IvanF's Cut and Paste, No-Name, Nintendo Gamecube Review of Nintendo's Animal Crossing 2003...

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IvanF's Cut and Paste, No-Name, Nintendo Gamecube Review of
Nintendo's Animal Crossing 2002

"Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Gamecube is one of those games that still baffles me with its success... because, well... I never would've imagined that the Sims would've made it big in the gaming world... until I realized it was already one of the best selling games of all time, even in the PC market of rampant piracy. So I guess that shows what I know... Now, with that said, I officially now say: don't goddam listen to anyone who says Animal Crossing is a clone of the Sims. I forget which game was actually released first (Animal Crossing for the Gamecube is actually a port of the N64 game, Animal Leader, I believe...), but does it really matter? While The Sims feels pretty goddam hectic to play, with bills to pay on the double dime here and with jobs and kids to annoy you with each and every day, Shigeru Miyamoto's Animal Crossing is a whole different "beast" of a creature in itself. Because AC is not about living life as we know it... it's about living life at a leisurely pace... it's about living life at your pace, which I definitely have grown to love, faster than the weeds can grow in my not-so-randomly named town of Hyrule... To be honest, I'm not just baffled by why Animal Crossing managed to become a platinum selling hit (which is more than I can say for 95% of the Xbox "platinum" hits out there...). Every single day, I just keep getting more and more terrified, mortified, and stupefied... by the mere fact that I'm actually falling in love with a game as simple as goddam Animal Crossing, even in this day and age of overly complicated games...

And it appears that I'm not the only one... There's tons of naysayers on the net, who claim that Nintendo has lost all sense of innovation this generation, just churning out sequel after sequel, except for perhaps Pikmin (which sadly, was one of those rare Miyamoto games, along with Stunt Race FX and the original Star Fox, that I simply did not like). And because they hate to admit that they're wrong, whenever these pessimists are countered with the fact that Animal Crossing is one of the most unique gaming beasts anyone has ever devised, they simply retort that Nintendo has lost all innovation for "this" generation, and that Animal Crossing was an innovative game for the Nintendo 64, NOT the Gamecube... but still... even if they're right, they're still admitting one thing... They still always admit in the end, that not only is Animal Crossing one of the most innovative games ever developed, even by Miyamoto's standards, but that it's also goddam fun and mindlessly addicting to play, even to anti-Nintendo fanboys such as themselves... hell, they even admit at times that paying back your loan of all things in AC, is something they never would've thought they'd enjoy, and take it from me - that's a hell of a lot to get out of guys who won't even admit Metroid Prime and Wind Waker are decent games... Although you always get the rare occasion when somebody bashes Animal Crossing for its "kiddie" graphics or its simplistic gameplay, you also always end up getting a mass mob of Nintendo and anti-Nintendo fanboys alike, all damn crowding and demanding and interrogating those AC naysayers one single damn question... to simply know:

Yes, ladies and gents. The full moon's a 'rising. Animal Crossing literally is that damn good.

And honestly, obviously looking at screenshots or even movies of the game simply do not do the game justice. I mean, I can sum up the game in essentially one sentence: you move into a virtual town of talking animals, and do a bunch of errands and collection sprees for neighbours to earn yourself enough money for new furniture and new upgrades to your house... and besides that? I guess there's a flock of seagulls and a gas shortage, but that's about it... no doot aboot it... And c'mon already, right? NGC = "No Good, C'mon?", right?... When I first read long ago about that completely "Japanese-game-like" AC premise or whatever in the N64 days, I actually applauded Nintendo for not bringing the game overseas, if only because I knew it would bomb so badly... but goddammit, how was I supposed to know it would end up being one of the best, damn selling games for the Nintendo Gamecube? How was I supposed to know, that even I would get so damn addicted to checking my town for goddam new fish in the rivers every single damn day of the year?

That's not to say Animal Crossing doesn't get boring... quite the contrary, I find that it's hard to even play this game for half an hour a day without getting bored of pulling weeds and talking to obviously pedophillic neighbours (I mean, they always seem to love my letters when I tell them they like to beat on little boys...)... But that's the real genius of Animal Crossing, and the real reason why this game is completely different than the Sims: because the game has so many different, random events happening each day according to your Gamecube's clock, that you just can't help but check your town every single damn day of the week, at least just once, just to see what Tom Nook's has new in store... or if there's a rare type of bug flying around... or if the rain has exposed some new type of dinosaur fossil... or if some travelling salesman has landed with limited time offer gifts... or hell, just the other day, a sailor landed on shore, and I supposedly "saved" his life by poking him in the arse (like he liked it...) with my fishing pole... Sure, the novelty of finding Shenmue sailors in my little town of Hyrule may wear off after a few playings of AC, but honestly... There's always something new to do in Animal Crossing, no matter what day. I'm always looking for new bugs to catch. I'm always looking for new fish to sell. I'm always checking to see whether a new neighbour has moved into town or not. And although I feel sorry for PAL users (since NOE and N-Australia obviously don't seem to care about you guys), I must admit that I can't wait until the next frickin' holiday in this game. Halloween is just around the corner, and although I'm sure the novelty of giving away virtual candy will wear off sooner than I think, the fact remains... that goddam Shigeru Miyamoto is a frickin', goddam genius.

He's a friggin', goddam genius... because he made a game so damn simple that it looks like it could even run on the frickin' original Gameboy, albeit with less colour... But just thanks to the little treasures in this game, like getting a letter from your parents in the morning, to suddenly unearthing some new treasure by the shore, it all makes the Animal Crossing experience one that I know I simply won't be able to put down for the longest of whiles, at least not until I no longer have the Christmas holidays to look forward to, to see what AC presents I get... And technical wise? As simple as the game is designed, it's actually very effective in setting the right mood for the game. Right now, it's fall season (although I "time-travelled" to see what all the other seasons look like too), and I must admit, although the textures on the animal's clothes are horrible, the lighting both during the day and at night of the autumn season looks better in a sense that most modern games do in this day and age... The sound effects are obviously not THX in quality, but surprisingly, the music is addicting just enough and always molding perfectly in the background. And while the animalese talking does get on my nerves, somehow I can almost make out what they're saying, just by the blurps coming from their mouths and the text written on screen... And the controls for this game are simply perfect, as I can't help but praise Miyamoto for having the foresight to picking three different buttons, all for running. I never fell like I'm moving sluggish in this game, and honestly, in a town where you I try to visit everyone every single day, that's honestly much more important than I would've ever imagined if I designed the game...

Is Animal Crossing a perfect game? Alas, no. Moving furniture around in your house can be awkward, and I just bloody hell wish there was a way to quickly get rid of all the weeds in town (after I "time-travelled" back to the present, of course). Travel between towns is also not nearly done as well as I'd hoped... I don't like having to have a friend's memory card to visit his town and buy from his shop, if only because I don't have any friends... I won't complain about the lack of online capability, even though even the modem adapter could've worked perfectly for visiting other people's houses in this game... But I honestly wish you could visit other people's towns through some password system or something, similar to the method of item trading. Although saving would've be a bitch of a problem then (since the game would then require more than 59 blocks of memory for 2 towns to be in memory), it would've been a nice option to have, although I credit Miyamoto for inventing his own form of "online" with the trading system in the first place... And oh, one more thing. Tom Nook is annoying as hell when he sells you stuff. You can never get past his speech fast enough with the B button to just buy what the hell you want, and if you press B too many times? You keep exiting the menu and have to go through his long winded speeches all over again... it's just a minor thing, but still...

But besides these tiny, minuscule, animalese-sounding problems?... honestly, except for perhaps Zelda: Wind Waker, there's been no game on earth or the animal kinding, as addicting as Animal Crossing has been to me in the past year, if not even longer... I'm always hoping in this game for a new Nintendo game to come in the mail or the monthly raffle. I'm always keeping my shovel in hand for X marks in the dirt, or my fishing pole in hand in hope of catching the most rarest of bass... No matter all the other games I've bought recently (which I'll review when I finally finish them...), I always end up popping Animal Crossing back into my Gamecube at the end of the day, right before Tom Nook's closes at 10pm, not just because I'm addicted to having every damn bit of commercial furniture I can get my paws on (ironic, isn't it?... how the most innocent looking of games can bring out the absolute worst in all of us in terms of materialism and pedophillic bigotry... but, um, nevermind...)... I keep turning on this game, not just because of holidays, and not just because of the wishing well... but I turn it on, because it's EASY to turn on. Because I know when I'm putting Animal Crossing into my Gamecube, that I have a CHOICE to play for five minutes or less, or ten minutes or more if I want to... I continue to play Animal Crossing, because it doesn't take effort to. It's just pure, simple, innocent, animalistic sex fun... And that's the real reason why I can't get enough of just how ingenious Shigeru Miyamoto is. He's made the first ever game that I feel doesn't "require" me to invest the time and effort into that all the complicated games of today seem to... he's made the first ever game, that is as goddam "convenient" for me to just pick up and play, as it is flicking on a light switch or seeing what's on television... He's made the first ever game, where I can just simply turn the game on, and feel goddam comfortable and goddam relaxed, knowing that I'll be a happier man, even after just two minutes of gaming...

And then of course, the game takes away my life, preventing me from doing homework for five hours straight, given the right day and time... Miyamoto is sure as hell one sly devil... Beware the Animal Crossing, I'm warning you all. It has far more bite than bark, as even anti-Nintendo fanboys can attest to that... because yes, it's that damn good. Because it all sounds like so much goddam fun, now doesn't it?...