out of 10