Prologue

On June 14^th Animal Crossing: New Leaf will be released for the 3DS. Chances are that if you’re reading this you’re already well aware of what the Animal Crossing series entails. But the perfectionist (or perhaps completest, but neither feels like the right word) in me feels there should be an explanation here. So here goes…

In a nutshell the Animal Crossing series sees you create an on-screen version of yourself and move into a small town of anthropomorphic animals. There’s no right or wrong way to play the game and no definitive mission statement, although paying off your mortgage and cultivating friendships with the animal-headed townsfolk are pretty important aspects of playing. There’s also a museum to be stocked with fish, insects, fossils (which are surprisingly abundant), and artwork.

Time progresses in synchronization with real life, so if you play at night it’s night in the game and when you play in December there’s snow on the ground and fairy lights on some of the trees. There are even (slightly rejigged) holidays present in all but the DS version, as well as monthly contests and made-up holidays.

To the uninitiated it can sound dull. In truth it’s difficult to sum up exactly what the series’ appeal is. But there is one.

I’ve played every game in the series so far. I was so desperate to play the Gamecube version that I bought a Freeloader disc and a US copy so that I could play it without having to wait for the UK release. I can’t recall how much that cost me no. I assume it was a lot.

I loved the game and played it solidly for nearly a year before becoming bored. It was caused by a combination of my favourite villager (Limberg) finally moving away, paying off my final mortgage, filling the museum, and experiencing every in-game holiday I was interested. There was nothing left to do. I’d seen and done everything I wanted to.

Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS rolled around a while later and I bought a US version of that too. I played solidly but not for the year of the original. I didn’t enjoy it as much. The reality-inspired hols of the original game were replaced by a line-up of uninspired fictional ones. I still earned myself a swanky mansion but I didn’t enjoy the experience as much. I missed the train tracks too.

I played City Folk but there wasn’t enough new content included to keep me interested. I don’t remember how far I got but I remember thinking it was the most unimpressive game in the series. There was particularly exciting going on and there were once again no train tracks anywhere in town.

Thankfully New Leaf looks to have righted all the wrongs of City Folk (with the exception of getting rid of the irritating grass depletion dynamic that sees grass dying the more you walk on it). A swarm of new characters have been revealed, the trains are back, and you’re now able to customise the town as a whole rather than just the innards of your house. From what I’ve seen there’s plenty on offer to keep people playing long after getting that large mansion. It looks like the series finally realising its massive potential.

The purpose of this blog is to provide an account of my experiences with the game. I thought it would make an interesting experiment. There’s not going to be any faux first person narrative here: I’m not going to pretend that I’ve actually moved into the town. That seems to be a popular approach from what I’ve seen but I don’t care for it and I don’t think I could keep it up either. I’d end up slipping. This will be my experience as a player, providing thoughts on everything the game comes up with.

So… bring on day one.