Its Not Just A Game Its A Capitalist Fantasy
2017s iOS/Android game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a fun bite-sized appropriation of the series bigger games. Its also the perfect microcosm of the fragility of friendship. Here you make friends by doing things for them, always being rewarded with goods or cash. Nobody ever just wants to hang out.
And of course, just like in the real world, cash is king. You can get a jump on your progress in the game via the digital leprosy that is microtransactions. And who is running said online trading post? Tom Nook, obviously, who is depicted lying in a bath of banknotes, like hes f***ing Tupac. Oh, we should note that you can literally buy him like the greediest of Comic-Con alumni, 250 leaf tickets and hes all yours.
But Animal Crossing has never been shy about showcasing its capitalist ideals. This is, after all, a game where resources arent limited and are never in decline. Running short on cash? Go chop down a forest and sell the lumber . Hungry? Why not empty the ocean of fish eat them yourself or sell them on, there are no fishing quotas here!
As you read this, in the real world, the earth finds itself in the grip of a climate emergency. And yet, if we carried on like the inhabitants of Animal Crossing do, then well, look out for Nintendos forthcoming Mad Max/Animal Crossing crossover forthwith.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Broke Sales Records
Nintendo might be one of the earliest consoles, but it has come in third place behind Sony and Microsoft in recent years. Both tech companies offer video game consoles with better specs and a wide array of games geared toward true gamers. Nintendo, on the other hand, has focused its efforts on reaching more casual gamers. That hasnt always translated into blockbuster successes. With Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendo has a true blockbuster.
According to Video Games Chronicle, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was one of the best-selling physical games in Europe in 2020. Only FIFA 21 sold more physical copies. In its first six weeks on the market, Nintendo sold 13 million copies of the game, and it topped sales charges, even as it went against the juggernaut, .
Its A Game With Terrifying Posibilites For Evolution
It is Russia. The year is 1920-something. And the controversial scientist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov has just impregnated three female chimpanzees with human sperm. His aim? To create the worlds first human-chimp hybrid, the Humanzee. He fails. Is banished to exile in the Kazakh, SSR. Then in 1932 he dies of a stroke, his crazed vision unfulfilled. Hey, everyone needs a hobby.
And the relevance of this to Animal Crossing is? Well, think about it. This is a game filled with many different types of animals and just one human. Who will keep you warm on cold, wintery nights? Its only human to want to be loved
While were at it, whats the deal with Stitches, the games nightmarish stitched together teddy bear? Or Sprocket ? Or Ribbot ? Or, God forbid, Hopkins an inflatable rabbit! More so, dare we even consider how these unnatural creations came to be?
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The Nature Of The Playable Nes Games
There are many neat elements to Animal Crossing that give it such a unique charm and appeal. One of the most prominent comes in the form of the playable NES games, which technically totals 19. Yet, players will really only be able to access 15 of these without using a cheat device or outside source.
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In addition to the 15 playable classics such as Donkey Kong and Excitebike, four additional titles are not obtainable in-game. Ice Climber and could be booted up via e-Reader cards, while Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda were part of promos and are no longer accessible.
How the rest of these games are obtained varies, and the titles available also differ depending on the regional release.
The Reason For The Blank Nes
Many players assume the blank, unusable NES in AC is merely meant to be a decorative flair for gamers to show off in their house. Yet, it seems as though this actually did have a purpose, or was intended to by Nintendo.
A software engineer by the name of James Chambers discovered that interacting with this item was meant to draw from NES ROMs that were to be loaded onto GameCube memory cards. Apparently, Nintendo was looking to release memory cards loaded with NES games, but these plans never materialized.
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Nuts To Parochial Backwaters: Lets Go To The City
Portable play is all well and good, but what if you had a real hankering for that classic big screen experience on your 12-inch CRT with only one working speaker? With the 2006 launch of the Wii came a two year wait before the series returned to home consoles with Animal Crossing: Lets Go To The City!. Or at least thats what it was called in Europe. In North America it went by Animal Crossing: City Folk because Nintendo of America refuse to publish any game with more than five words in the title. To be honest, we endorse such practices and wish they were still employed it would avoid multi-syllable embarrassments like Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda or that Dragon Quest XI: The Longest Title In The History Of The WorldEver! Definitive Edition.
If the name didnt give it away at all, Lets Go To The City allows you to venture outside the peaceful tranquillity of your town and, yes, go to a city. That was about the only major difference between this and Wild World, though, and the game was criticised for being too similar to its predecessor. Part of that may be because its based on exactly the same game engine as the DS version. You could have more villagers, your own home rather than sharing one with anyone else who had a character in the game, but much of City Folk was subject to only very minor changes.
Animal Crossing: City Folk
After the massive success of the handheld Wild World, Nintendo tried to match that triumph on home consoles by bringing the series to the Wii in 2008. The major new addition to this iteration was the inclusion of the city, an area to which players could travel for the purposes of changing their villager’s hairstyles, buying new clothes and attending events such as auctions and shows.
Another new feature was the ability to receive new content through WiiConnect24. These two features, combined with a cleaner graphical look and intuitive Wii Remote controls, were not enough to make the game feel particularly different from its immediate predecessor. Critics responded accordingly, making it the lowest-scoring game in the mainline series. Fans of the series were equally apathetic to its release, as demonstrated by the sales for City Life dropping to nearly a third of those of Wild World.
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Looking To New Horizons
Still, Tom Nook’s most audacious scheme was reserved for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which launched on Nintendo Switch in 2020. Tricky Tom has sold you a travel package to a deserted island paradise, and expects you and a couple of fellow scam vict erm, holidaymakers, to develop a new settlement from scratch, beginning with nothing more than some hastily erected tents. Thanks to the island’s lack of basic infrastructure, it has you exploring the island to gather raw materials a pretty crucial part of the crafting system, which allows you to build new tools and furniture.
There’s a rather agreeable hippy commune vibe to this whole arrangement, until you remember that a certain raccoon is getting a ready-made holiday resort out of the whole deal. New Horizons offers an unprecedented freedom to develop your community, as you can choose where animals set up their new homes and even reshape the island itself with the new magic shovel, a feature fans have dreamed of for years.
The series has been on quite the journey, since Dobutsu no Mori made its debut on April 14, 2001. 20 years later, Animal Crossing has surely surpassed even Nintendo’s wildest expectations. New Horizons is the fast-selling Nintendo game in Europe and one of the company’s best-selling games of all time. It’s reported that Animal Crossing: New Horizons shifted 31.18 million copies in 2020 alone, making it the second highest-selling Switch game so far.
Who’s This Tom Nook Fella I’ve Heard So Much About
Tom Nook is head honcho of the anthropomorphic animal kingdom in the Animal Crossing world. Modeled off of the famous Japanese tanuki, or racoon dog, Tom Nook is often seen sporting a minty green button-down with leaves on it as well as the deadest stare known to man. This charming creature is the one who offers you your initial supply kit when you begin New Horizons and to whom you must work off your debt. As you continue to play New Horizons, you must work off your debt of 98,000 Bells, which is a whole heckuva lotta money in New Horizons world.
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Are Bridges Worth It
Bridges lets you cross rivers without using the Vaulting Pole every time, making them super convenient. However, since land bridges can be constructed with the Island Designer app, we recommend saving up for Inclines first.
Inclines cannot be made with Island Designer, and are only available as infrastructure projects, making them more useful in the long run.
Each Bridge is a sizeable investment of 98,000 Bells or more. If you want to make this kind of change to your island, be sure to start saving up early!
What To Do On Day 6
Another freebie day. You should have another new villager in town, but outside of talking to them there wont be a lot of must-dos. Feel free to spend the day however you wish. Drowning in Nook Miles? Buy a ticket to a Nook Island, and maybe youll luck out with some fruit you dont already have.
Or you can spend the day fishing and collecting bugs to build up your stash of Bells. Its really up to you!
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the most recent entry in the series, and it really needs no introduction. The game features plenty of new features, and a wide array of new villagers the player can have live in their town, or maybe just visit. There are also a bunch of new features that aren’t particularly great when compared to some of the older entries, such as the microtransactions and economies that have caused legitimate problems. In our current day and age, the issues with this game aren’t unexpected, just kind of annoying.
One Town Per Purchase
The original Animal Crossing blew the hats off of young gamers when it made its North American debut in 2002.
Not only could a player have up to four people in their town Mom, Pops, Sister, Brother but if they had another memory card, they could have FOUR MORE! Thats right, invite your Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, and Uncle.
Creating another localized town also made the second player feel like they had their space to play around in they werent locked into another persons world.
If I wanted to name my town Rice Cake because I didnt want to live in my brothers town of My Ass I could do it without buying a new game. Additionally, the other player got their own Nook store, fruit trees, and a different cast of villagers to interact with.
The fact that Nintendo didnt allow for the creation of a second island baffles me, especially because New Horizons relies heavily on unique island customization.
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Which Animal Crossing Game Should I Start With
Your options are limited on where to start based on which Nintendo gaming systems you have. Right now, New Horizons is all the rage and that game is only available on the Switch. If you have an older system, like Wii or 3DS, you’ll be able to find older chapters of Animal Crossing in those respective stores.
For my money, your best bet is to start with New Horizons on Switch or with Pocket Camp, which you can download on the iTunes App Store for free.
What Is A Gyroid
From the very first Animal Crossing game to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, gyroids have been a thing. They are unique statues that take on a variety of shapes and colors, and they function like other furniture or decor. What makes these little guys unique is their sound effects and how you find them.
In previous games, you could find gyroids buried in the ground following a rainy or snowy day. Much like fossils or other buried items, players could discover dig spots around the town, and you could use a shovel to unearth them. Like furniture, there isn’t just one type of gyroid. They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. The best thing about these little guys is finding a bunch, turning them on, and seeing how they sound together. Gyroids each have a unique sound, and you could easily mix and match your collection to play some unique beats.
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Animal Crossing: New Leaf
The fourth and final mainline entry is both the best-selling and highest-rated in the series, and for good reason. Building from the same central concept established by its predecessors , New Leaf set itself apart by being the most feature and character-packed Animal Crossing game of them all.
Released on the Nintendo 3DS in Japan in 2012 and worldwide in 2013, New Leaf’s set itself apart from previous games. While keep the central elements of gameplay intact, this game started with the player arriving in a new town only to be mistaken for the town’s new Mayor. As the Mayor, players received an unprecedented level of control over the developments and layout of their town. Through Public Works Projects and Ordinances, players could construct new bridges and facilities and make shops open earlier or close later.
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Additionally, players could use the 3DS’s StreetPass feature to participate in the Happy Home Showcase, allowing them to share and view their villager’s homes and furnishings with those they happened to pass while out in the real world. In 2016, New Leaf was updated to add Amiibo support and a new camp site area.
What Is Animal Crossing
Zipper T. Bunny, who just finished hosting the annual Bunny Day event on Easter Sunday, is but one of many talking animals you’ll find in this wildly popular life simulation game series.
Players assume the role of a person whose neighbors are assorted animals. There’s no real structure to the game, which allows individual players to choose their own experience by engaging in activities that range from catching bugs and fishing to planting things and interacting with the animals.
As gaming website Kotaku summed up the series’ appeal in 2011, “Animal Crossing has never been much of a traditional video game. There aren’t enemies to fight or many directed quests to go on. It’s more of a play space and a realm of collecting and self-expression.”
That nontraditional approach has clearly resonated with gamers. The nonlinear series, which makes extensive use of the video game console’s clock and calendar to simulate real time as trees grow and flowers bloom, has sold more than 30 million units worldwide.
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Okay But How Do I Play Animal Crossing
In general, you can do whatever your beautiful little heart desires in Animal Crossing and New Horizons, for that matter. As far as New Horizons the Animal Crossing installment you’re most likely to buy aside from Pocket Camp is concerned, you begin on a deserted island. After being given a basic set of supplies, you’re offered a big, new house by Tom Nook but you’re suddenly in debt to Tom. From there, you have to work off your debt by doing a variety of different tasks. And yes, I’m sure it’s easy to sound cynical about paying off your debt in a fictional, pastel-washed game but at least the tasks aren’t too taxing, be it fishing or shaking trees for fruit or gathering different materials. The best part about New Horizons is that you can play with your friends, adding in their accounts and finding them on their own islands for some good old-fashioned hangtime. In a world where we can actually hang with our friends IRL, playing New Horizons together is major.
What Is The Point Of ‘animal Crossing’ Does It End
What is the point of any video game? But in all seriousness, the central point of gameplay is to build your island up to achieve a five-star rating, tend to the plants and wildlife, and generally see to it that all the villagers are happy. There is no true end to the game, even after you achieve a five-star rating. There is always something to do to improve your island or you can simply spend hours catching fish and releasing them back into the water if you like. It’s low stakes, but very cute, very entertaining, and at times, oddly satisfying.
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Its A Game That Revolves Around A Bin Dwelling Landbarron
The first character you meet when you boot up Animal Crossing is Tom Nook. He looks nice. He is, after all, a racoon, and arent racoons adorable? Thatll be racoons who are the U.S.As biggest carrier of rabies according to the Center for Disease Control, the masked bandits account for 28.6% of all animal rabies reports. Or ask the 82-year-old New Jersey man who, just last September, was left with gaping wounds in his back, legs and arms after a racoon attacked him while he was sitting in his yard. No, take our word for it. Tom Nook is a total dick.
Its never explained how Nook came to be Animal Crossings sole trader, but we can bet you that broken windows and intimidation played a part. There are serious Mafioso vibes at play here. First, he offers you a home unfurnished, obviously putting you in debt from the moment you start the game. Then hell offer to sell you furniture for an inflated price but to get it youll have to deal with Timmy and Tommy, two-child raccoons, the relationship of which to Tom is never established.
Child labour was abolished in the UK in 1933. In Animal Crossing the fight goes on. And think about all those packages youre asked to deliver in the game, no questions ask. This guy is running a racket. Can we mention the widely held belief that Tom Nook isnt a racoon at all but a human in a racoon suit?