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This feeds some sort of inner need...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: March 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Maybe it's my genetic disposition towards knick-knacks, or maybe it's my affection towards open-ended game structures, but whatever it is, Animal Crossing has hit me hard.

This game provides a large amount of innovation, both in game design and game philosophy.

The game is set around a Sims-like goal: do what you like. You live in a small town, with an ever evolving collection of surprisingly sassy villagers, and you decorate your house, go fishing, or fossil hunting, do some weeding, write letters, etc.
The games two main focal points are things and relationships. And it's extremely addicting.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the game technically is it's 24 hours-a-day game cycle. The game itself runs on an actual calendar and clock. Need to sell some fish? Too bad, it's midnight, and the local store is closed. Is it 5 o'clock? Maybe you can go chat it up with the mailman. The seasons change, and holidays, both made up and actual, occurr, as well as random events that can pass you by, if you are not careful.

Everything about this game is designed to pull you in for just 10 more minutes, ala Diablo, minus the killing part. Picture Diablo, but just the stuff part, and Deckard Cain as actually being worth talking to.

The most interesting and educational gamecube game out there for elementary kids

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: November 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

As a mother, I looked askance at my children spending ANY time on gaming. However, I am married to a complete computer techie who will not allow the kids to be luddites and he assured me I would not object to this game. He was right. As others have noted, you become a character in a town, you get a job, buy a house, earn money, pay it off, make friends, write letters, do favors, and experience the steady pace of day to day life (the game runs real-time).

These are the benefits I've seen for my 1st and 2nd graders:

1. Strategizing - how to earn money to pay off their loans and buy things they are interested in; how to decorate their home, where to plant fruit and flowers;

2. Patience and the ability to work towards long-term goals, like earning a golden fishing rod or finally earning a basement for their house.

3. Interest in written communication - they send each other notes and gifts. (NOTE - you can also write to the townspeople, but they do not respond appropriately - they usually send back a somewhat rude canned response which criticizes the format of the letter, ex: "Hey, what gibberish was that? I couldn't read it!" Perhaps some kids would find this funny, but mine didn't.)

4. They've gained some familiarity with a variety of bugs and fishes.

5. Up to four people can Animal Crossing (although not at the same time). So I play one character with them, and it is quite fun to send them stuff (I learned a couple of codes). The other character is reserved as a "guest" character, so when other friends come over they can play that one.

While this game was addictive, the kids would still be in a good mood when they were done playing, and I never had any trouble getting them to stop playing when their 30 minutes were up. I recently allowed them to play "Sonic Heroes", which is a chase/quest game, and that game gets their adrenaline (sp) pumping and it is difficult for them to transition to other activities after Sonic Heroes.

I also recently purchased Harvest Moon for the kids as I was told it was similar to Animal Crossing, and it is in many ways, but Harvest Moon seems more appropriate for slightly older kids as you can date and get married and have a baby in Harvest Moon.

So I recommend this game as being the best gamecube game for children. No violence, no dating, just making friends and earning a living and enjoying day to day life in a virtual world.

fun and addictive

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: October 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

In this game, you live in a town populated by anthropomorphic animals. The game has no end and there is no winning or losing. It is an open-ended communication game.
A main emphasis of the game (in true Nintendo fashion) is on collecting. You can collect sets of furniture and other decorations for your character's house. You can also try to catch all the different types of fish and insects, or dig up all types of the weird, music-making, clay figurines known called gyroids.
The game follows the real time clock. So special days in real life, such as Halloween, New Years, and even meteor showers are also observed within the game. Your town's appearance changes with the seasons as well. For example, in Spring the trees are pink to denote the presence of cherry blossoms.
While the game is very fun for adults (my husband and I both play), it is also very child friendly. It even has some educational value of sorts. A couple examples: the game encourages you to write letters to your animal villagers (thus resurrecting the dying art of letter writing). Also, there is a turnip trading aspect to the game which introduces the concept of investing.
The game only allows one person to play at a time, but up to four people can share a town. A town takes up an entire memory card, but the game comes with a free one. You can visit other people's towns by plugging their memory card into the second slot on the game cube.

In conclusion, this is a very fun and addictive game. The game offers a very long play time (to see everything you have to play at many different times during the year) and, since it is open-ended, the game allows for many different play styles and personal objectives. On the down side, the game is a little weak at night since most of your animals go to sleep fairly early and the shop closes at 10pm. The peak hours to play the game are more attuned to a child's schedule. It seems like Nintendo did not forsee the popularity this title would have with teens and adults.

As addicting as any puzzle game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 15
Date: July 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This one really came out of thin air. When I got my GameCube just a few months ago, Animal Crossing wasn't at the top of my list of games to get. Not that I wouldn't have gave it a shot, it's just that I'd rather test out some of the "big name" titles before moving on to what looked like just a cutesy game. I've never been more wrong in my life. Animal Crossing is just as addicting, if not- more, than Tetris. And you wouldn't think so just by looking at the box or screenshots. Once you play AC, you're in for the rest of your life. Or until you get sick of it anyway. What's the game like? To put it best, you play as a little human in a village full of animals. You do favors for people, redecorate your house, design clothes, plant fruit, fish, catch bugs, pull weeds, and more. And it does sound boring and completely un-fun, but you'll just have to trust me on this, and the millions of others that pratically worship this game. It's one of the GC's top ten games for a reason. And I didn't expect that from a Nintendo 64 upgrade.

You start out the game by telling Rover, a traveling cat, your name and other personal info like your birthday. When he asks where you're going, you name the town as well (please don't be unoriginal and name it Hyrule like so many others). But when he comes to the question on if you have anywhere to stay, you say "no", and he's stunned. Well, anyone should be if they told you they're going somewhere where they don't have a place to stay. He calls up Tom Nook on his phone, and promises you'll have a home by the time you arrive. Sure enough, you do. But Tom won't just give you a house, you have to pay for it of course. Unfortunately, you don't have much money when you start the game. After discussing it some more, he allows you to send payments via the post office...after you help out at his store for a few simple errands. Once he sets you free, the real gameplay begins, and one of the key points to the game- paying off your debt. In order to do this, it'll take a lot of time, and doing a lot of favors for the animals in the village. Let's say you walk up to a character, and ask them if they need any help. They do, and you fetch an item from another villager for them. This always results in a reward of some sort. Be it bells (the game's form of currency), clothes, furniture, stationary, wallpaper or carpet. If you decide you don't like what they give you, you can sell it to Tom Nook, and use that towards your debt. Once your first house payment is paid off, you have the chance to upgrade your house. There are a few things you can have done, each after the last has been paid off (believe me, it's a lot of money in the long run unless you cheat). Your living room can be expanded, you can get a basement, and there's always a second floor that can be added. Decorate your house with anything ranging from plants, statues, lanterns, playable NES games, Nintendo goodies, and other things that can complete a theme. Yes, there are themes for your house that you can use. For example, if you get a lawn carpet, you should buy things that match that carpet, such as a BBQ gril, lawn chairs, plastic flamingos and the such. It helps boost your HRA score- people that rate your home based on how nice it looks.

And this isn't even half of the game. There's much more. The town also has a post office for you to mail letters to other villagers, a Lost and Found office, a dump, and the Museum. Here's where you'll take in any bugs or fish you catch, paintings you've bought, and fossils you dig up. This probably takes more time than paying off the debt, as certain bugs and fish can only be caught during certain seasons. The game moves in real-time. When you set the date of your GC, Animal Crossing follows that time. So some bugs you find in summer won't be found in winter. You could always cheat and "time travel" by screwing around with the GC's time, but that could take the fun away for some players (unless you're bastards like me and don't care). A cool feature of this system if that a lot of big holidays are celebrated in the town. On the fourth of July, everyone gathers at the lake to watch the fireworks and play with pinwheels and balloons. In June, fishing tournaments are held every sunday, Halloween is celebrated with everyone dressing up and asking for candy, and Christmas is known as "Toy Day". This is going to offend uppity people who go, "Blah blah Christmas isn't about toys blah blah", but do you really think a game like this is going to celebrate the birth of Christ? That'd cause too much of a comotion. And on your birthday, some villagers give you presents. I'll leave the rest of the game up to you to play for yourself, but if you have that failed device- the E-Reader, it'll add even more replay to the game since you can access a new area with it, and use E-Reader AC cards for new items and designs. If you get into the game at all, you'll want this and the cards if only because you need more for your AC fix.

The graphics aren't a selling point of the game. Like I said earlier, this was a Nintendo 64 game in Japan, and things were slightly upgraded for the GC release. Everything looks smoother and crisper, but the characters are obviously nearly ported versions of their 64 counterparts. You'll see what I mean when you start the game, and a random animal gets your data ready for you. Their face is blurry- something the 64 was well known for. But this game doesn't need to have flashy graphics. The simplistic style works. It's even better when some of the characters have priceless reactions to how you do some things for them. As for the music and sound effects, they're cute too. Some of the music sounds like Charlie Brown music, and the sound effects are simple as well. There's this weird sound that plays when you catch a fish or dig up a fossil. You will mimic this sound in real-life after some time. Trust me. My girlfriend does this at the drop of a hat. But some of the music gets stuck in your head. Especially some of the music that K.K., a dog musician, plays every saturday at the train station. I suggest you hear K.K. Western and DJ K.K. (spell them -just- like that or he plays messy songs).

I've went on long enough about Animal Crossing. Is it worth the purchase? Most definately, even more now at the Player's Choice price. It even comes with a little memory card for you to put your town on, which is a great idea since your AC file CAN'T be copied to another memory card. This furthers the developers wanting you to visit another town (though this makes a random villager leave yours) for more goodies. For instance, your town has one native type of fruit. Other towns have different fruit, so you'll need a friend's town to get you another type. But enough of this. If you want a fun game to enjoy, AC is it. And it's bound to do wonders on your relationship if you're in one too.

A Double Life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: December 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is the most involved game I've ever seen. You move into your own town (you name it), and begin paying for house... Once you pay for your house, you get to upgrade, and repeat until you have a huge house, with upstairs, and basement. You decorate your home the way you want. Collect furniture, wallpaper, carpets, various types of decorations, and even NINTENDO games. Yes, fully playable nintendo games inside your house! But, you have to get your hands on them first. Visit with the citizens of your town. Mail them gifts, and receive gifts in the mail. Go fishing! There are fishing tournaments! Catch bugs. Dig up fossils to put in your museum. And, there are holidays!
This game is real-time. If it is 8:00 a.m. when you stop playing, and you turn it back on 3 hours later, it is 11:00 a.m. when you go back.
Link up a gameboy advance, and travel to the island.
Get a friend's memory card and visit their town!

This game is highly addictive. It'll become your second life.

Creative, but not a game for everyone

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 25
Date: February 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

So after all the glowing reviews (from other gaming-oriented sites, not here), I gave Animal Crossing a shot. I thought to myself, "Hey, it can't possibly be worse than The Sims." Yes, I hated (and continue to hate) The Sims. I loathe The Sims. I despise it, perhaps even abhor it. Try as I might, I could not extract even one nanoliter of fun from The Sims.

Animal Crossing is very different, both from The Sims and in my personal opinion of it. On its face, it is analogous to The Sims; in both games you control a particular virtual life, and the primary goal of said life is the Acquisition of Stuff (tm). (Stuff, of course, being furniture, wallpaper, carpet, household gadgets, works of art, etc. -- anything that increases your net worth.) But the similarities seem to end there. In Animal Crossing, you are in direct control of your virtual persona, and there is substantially more interaction with other characters.

The interaction is perhaps one of the best parts of the game. A wise game programmer once said that good game AI is not about being intelligent, but being smart enough to fool you into thinking it's intelligent. And for what it's worth, Animal Crossing has good AI in this department. You can write letters and send gifts to the animal inhabitants of your town, and you will generally get a reply (usually with a gift attached). The messages you receive are quite varied and are tailored to the character's personailty. And while you know the responses are canned, they just don't feel canned. It's not hard to get attached to particular characters, ones you interact with frequently and have good repoire with. AC is officially billed as a "communication game", and it excels at that.

As for things to do, the bulk of your activities involve running errands for the other residents of the town, as well as becoming the defacto town landscaper and gardener. Other activities include fishing, bug-hunting, digging for fossils/money/Stuff, and of course the aforementioned sending letters to your townfolk. Most of these activities net you Stuff in return.

Another innovative feature is how the game operates in real time, keeping its time using the GameCube's internal clock. Unfortunately, this innovation is also one of its main drawbacks. The town store maintains hours, and your fellow citizens sleep at night, so you sometimes find yourself trying to work around real life in order to get certain game life activities done. Also, mail takes a while to travel, and the waiting game can get very tedious.

The last thing of note is the graphics. On an artistic note, the saccharin stylings are very cutesy (nothing less than you'd expect from a game like this). On a technical note, this game was intended for the N64 and retargeted for GameCube late in development. This isn't really a problem, except for the textures on the characters, where it's far TOO apparent. It really should have been sent back to the art department.

There is a certain amount of fun in Animal Crossing. But as for myself, after a couple weeks I reached a point where I asked myself, "Does it do ANYTHING better than this?" And the unfortunate response I found to that is "No." The game tries to mix it up some with the assorted traveling characters and the various holiday events, but in the end, the finite set of activities rears its ugly head and roars.

My final score is 3 stars. I don't give Animal Crossing a lower rating because in truth, I DID enjoy it -- for a while. There is some fun in it and it maintains a good sense of humor.

But it's an open-ended game, and as such needs to be infinitely playable. And this just isn't a game I could play ad infinitum like, say, SimCity 4. But it certainly deserves a good number of points for originality and creativity (and some serious extra credit for being probably the only game in existence to implement the art of feng shui). And if you like games like The Sims, this is probably right up your alley.

But in the end, Animal Crossing is definitely a niche game, not the overall 4- or 5-star panacea that most reviews suggest. But I didn't *hate* it, not to the point where I would disrecommend it. If it appeals at all to you, I'd encourage you to at least try it via rental -- you may find it more enjoyable long-term than I did.

A day in the life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 20
Date: December 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is probably one of the most addictive games I have ever played on any platform. At 21 years old, I've been through my fair share of crap games. What makes this game so great is all of the options that are at your disposal. The real time aspect is of course the most fun; turning on your GCN at 2 a.m. and scaring the crap out of the villagers is a blast. Holidays, collecting furniture, catching 40 different kinds of fish and insects, hooking up your GBA and visiting Animal Island, visiting a friends town all add up to an exciting gaming experience. If you have the time....

You must think we're all crazy, but it really IS fun.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: October 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Being an Animal Crossing fan is inherently frustrating, as you try to convert your friends. Imagine, if you will...

You: It's so cool, you can catch bugs, and go fishing, and buy wallpaper and carpets!

Friend: Uh..huh. *long pause* That's it?

You: Nono! You can run errands for the animals in town, or plant fruit trees, or dig up fossils, or write letters! And time passes even when you're not playing. Like every Saturday night there's a dog who comes to town and plays a song for you.

Friend: Okay, riiiight. I'm going to go stand somewhere else now.

Scoff all you will, my friends, but Animal Crossing is one of those rare titles that sells the platform. It's entirely nonviolent (you don't even kill the bugs and fish you catch) and completely open-ended. Play as much or as little as you want.

If you're considering this purchase as a gift, bear in mind that reading and writing are essential parts of gameplay. Very young children (like my 4 year-old) can enjoy running around, shaking the trees for fruit and catching bugs, but fluency in English will enhance your experience immensely.

Also, if multiple people want to start characters, you may want to purchase a separate memory stick. There are certain activities in town that can only be done once (e.g. the town museum will only accept one of each fossil type) and limited resources that refresh daily (e.g. a special money-giving rock that dispenses bags of coin to the first person to whack it with their shovel). With two sticks you can travel to each other's towns and meet a bunch more animal friends (who will show you letters they received from the other player, so watch what you write!)

There are additional capabilities for those with a Game Boy Advance, which include an additional island to explore. Also, the e-Reader for the GBA lets you scan in new songs and mini-games. Neat features, but you can still have plenty of fun without buying all that extra hardware.

One last thing: you can trade items with anyone, anywhere, without having to hook your Gamecube to the internet. The town merchant will take an item and give you a special code in exchange. Give the code to your friend, who gives it to the merchant in HIS town, and... voila! There is a thriving trading community on the internet, for those of you who love collecting.

New Genre

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: October 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It's a real-time adventure the object of the game is nothing. Initially your goal is to pay off your debt to a house you recently purchased, a clever way to coax you into a new gaming environment. Suddenly you find yourself hunting for fossils and donating them to the local musuem.

It seems like a simple kids game. Top down view, items menu... But the games genius is its ability to provide refreshingly new play each day, literaly each day. Seasons change as they do in real world time, sun rise's and sets too. Stores close, special events occur. Soon you find yourself wanting running across town to Tom Nooks store before it closes to sell your fruit from a friends town so it doesn't spoil overnight. Yes you can visit your friends town. Even have some of his/hers inhabitants moved to yours.

This game provides you with a world in which you choose what to do. You don't have godlike powers, your just an ordinary Joe. You set goals for yourself, like saving up enough money to expand your house again. With any game its crucial to never take the control away from the player. This game tackles that idea with letting the player decide what to control.

Lets call it real life without the stress. If only there was something to complain about? Menus interface? Something? Yeah there's some things with the interface I could change/due without but thats not going to change how great this game is.

The game you'll let your kids play!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 19
Date: January 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Of all the video games my kids have access to (Gamecube, Gameboy Advance, and PC-based), this is probably the one that is the least like a time-waster. My kids are interacting with the characters in the small village, and learning about mortgages, budgeting money, making purchases, decorating a house, etc. Even though there's no "party" mode, the three of them like to sit together when one is playing. They also do favors for each other like buying things for each other (and paying each other back later).

The only slightly disconcerting thing about the game is that it is pretty materialistic: the main goal seems to be to get a big house and furnish it (in a totally individual way, fortunately). But I'm pretty materialistic anyway...

So many of my objections to sitting in front of a gaming system are addressed: this game is educational and kids interact with each other socially rather than playing by themselves. On top of that, it is currently my kids' favorite game.

Now if I can just hook up a treadmill in front of the TV, I won't mind if my kids play video games!

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