N-Philes

Animal Crossing

Posted by Archived.

Leave it to Nintendo to make a game about some of life's most boring and tedious things. And leave it to Nintendo to do a great job. Animal Crossing lets players start a new life. At the beginning of the game players assume responsibilities, such as paying off debts, making money, and forming friendships with neighbors. Even though it doesn't sound like much, it is. There is so much going on in Animal Crossing, it is overwhelming. Since the game never ends players can technically play the game throughout their whole life.

Features

• Start a new life

• Play as either a boy or girl

• Play classic NES games, such as, Balloon Fight, Punch Out, Donkey Kong, Clu Clu Land and many more

• Play NES games on GBA

• Utilizes GameCube's built in Real-Time clock to simulate accurate events and different times of the day

• Decorate your own house. Your style.

• Catch Fish and Bugs

• Dig up Dinosaur Fossils

• Buy Turnips (stock) and sell them to make quick cash

• Participate in events, such as, Sports Festivals, Harvest Festivals and others a like

• Up to four people can live in one town

• Design Clothes using the GBA/GameCube Link cable

• Upload and download different patterns for clothes, umbrellas, wallpaper and more with the Nintendo E-Reader

• Visit your friends in their town by putting another memory card in slot "B"

Gameplay

Without a storyline or anything seemingly like it, Animal Crossing relies heavily on strong gameplay. And luckily (for the title) Nintendo delivers. The game takes place as the real world does. When it is 5:00 PM in real life -- it' 5:00 PM in the game – it's really life-like. Events such as Christmas and Birthdays also happen the same day as in real life. That is thanks to the GameCube's built in Real-Time clock. The clock enables the game to pull of things like this. However, if players were to miss something, say a "special sell" in the game, players are allowed to set back the clock. Although we don't recommend you do this, as it takes away from a lot of the fun in the game, Nintendo allows users to do this.

In the beginning of the game players are asked necessary questions by one of the games more famous characters, K.K. Slider. These questions will help set players settings. Once finished with this, players then start their new life. Naming your town and character are part of this long process. There is a limit of 8 letters per town and character name. This makes the already difficult process of naming your town and character all the more difficult. Be imaginative, because just like in real life, you can't change your name or town. Players then choose their house, which is small in the beginning, but will soon be expandable. Don't be too picky, as you're getting your house free – actually you're not! Tom Nook, the landlord assumes you're paying for the house on the spot, however the story really is you have a lousy 1,000 Bells (Bells is the games money system) in your pocket. You soon will be in debt and working your butt off in his shop, Nooks Cranny, to pay Nook what you owe him. Just like in real life you've got to get your priorities in order.

When you're not working for Nook, you or any of your neighbors players can fish, catch bugs, dig up fossils and much more. Players can even donate things to the local museum. Of course fossils are one of the things you're able to donate, but insects are asked for at the local museum too. But if you're looking for cash, then you should try selling your fruits, fish and insects at Nook's Cranny. Some bugs earn you a hefty profit, while others would barely put food on the table -- Very similar to the real world, actually. And also just like in the real world, if you get tired of working, you can take a trip to an Island for a vacation. By connecting your GBA to your GCN via the GBA/GameCube link players can take a boat ride to a beautiful island: One that looks and feels very much like Hawaii. In fact, while you're enjoying the sunny island (which you get to name, as well) you can get some tropical fruits, such as, Coconuts to bring back to Nook's Cranny to sell for some quick Bells. The fruits won't earn you as much as foreign fruits, but will bring in some more cash towards your debt, or anything you want to buy.

Speaking of fruits, each town that you start in Animal Crossing will be the home to one native fruit. For example: CubeTown (one of our towns) is the home to apples, while Galaxy is home to cherries. Players can travel from their town to a friend's town and bring back a new fruit. Players can then either sell the fruit to Nook's Cranny for 500 Bells or plant the fruit somewhere. By planting the fruit, players will then be able to come back to the tree, once it's fully grown, and have a life-time supply of fruits to sell to Nook. The real-time stock market that exists in Animal Crossing is also another form of making Bells. Players can buy Stock, which are referred to as "turnips" in the game, and then sell them to Nook. Depending on what day you sell your turnips (the price of how much turnips sell for changes daily) you can make some big money. Of course with big gains comes big loss. You have a limited amount of time to sell turnips, so act while they're hot.

When not worrying about making money, players can play some of the most classic NES games ever made. You can easily spend countless hours playing the likes of Punchout and Donkey Kong. If you want you can even download NES games to your GBA to take on the road. You won't be able to save your date, but it's still fun... The classic NES games found in Animal Crossing alone are worth buying Animal Crossing. NES games are often times given to you as gifts from your fellow town folk. You can trade for games, as well, with friends. Travel to Nook's Cranny and you'll be able to input your friend's towns name and his characters name, along with a gift/item to give your friend. Players are then given a random password to give to your friend. Your friend can then input this password to receive the gift you have given him. This works Vice versa too, allowing fair trades to take place. Since there is NO ON-LINE mode for Animal Crossing, this is the closest thing to playing the game on-line. Message Boards have been booming with Animal Crossing players trading with their on-line buddies. Some boards (like our own) have even put up a nice board devoted strictly to the needs of these On-line Traders. You can even be given gifts via this mode on birthdays and or other special days in the lives of players. This way, since you can't visit other people's towns and mail letters to people with gifts, players can still communicate with a wider range ever imagined. When Nintendo said this was a Communication game, we didn't think they meant it literally. But they obviously did.

Animal Crossing is jam-packed with more text to read than even the longest RPG's! When not reading text, you can be creating it. Players can send letters to friends and fellow neighbors via the Post-Office. For instance, if you have other people in your family playing, you could leave a note for them when they play the game. Players are given a stationary early in the game to start off. Writing letters is fairly simple, although it would have been nice to use a real keyboard. The in-game keyboard is fairly accurate to that of a real keyboard. "L" and "R" are used to make spaces and change between capital and lowercase letters. Often times the work put into writing a letter to neighbors isn't worth it, as most the letters we've sent when playing are never understandable, or at least the neighbors say so. Simple notes, such as, "Hello! I brought you a gift" se often times considered "not readable" by characters in the game.

Once you've payed off your debt to Nook you can then upgrade your house for more room. Beware though, as this upgrade is not free. You'll soon find yourself in even more debt if you decide to upgrade. The price is worth it though. Throughout the game you'll find that you probably have collected tons of furniture and clothing – you need somewhere to store it all, so an upgrade is a must. You can upgrade your house numerous times throughout the game. The feeling of walking into a clean new house is very joyful. Much like the many other experiences you find in Animal Crossing.

There is a reason to come back to Animal Crossing everyday, as everyday something new happens. Whether it be your house being upgraded, or Nook's Cranny being updated – there is always a reason to come back. And if you don't, your mail will pile up and people may leave your village. In fact, even if you stay around your village you can still lose neighbors. If a friend visits your town your neighbors may like him so much they may move to his town! This works vice-versa as well. So much is going on in the game it's amazing. I've been going back to the game everyday since I had my hands on it and still can't get enough. Sure, there will be the occasional days you don't feel like playing, but most likely that won't be the case for a while.

You can only play the game for so much a day though. For example, if you played the game for 4 hours a day you'd quickly find yourself not having anything to do during the day. The best way to play this game is for 30 min. to 1 hour a day. Of course some days you'll have so much to do, you may really have to play a bit longer than on other days.

Graphics

It's sad to say that Animal Crossing's visuals could probably be generated on the Nintendo 64. With that said you can probably imagine that the graphics aren't as pretty as Resident Evil for GameCube, or the upcoming game Metroid Prime. The bad visuals won't put a dent in the magnificently addicting gameplay of Animal Crossing, but the visuals will most definitely scare away the average gamer, that be if the average game only cares about graphics, which that has sadly become the case in this world. Animal Crossing runs at about 30 Frames Per Second. Animal Crossing has decent textures -- nothing to be proud of, but nothing to show off either. The colors in the game, however prove that the GameCube can compete with PS2 and XBox graphics.

Character animation seems decent, but again isn't anything special. For example,the eyes of your character often times appear to be idly staring up into the sky, while you in reality are talking with a neighbor, or running around while kicking a soccer ball. Nintendo obviously didn't put much work into porting the game from N64 to GameCube, as the visuals are barely even updated. Nintendo definitely went for the "cartoon" feel for the game. It shows a lot. The water in the game obviously is supposed to look like water from a cartoon. There is not much to say about the graphics – Animal Crossing's visuals pretty much speaks for themselves. It's cute and is visually decent... nothing Nintendo should be proud of.

The overall look of the game and its visuals are not acceptable for a Next-Generation game. Nintendo tried their luck with this title, and luckily the gameplay proved strong enough to overshadow the dull visuals of Animal Crossing.

Sound

The sweet sounds of Animal Crossing are at least better than the visuals of the game. There are over 20 different songs you can get for your radio, all sang by K.K. Slider (also known as Totakeke) in the game. You can play music in your house with instruments also. But for most, leaving the radio on to bring some tunes into player's houses will be enough. You can even create your own music to post on the town bulletin board. This is done using the E-Reader. The game is full of many tunes, some may be hummers, while others are just bothersome. I myself have definitely found myself humming some tunes when going about my daily tasks. And as you go throughout your daily tasks in the game, the music will change every hours. A nice touch, if we do say so ourselves.

The sound effects, such as, insects and water, is also good. When it's very quiet you can hear crickets. It's really cool. Each insect seems to have its own sound that they chirp as jumping through your town. Not only the insects in Animal Crossing make sounds, but so do the townsfolk. They don't speak in regular English, though. You can choose at the beginning of the game whether or not they will speak in Animal Language, sound like a typewriter typing, or not make any sounds at all. The Animal Language is pretty much the English language dubbed with cute, or funny animal sounds. You can often times make out little words that the animals are saying in their own language (one that your character obviously understands). If you don't want to hear the sometimes annoying Animal Language then you could choose to have the Animals talk and sound like a typewriter. This is the more traditional sound that is made when a typewriter is used quickly. But if you're the silent type then no sound effects at all may be the way to go. Words will just appear on the screen when animals talk, as opposed to both words and sound effects.

Animal Crossing is full of many sounds, to say the least. There could be a CD based off the sounds in the game, starring none other than the famous, Totakeke! Oh and the lil' dog appears Saturday nights, allowing players to sit and listen mindlessly to this cool hipster play his tunes -- just another reason why Animal Crossing is a must-own.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A.

Put simply, Animal Crossing is the Nintendo version of The Sims, but with animals. As you know, everything Nintendo touches comes out beautiful – and Animal Crossing is no exception. Probably nothing listed above sounds like it would be amazingly addicting, or completing charming, but it is. Animal Crossing is the type of game you have to play to understand. Watching movies of the game, or reading diaries don't to squat. It's an all hands on-addicting-epic-experience – one that will quickly become one of your favorite GameCube titles, just like it has ours. There is a reason the talk of the town is Animal Crossing.

Animal Crossing is another innovative smash hit from Nintendo. If you can look past the cute and silly atmosphere of the game, then you'll find yourself enjoying a game like you haven't for years! Animal Crossing is another must-own – and If not a must-own, a must-play for sure. Do yourself a favor and at least play the game – at least play it for crying out loud.

Nintendo once again does it, another classic game to be remembered for years to come. Setting the path, Nintendo brings fans the most innovative game of the year. Play it now.

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