Have you ever become addicted to a game? Something you can’t go a day without playing it, but you can’t really explain why you have to incisively play it? Well, that would be a perfect description of Animal Crossing. You will become addicted for no reason, and you will never be able to explain why.
There is almost no storyline. You play as male or a female (you get to choose your gender) character that you name as you move to a new town that you also name. You haven’t really planned ahead, so you don’t have a house to move into in this new town. Luckily for you, you meet a friendly cat on the train there named Rover who happens to know someone in the town you’re heading for that has a few houses for sale. He calls the guy and he agrees to sell you the house. Unluckily, you don’t have any money! So, you end up working for Tom Nook, a raccoon who owns the local shop and the guy who sold you the house. After working for him for a while, he lets you go to wander on your own and earn the money to pay him back on your own.
And, this is the premise of the gameplay. The main point of the game is making money to pay back Tom, and after paying back one loan you can upgrade your house and pay him back again. You can work for the townsfolk (all of whom are animals), fish, go bug catching, or just wander around you town for fun. It may not seem like much… Because it really isn’t. It’s a basic life simulation game with cute animals to accompany you. There’s a lot to keep you occupied with, but the game literally never ends. You can play and play for years and never ever finish the game. The other big part of the game is your house. As mentioned before, you can expand and upgrade you house by paying back Tom, but there’s also lots of furniture, wallpaper, and carpeting to collect and decorate your home with. You can arrange everything however you want it. It’s fun, even though it doesn’t really result in much.
The graphics… Really aren’t that good. To be honest, they kind of look like barely improved N64 graphics. Sure, the animals are cute and it’s really colorful, but it’s just not very impressive visually. However, this is excusable considering the game is real time and the landscape actually changes with the seasons. As for music, it’s catchy and fun. There’s also a town tune, which the user can change them self whenever they want. This tune plays whenever you talk to someone or when the bell rings to signify the time reaching an exact hour.
This game is very creative. There’s so much that I’ve never seen before in this game that it’s just wholly unique. The character designs, the dialogue, even the weird half voice acting. Yeah, whenever someone talks, you can hear whatever they’re saying, but it’s sped up 10x and it’s almost impossible to make out. I have seen this in a few other games, but I’m pretty sure this came out before any of those.
Overall, this game is unique and fun. It’s colorful, different, and also incredibly addictive. Why is it addictive, however, I have no idea, nor does anyone I know. It’s just like an urge you HAVE to pay Nook back to get a bigger house, so you can shove more crap into it. I guess it’s just animal nature?
