|
Intro:
This game has had 2 or 3 different titles since it's
been released in Japan, including Animal Forest,
Animal Forest Plus, and finally the final name
chosen for the US release, Animal Crossing. This
title was released on the N64 before it was eventually
re-done and released on the Gamecube, however it was one
of those Japan only exclusives that caused gamers who
don’t import to cry out in despair. I was one of those
gamers, and this was the type of game where you want to
play it so bad that you’d import it just to play. Now
that it’s made its way over to the good ole’ US of A,
how does it stack up to the anticipation and hype that
this game received?
Gameplay:
Addiction-- noun - A compulsive need for
and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin,
nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by
well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal.
If Animal Crossing were to be described by one
word, that would be “Addiction.” On a first glance, the
game may look kiddy, girly, dumb, etc., however once the
speed limit hits 60, Animal Crossing turns into
more of a strong addiction than it does anything else(
and by addiction I mean that not ONLY was it addicting,
but is also a very fun game). Anyway, when you start the
game up, you’ll see your character with horns protruding
out of his head hopping on a train, and finding a seat.
Not long after you’re seated, a little fellow named
Rover( who is obviously some type of a dog) will start
to talk to you, and this is where you’ll get all your
Animal Crossing data set-up, which includes what
YOUR name is( which can be anything less than 8
letters), what your town’s going to be called( again, a
maximum of 8 letters), what the current time is, and
also what the current date is. After about a 5 minute
basic little tutorial, you’ll get off the train and meet
up with the owner of the Village general store, who will
set you up with your crib. You have a choice between 4
different houses with different colored roofs, however
aside from the different floor plans( one has wood, the
other metal plates, etc.), they’re all the same and are
all tiny in size. So when you choose your house you’ll
be asked if you want that one, and so you’ll pay for it
and... UH OH, you’re about 17,000 somethin’ dollars
short for your house, so now you get to find out how to
work your debt off on your house.
Animal Crossing takes place in REAL TIME, which
is counted by your Gamecube’s internal clock, so if it’s
Saturday August 2, 2003 and it’s 2:30 pm...then that’s
what day/month/date/year/time it’s going to be in
Animal Crossing. In a literal sense, Animal
Crossing has no story and therefore pretty much
never ends, so if you’ve ever played The Sims on
the PC( coming soon on PS2), then you’ve got the
foundation of what Animal Crossing consists of(
only AC does it SO much better). Anyway, when
you’re first starting out the game, you’ll be in debt
from you house, so you’ll do different “jobs” for Tom
Nook (the owner of the General Store) to make money, and
eventually you’ll get enough money to pay off your debt
and you can be happy with your little house.
Speaking of moving into a new house, you’re sure to have
neighbors right? Of course, and this town/village is no
different. The town is split up into a sort of grid
style placement, where you’ve got Acre/Grid A-1, B-1,
C-1, etc. and when you’re actually moving, the screen
will move with you until you come to the next grid line,
where the screen will pause so it can switch over to the
next grid, which is sort of like how the old Zelda games
on NES-SNES were like. Your town consists of the basics;
a few villagers, police station, museum, general store,
dump, train station, and of course a Post Office where
you can send letters to other people like your
neighbors. Neighbors are randomly generated when you
create a game, so some people will have different
neighbors placed in different areas of their town, and
could also have as few as 4 or as many as 7 from the
start. Your neighbors are, like the title of the game,
short little stubby representations of different animals
including cats, cows, rabbits, dogs, frogs, bears, and a
variety of other animals. These will be your neighbors
throughout the game, and they can either hate you, or
they can love you, it all depends on how you treat them.
In order to befriend your neighbors( or de-friend if you
wanna be a bully) you’ll have to run errands for them,
which most of the time includes going over to so and
so’s house to get this and that, and return it back to
them. Other errands may have you get something to eat
for them, or even catching a fish for one of your
neighbor’s niece so your neighbor doesn’t get into deep
trouble for not catching his niece a fish. Whenever you
complete an errand, you’ll be rewarded in a variety of
ways which includes the AC currency, Bells, and
also different articles of clothing, stationary paper,
and other little items. So in other words, in order to
make friends with your neighbors you must respect them
like you would someone in real life. But you if you want
to be a bully and don’t like your neighbor, you can
disrespect them and get them to not like you so they’ll
hopefully move out or something. So basically, Animal
Crossing is a life inside a life. You basically have
total control over everything you do, including what
kind of clothes you wear!
After you pay off your home, then it’s yours right?
Well, yea...so how about modeling it the way you want.
Your house will have a mail box, which you will actually
receive mail like on your birthday, you’ll receive
letters wishing you a happy birthday, and some may even
have a gift with them; or if you mailed someone like
your neighbor in grid B-4, they’ll most likely mail you
back. Another way to befriend your neighbors is to write
them letters, mail it to them, and even include some
type of gift with it such as a little piece of fruit and
they’ll probably reply back with an even better gift.
Anyway, on the other side of your front door, you’ve got
your own personal Gyroid, which looks like a small
little brown cactus. Your Gyroid can be used to store
items( up to four), set a message for anyone who comes
to your door, save, and do other various “nifty” things.
Whatever items you store in it, you can either set them
to display so no one can take or buy them, however you
can also make somewhat of a profit by setting a price on
any of the items that you want to sell. Now IN your
house, you’ll receive different items MANY different
ways in the game, however getting some of them can be
very tricky. You can adjust the inside of your house to
any of your likings, including what kind of flooring you
want to use, and even what kind of wallpaper you use.
When you first start the game your room is going to be
pretty bare, but once you start rollin’ and acquire more
and more items, then you can fill your house up pretty
fast with TVs, stereos, dressers, tables, and other
little home decorations to add a little festivity to
your house. Also if you think your house is too small,
you can go to Tom Nook’s shop and have him widen out
your house, or even add a basement, which is a really
good place for storage.
 You’ll only be able to carry a certain amount of items
at one time though, and although you may not think
you’ll use all those slots at the same time, however the
main way that you’ll earn any money( Bells) is by
collecting insects, fish, and shells that you catch and
find on the beach, and each individual item takes up one
item slot, so you’ll have to go and get rid of all the
items that you filled you inventory with somehow, and
then come back and continue what you were doing. So
anyway, since Animal Crossing does take place in
real time, that’s the major real downfall to the game
because some people may not be able to play on certain
days, therefore not being able to participate in an
event that happened that day. Also there are certain
days where different events will take place where you
can receive rare items that you can’t find anywhere
else. Of course a solution to this problem is to mess
around with the internal clock to fast forward or rewind
to the day or season where a certain even happens that
you want to participate in or something like that.
Speaking of seasons, again since AC is played in
real time, as it changes seasons where you live, the
season will be changing in the game also, and with each
season comes different environments. In the summer,
trees are green, people are outside doing things, and
everything’s green and plentiful. Once it turns into
fall or Autumn, trees will start to change color, and
leaves will start to cover the ground. Spring means new
plants, and fresh air, so Spring is going to basically
look like Summer did, although since it’s literally
Spring in real life, it’ll feel like it in the game
also. Now for winter, which is my favorite, because the
whole town is covered in snow, and there are actually
Christmas lights up all over town. Nice touch Nintendo.
If you get bored of paying off house debts and playing
caddy shack by running errands for the town, you can go
kick back and do a little fishing, or even run around
and catch different insects( depending on the time of
day and season). Of course if you get as bored as I do,
then you can go around and shake all the trees, and when
a bee hive falls down, see if you can out run the bees
without getting stung. I’m currently 0/13 on trying to
outrun the bees, and one of your eye’s actually gets
swollen, so when you talk to people they’ll be like
“Whoa!” and stuff like that, and then they’ll say a
whole bunch of stupid crap like “You know if you get
chased by bees you should RUN!” or “You should go
inside!” and common sense stuff like that. Animal
Crossing involves a ton of interacting, whether it
be with your neighbors, or going fishing, or going bug
hunting, or donating items to the museum, and basically
living a second virtual life apart from your real life.
Speaking of getting bored, Nintendo decided to go one
step further when creating Animal Crossing by
including an array of NES ROMS that you can receive in
various ways, whether it be by finding one, receiving
one in the mail as a present, or even by trading someone
for a game (more on that later). There are about 19 or so
total games to collect, which include old school
Nintendo games like Golf, Tennis, Pinball, Punch Out!,
the original Donkey Kong where the stout plumber made
his first appearance, Excitebike, and many more. There
are also 4 or 5 games that are promotional only and can
only be acquired at Nintendo sponsored events or
contests; and those include Ice Climbers, the original
Mario Brothers, the original Legend of Zelda, Wario’s
Woods, and one other game that I can’t remember the name
of. If you don’t have all your old NES games like me,
then the ability to play these old classics in Animal
Crossing is a really rewarding experience, and I
think that in a future version of Animal Crossing,
more games should be included, and maybe more from the
SNES.
 Now for item trading, which aside from playing old NES
games, is the most interesting part of this game. No
Animal Crossing isn’t online, but you can trade with
someone from Chicago if you like, however you have to
have a little bit of information in order to do this.
What you’ll do, is whatever item you’re going to trade
to that person, you’ll go to Tom Nook in order to set up
that item with it’s own specific password, and you’ll
give that password to whoever you’re wanting to trade
with, along with what your name is and what the name of
your town is. The other person will do the same, and
will give you the password to his/her item that you’re
going to receive. Once you receive the password to the
person’s item that you’re going to receive, you’ll go to
Tom Nook and ask to receive an item, and you’ll put in
the code that your buddy gave you, and if it’s right
you’ll receive that item. Sounds cool eh? It is, but I’m
sure there’s a few who are confused on trading with
someone if the game’s not even online, so let me
explain. I also thought this was ludicrous, but after
hearing an explanation from a good gamer buddy of mine,
it made a lot more sense. What happens is that when the
password is made up for whatever item you’re going to
receive, when you enter that password, the game will
generate that item from the given password, and there
you have it. So I’m guessing that so someone can’t just
put in a password and receive someone’s item, there are
millions or thousands of codes using a mixture of
numbers, symbols, and lower case and uppercase letters.
Graphics:
The visuals in Animal Crossing definitely aren’t
going to be any awards for “Best Graphics” or anything,
but I do say the cartoony and kiddy graphics really suit
the game well. The game consists of the simplest of
simple character and environment models, so it allowed
space for more game play features, such as the old NES
games. Depending on what season it is, your town will
contain of different type of environment models such as
in the summer where lots of trees will be around with
lots of green leaves, flowers are planted, grass is nice
and green, and you’ll see lots of life in your town.
Then once it turns into winter, the ground will be
covered with this white powdery stuff (snow maybe?), and
trees will be covered with snow, most plants will be
dead, and when it gets closer to Christmas time, so will
your town as you’ll see lights up everywhere and a kind
of Christmas like background music playing.
Everything in Animal Crossing uses the simplest
textures, so if you’re looking for a FFX‘ish type
game, then you’re looking in the wrong place. Animal
Crossing has basically been made with the idea to
incorporate incredible gameplay rather than amaze you
with awesome visuals. Of course the graphics aren’t BAD,
you can distinguish items from other items, and you can
also tell the difference between your neighbors, so it’s
not like you’re playing a game that could work on the
SNES or anything, it’s still taking advantage of
next-generation hardware, just in different ways than
you’d think. The game uses a multitude of colors to
create a nice to look at environment, which will jump
out from the screen at you and pull you into the game so
you feel like you’re sort of in a cartoon because the
colors can be so bright and they’re so vibrant that they
cover the screen with beautiful combinations of colors.
Sound:
Among the multitude of customizable abilities you have
in this game, another customizable aspect is what kind
of music is playing. When you start the game, you’ll
already have a stereo in your house, however there is no
music in it yet so you can’t listen to some cool tunes
quite yet. You’ll find tunes after doing a variety of
different things, and it’s pretty much dumb luck that
you’ll get a tune to put in your stereo. However when
you do get a tune, when you go in your house, it’ll
always be playing (unless you turn it off), and the tunes
can range from a nice listen to a horrible experience.
The voices that the animals make when they talk to you
remind me of what was done in the Banjo-Kazooie
games, in that they just did a whole bunch of mumbles
and grunts while the text scrolled at the bottom of the
screen. Each animal has different sounding mumbles and
grunts, so most of them won’t get too boring( my
favorite is Camofrog’s).
AC also isn’t going to win an award for best
orchestrated soundtrack or anything either, because most
of the game consists of a constant midi file that plays
in the background, sort of like in the ole’ NES/SNES
days where you had all those “beeps” and “bops” that got
stuck in your head for weeks and weeks (probably the most
popular being the Super Mario Bros theme). You’ll most
likely enjoy the tune as you’re just starting the game,
but once you play the game each day it’ll get annoying
and eventually you’ll be doing so much other stuff and
having fun that you won’t even notice that there’s music
playing and so you’ll basically be ignoring the song.
Rock’s Thoughts:
Like I said in the title of this review, Animal
Crossing is the answer to the PC’s hit simulation
The Sims, however you’ve got kooky little animals
instead of real life looking people, and it’s also a
whole lot more fun. Most of the game can be customized
to your liking, and since the game runs on the eternal
clock and you’ve got Morning, Day, Night effects and
also events that happen on certain days and even the
special days like “Toy Day” (Christmas), your birthday,
and other holidays where you’ll most likely receive
letters and even better, presents. Eventually you’ll be
able to remodel your house and make an add-on, plus even
a basement can be built, which like I said is a great
place for storage. There is so much to do in the game
that if anyone gets bored with it, then it’s obviously
not their type of game, however Animal Crossing
is such a pick up and play game that anyone can jump
right in and enjoy the game as it is, even by just doing
little errands for your neighbors. The trading of items
is also a nifty feature, and may be astounding to most
people trying it for the first time, however I guarantee
that the trading works, and also if you have another AC
save file in a memory card that’s in another MC slot,
then you can even “visit” that town to find more items,
some native fruits, and other little goodies. Also the
hook-up with the GC-GBA cable where you can find secret
and rare items, and you can also “download” one of the
NES games to your GBA and play them on the go. I’m not
expecting Animal Crossing to reach AAA status in
everyone’s eyes, but to me AC is definitely a top
contestant for the biggest sleeper hit of 2002.
|
