Animal Crossing

"An educational game for kids, and we young adults love it too."

Although this game is rated E for Everyone, it might as well be an Early Childhood rating. There is no mild violence, language, or anything parents would find inappropriate for their children. There are no scary creatures, or fighting, just a young boy/girl living in harmony with other animals in the forest.

Overall, I'd say this is a fantastic game for kids. Great for learning and budgeting money. For teens, it is also fun, but our ADD tendencies might get the best of us, and we may lose interest in a few months.

Graphics - Mediocre. But since this game is for children, I guarantee they aren't going to complain about the graphics. In my opinion, they aren't that remarkable. But then again, they don't have to be. This game excels in numerous areas; you hardly notice the graphics. It looks exactly like the innovative Nintendo 64 game that was released in Japan originally. The water and the trees aren't very animated. The footprints in the sand are realistic though, as are the facial expressions of the neighbors; which assists the realistic aspect of the game itself.

Gameplay - Extraordinary. It's like a kid-version of the SIMS. The reason why it is so appealing to kids is because it's not the same story over and over again. It's always changing. It's always challenging. Even without villains. You are constantly active throughout game play. And there's a good deal of tasks and enjoyable activities to keep you occupied. Believe it or not, paying off your house is actually an entertaining objective. In accomplishing this, you receive a fantastic prize. You can pursue your own goals, such as catching every type of fish and bug. Collecting items for the museum and re-decorating your house over and over again, are also objectives that might be one of your endeavors. You can receive a lot of free items by doing favors and odd jobs for others. You can design your own clothes, and wallpaper for your house.

This game has a very unique feature. If you have a friend with Animal Crossing, you can actually visit their town in your own character! You just take the train in your town to the other by inserting both memory cards in the same Gamecube. You can bring back items from their town, and write them letters at their Post Office. Since each town has a different fruit, you can take a couple, and its worth 500 bells in your town, rather than 100 bells. You can also hookup your NES and Game Boy Advance, and play games like Donkey Kong, while playing Animal Crossing, a truly remarkable feature.

One of the coolest things about this game in my opinion is how smart the game is. It runs on Gamecube's internal time clock and is practically always correct. Every once in a while, you might have to set the clock to the right time, but for the most part, it is accurate. When it is ten o'clock in reality, it is also nighttime in the game. Even the shop closes up. It keeps track of the holidays and seasons. Every day is different and unique; it might be raining or sunny, or even snowing! When you don't visit the town everyday, your animals will notice, and will let you know their feelings on the subject in a very humorous manner. Upkeep of your town is very important, if you're trying to get a few of the golden items. You must pull out the weeds, and visit everyday, if you want everyone to be happy. The animals will be hurt if you don't come around to talk to them. I've heard that if you keep them happy, and they will stay in your town. But in my experience, it seems like the ones I talk to the most move around to. So be careful, if you visit to another town, one of your favorite animals might not be there when you get back.

Story - Create your Own! I don't like the way people criticize the story or lack there of, that's the whole point! It's a fantasy SIM world. Of course there isn't a story, you create your own! Let's hear it for the child version of the Best-Selling PC game of all time-the SIMS!! There isn't much of a story built into the game itself. You move out of your parents' house and into the real world. You start out on a train where you obtain the hookup for a house. You move into the town, make friends with the neighbors; pay off your loan to a friendly Raccoon named Tom Nook for your house. This, in a way can teach kids about life, which is what the real world is about. You make your own story. It's actually you living in that house you built on your own, and learning how to survive in the forest. How can anyone attack the lack of story? This game gives kids a sense of accomplishment of what they have achieved. Kids will be saying, “Look at my house Mommy! I built it all by myself with my own money!” Kids will feel nothing but joy from this game. You meet the other animals in the forest, and do odd jobs for them while working for Tom Nook. Eventually he releases you and your free! This is when the real journey begins. You explore the town; meet new people, such as fashion experts, wallpaper fanatics, and turnip-selling-animals. Every time you pay off the debt to your house, you can add on to it and build more.

Control - Easy! Considering the fact that this, for the most part is a kid's game, the handling is extremely simple. There are hardly any complex combinations of buttons; mostly x and y do all the work. You acquire four basic tools in the beginning, and use them throughout the rest of the game. The angle is a bird-eye's view of the town. It is effortless to maneuver through your town. The only thing that I'm not fond of is the fact that it takes forever to travel across town, even if you have a hurried pace. The size of the town is just fine, but it seems like 40% of your gameplay is running across town, which becomes old. There are about 25 different acres in this game, and the view can only display that one acre, from above. Because of this, running across town seems like its taking forever, and once the camera moves over to the next acre, your character stops running automatically, and you have to make him run again. This is somewhat hectic, when you're trying to catch those pesky Banded Dragonflies.

Sound and Music - Old School! The ideal example of a perfect theme song for any video game. The music is very catchy and it will have you humming it even when you're not playing. I love the opening theme song. It embodies every emotional and meaningful evoking feeling of playing video games when I was a kid. There is one song that gets on my nerves, it has a cat meowing in the background, but it's tolerable. The character's Animalese language can also be somewhat irritating. Luckily, you can turn it off in the options screen.

Replayable? - Addicting! This game is extremely addicting, you can't put the controller down, I have spent days at a time playing this game, and only stopped because of a headache. It's possible that after you accomplish all the tasks, and pay off your debt, you might never play again. It depends on the person, if you like to finish games to receive 100% you've found an awesome game for a few months. Afterwards, you might move on. And for those people who need more action, perhaps this game isn't for you. For me, it's a game you can have fun with, even after you pay off your house. Its fun for me to go through the different seasons, it is always enjoyable for me. But it is definitely worth the time, money, and effort, at least for a few months. Since you can have up to four characters in the town at a time, a lot of players like to start over and create new characters. This isn't a game that you can just rent for a few days and return it, if you chose to do this; you will hardly get anything done. The game gets better and better the more you play it. Only renting it for a few days, you will not see the games features and its true potential.

In my opinion: There are several factors that could have contributed to making the game higher quality. Possibly, a wider variety of songs, several gamers might be bored with the repetition. Besides the sly way of eye-choosing on the train, there should have been a create-your-own-character (looks) section in the beginning of the game. A little more of a story, better graphics, not much better, just enough to make you believe it's a Gamecube game. In general, more activities to do in the game, or more ways of making money were needed. This reason, is because of the many people who quit playing after a few months.

Many people say that this game is boring because of repetition. You are constantly doing the same thing everyday in order to pay off your debt to Tom Nook. You wake up, check your mail, go fishing, talk to the neighbors, and shop. Those who say this, in my opinion, are undetermined and have never set a goal for themselves in their life. Sure, you are constantly fishing, but for what? To catch all the different types of fish. The rest go to Tom Nook for extra cash. Catching all the different types of bugs and finding all the paintings is an accomplishment. They think that just because it's not like every other game out on the market with a KILL THE BAD GUYS theme that is a chore to play. The character development is within yourself, as a person earning a living, unlike watching some final fantasy character's revelation that was obvious to you the whole time. It is an interactive game that allows you to learn the best way to succeed. Overall, people criticize the game too much because of lack of good graphics, gameplay, and repetition. In reality, this is clearly a game for children. And a game that has been so successful in the Teen-Adult world should be greatly appreciated.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/19/05