Animal Crossing is a difficult game to explain to people who
haven’t already played it. It’s not strictly a simulation, like The Sims or
SimCity, nor is it an RPG, like Final Fantasy. It has elements from both those
genres, but somehow the Animal Crossing series has carved out its own unique
place in the gaming landscape. The newest addition to the franchise, Animal
Crossing: New Leaf, continues the tradition of going into debt and paying off a
raccoon while meeting and befriending animals and expanding your own home. If
you are still tense from The Last of Us, Animal Crossing: New Leaf may be the
game you need to relax your muscles and settle in for the night.
As with previous iterations in the Animal Crossing series,
you arrive in a new town to start a new life, except when you arrive in this
town, everyone thinks you are the new mayor and can’t be persuaded otherwise.
As this new career is dumped upon you, good old Tom Nook arrives to help you
start your path into debt as he starts renovations on a brand new house. Not to
worry though, you can sell almost anything you find around town to the stores
to make a bell, the currency in New Leaf, or two. Being the mayor of your town
is a pleasant change in perspective from previous Animal Crossing games. As mayor,
I could enact policies that would change the town in various ways. Being up at
night most of the time, I was able to enact the “Night Owl” ordinance, so that
the shops would be open later and more people would be out at night. This kind
of control is a real treat for fans of the Animal Crossing series, as it gives
players the control they lacked in previous games, as well as provide a new
avenue for changing the town to fit your schedule and preferences. Even though
the process of selling off items to pay off loans is a simple mechanic, the
game is still fun and quite pleasant to play. I rarely got bored or frustrated,
and the characters were entertaining enough to keep me from putting down my
3DS.
All of the other people living in your town are essentially NPCs,
with pre-programmed responses and set personalities, yet it never felt that
way. Each neighbor and friend in my town reacted differently whenever I spoke
to them, and all of them change over time. As I did numerous errands for them,
catching bugs, finding fruit, or fishing, their responses changed to whatever
action I was doing. It is really enjoyable to play a game that values NPC
interaction. Doing random favors for neighbors and playing games also nets you
special items for your home. The more you expand your home, the more stuff you
get to put in it, and delivering presents and playing Hide-and-Seek are easy
ways to both interact with the town and get gifts for your home. Each day new
items are found in the shops along your town’s main street, but the bulk of the
items I received came from interacting with my towns inhabitants, or going to
my friend’s town and talking with his neighbors.
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| Having Friends visit can be great, unless they are jerks and mess everything up |
Being able to visit your friends in their towns is a great
new addition to Animal Crossing’s gameplay. You can find fruit and other items
unique to their town and see how your town compares. I enjoyed being able to
talk to other townsfolk and peek in my friend’s house to see how their town has
developed. While the game is largely a single player experience, it is great to
be able to share your experience with others and not feel like your town is the
only town in existence. One of the aspects of New Leaf that changes the most is
the town’s main street. It’s where most of the stores are located and is the
subject of a lot of change and renovation. New stores are created, older stores
are upgraded, and plenty of classic characters, like KK Slider and the Able
Sisters, can be found there. My town’s main street felt like a progression bar,
covered in cute animals and functional stores. As I expanded my home, improved
my city, and bought more items, different stores would move in and more people
would show up and move in. It was a really clever way at displaying the result
of my own actions.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf, is very much the same game as its
predecessors, but also is a better experience than previous iterations. Any fan
of the previous games would fall back into their old addictions and enjoy New Leaf
immensely. While you could buy an older game in the series and be a little more
cost-efficient, New Leaf provides more variety, content, and fun than any of
the other games.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a pretty simple game; however
that does not mean it is any less fun. Sometimes it is nice to sit back and
relax with something pleasant and easy to play. Without any kind of drama,
difficulty, or intensity, New Leaf keeps me coming back every day to find
another fossil or buy another piece of furniture for my house. If you have played
Animal Crossing before, or want to enjoy something uncomplicated and fluffy
after getting eaten by zombie-like things in The Last of Us, pick this game up
and spend hours talking to animals and catching bugs.
