Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Animal Crossing New Leaf. Where do I even begin? Well first, let me talk about the hype behind this game. Pretty much ever since the 3DS came out, I heard tale of a new Animal Crossing game for the 3DS. I’ve been a longtime fan of Animal Crossing (ever since middle school), and I played Wild World to death. I eventually bought a 3DS just so that I could play New Leaf. As it turns out, the release date was constantly pushed back, and it felt that I would never be able to play the game. However, as the release date drew closer, the tension began to rise. Nintendo kept posting videos about the game, which made me want to play it even more. Finally the game released and my copy was shipped to me. I literally could not sit still while I waited for my package to arrive. I checked the tracking info every few hours just to see if it was any closer. When it finally arrived, I was ecstatic. I furiously played through the game for the first few weeks after that, and I still play it to this day.Usually when I review a game, I make sure I completely finish the game (or get as far as I can in the game) before doing so, however this game doesn’t really have an “end,” and since it’s been almost two months since the game was released, I think it’s high time that I do my review.StoryIn New Leaf, you play as a young person moving to a new town. What you don’t realize is that when you arrive there, the anthropomorphic citizens think that you’re their mayor. The plucky secretary won’t take no for an answer, and you very shortly begin life as the mayor of this small town full of animals. You don’t even have a house, but luckily real estate tycoon Tom Nook agrees to build you a house that you can pay off at your leisure. Before the house can be built, you have to live in a tent while you complete your mayoral duties. After that, you can build expansions to your house after you pay off your loan, and you can work your way up to a huge mansion. Along the way, you can decorate the inside of your house with hundreds of different pieces of furniture ranging from the familiar to the exotic.The characters in your town are all different kinds of animals, yet they all act very much like people. It’s often funny to read their dialogue and see just how normal they can be, despite being frogs, rabbits, ducks, alligators, etc. There are so many different possible villagers, and it’s exciting to see someone move in, because you never know what kind of interesting character you’ll get next.GameplayHowever, this much is very similar to past Animal Crossing games. What sets New Leaf apart is your role as the mayor. As such, you can shape the town to your liking, building decorations and much more. You can enact one of four Ordinances (such as the Night Owl ordinance, which allows your shops to stay open later), to shape how you interact with your town. You can also build Public Works Projects, which can range from benches, fountains, and street lamps, to new buildings, and remodeling existing structures. Of course, you’ll mainly be paying for these yourself, and as such you’ll have to collect upwards of 50,000 Bells (the game’s currency) to pay these off. Some projects cost almost 200,000 Bells, and take a while to pay off.To make money in New Leaf, you can sell a variety of things you find around town. You can sell fruit, which is more valuable if it’s not native to your town, fish, which you can catch in the rivers and ocean, bugs, which you catch with a net, and much more. There are loads of ways to make money, and you’ll be spending a lot of time doing so.One of the best ways to make money in New Leaf is by going to the Island, a new feature which opens up in your first week of playing. It costs 1,000 Bells to go to the Island, but once there you can catch all sorts of exotic fish and bugs, as well as find Island-exclusive fruit. You can also go on “tours,” which are fun minigames that let you compete for medals, which you can exchange for exclusive items and furniture. You can also use a feature called “Club Tortimer” to connect to random players via Wi-Fi and play minigames with them. One thing I have to say, though, is that the island is rather over-powered, in that you make way more money from the island than you can in your town, so most players will spend almost their entire time on the island.When you’re not catching expensive beetles, you can visit the many shops on your Main Street. Returning are series-staples, such as the Nook Convenience store (run by Nook’s nephews, Timmy and Tommy) and the Able Sisters tailor shop, where you can purchase new shirts, pants, and headgear to customize your character. As you progress through the game, however, new shops will start to open up, including a garden shop and a shoe store. What I like about all these places is that they take a while to open up. Many won’t even open until a month or so after you’ve played through the game, so it rewards you for sticking with the game, and makes sure you don’t rush through the game in a week and move on to something else. Also, many of the shops expand, so you’ll get lots of improvements to the shops that appear in your town.You can also connect to others via StreetPass, and their house will appear in your Happy Home Association Showcase, where you can go through a copy of their house and order any of the furniture you see there. Also, once a place called the Dream Suite opens up, you can generate a Dream Code, which allows anyone to access a copy of your town in their own game. They can run through the town, cut down your trees, or anything they want, and it’ll reset once they leave. It’s a good way to let anyone see your town without actually opening your gates to them. Of course, you can always do good old-fashioned multiplayer, and have your friends visit your town via local wireless or Wi-Fi. I’ve noticed that the game BSoD’s you a lot less on Wi-Fi than Wild World did (although it does pay to save frequently). One interesting feature is it lets you register “best friends,” and only open your town to your “best friends.” Plus, the game will show you when your best friends are online, and you can send them instant messages via Wi-Fi. It’s not super sophisticated, but it does make it much easier to see who’s online and say “Hey, wanna visit my town?”One problem I had was that there’s no way to know where a villager is going to move in until right before they do so. In previous games, there were signs around town that marked where potential houses could be, however there aren’t any signs in New Leaf, so one day someone could build a house right on top of one of your exotic fruit trees. This can be really annoying, and it really shouldn’t be a thing at all.PresentationAnimal Crossing games have always been relaxing and fun to look at, and New Leaf is no different. The characters are much taller than in past AC games, and it makes a lot more sense. The game also looks really good in 3D, although I can really only play in 3D for a little while before it hurts my eyes. The textures seem a lot different than before. They often look rather shiny, yet a bit fuzzy. It’s really hard to describe, but once you play the game it makes sense. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just something I’ve noticed.The music is pretty decent, but it doesn’t really stand out, with the exception of one or two songs. I can’t say I like it as much as Wild World music. The nighttime music is especially calming, and I often find myself about to nod off as I play the game.TL;DRAnimal Crossing New Leaf is an adorable game, and it’s an absolute delight to play. It keeps you coming back every day to see all the new things, and keeps you invested long-term in its many projects. The townsfolk are funny and adorable, and you’ll be sad when your favorite villager moves out. Basically, it’s worth all the hype, and if you’re an Animal Crossing fan, you owe it to yourself to get this game. Even if you’re not, you’ll probably fall in love with the game. It’s most definitely the 3DS’s killer app.Pros:- Lots of features- Great pacing- Something to do every day- Expansive customization- Great multiplayer featuresCons:- The Island is a bit unbalanced- No way to tell where villagers will move in- Music is nothing specialFinal Score: 9.5/10

Nintendo over the years has made a habit out sticking to a select few franchises and re-launching the titles on their newer consoles. Sometimes Nintendo misses the mark on these games as they're simply not different enough to warrant a re-purchase of what is essentially the same game, but Nintendo has proven time and time again that some of their franchises are simply too irresistible to turn away. If you're wondering if Animal Crossing: New Leaf is new enough to warrant the purchase of the title or even a new console, you're in luck.Animal Crossing: New Leaf sticks to the same formula that has made Animal Crossing as popular as it has been over the past decade or so, but lets in a breathe of fresh air to update the franchise to the standards and capabilities of modern hardware. In the newest edition of the Animal Crossing franchise, you'll find that New Leaf has merely expanded on popular features and gameplay that has gotten the franchise to where it is today. However, they've added even more new features ontop of that, most notably that now your player is the Town's Mayor, and YOU decide what you want built in your town and where.One of the reasons why Animal Crossing has been so popular to so many people is because you can customize your play experience to truly fit whatever type of gamer you are, and you can have your character ingame (and their house!) reflect your own style or personality. The customization options in this game have been greatly expanded with the additions of new addons to your home, objects and buildings to place in your town, new furniture, new carpets and wallpapers, new types of fruits to collect, for the first time in the franchise your character can change what type of pants they can wear, and ontop of that there are numerous new shirts, hats, shoes, and all other kinds of accessories.The game has even introduced a new way to earn bells (the currency for the game), as now your character can get a 'diving suit' to go underwater to grab all sorts of aquatic life that your fishing pole cannot normally pick up. Of course, if you're adjusted to the older ways of collecting bells such as through the fishing pole and net, there have been numerous new fish and bugs added to the game.Unlike in Animal Crossing: Wild World, the game has also reintroduced a variety of new holidays that were not seen in that edition of the game, so there is truly almost a reason to play the game anytime during the week. There are also hundreds of different villagers available in this version of the game, so you can almost expect that any of your friends to have unique villagers different to your own.The game has also introduced a new feature known as 'Ordinances' in which your town will adapt to a new specialization to fit your playstyle! Whether you're an early bird, a night owl, a player that loves having a heavy bag of bells on you at all times, or someone that wants to be more environmentally conscious to avoid weeds from appearing in your town and so that yours flowers are better taken care of. The game offers you four distinctly different ordinances to better suit your playstyle. If you pick the early bird ordinance, your stores and villagers will be open earlier and out earlier to chat with you. The night owl is the exact opposite as stores will close later and your villagers will stay out later as well. The ordinances add a new level of depth to any player of the game.For parents that are worried about interactions that their children may have while playing the game, the game supports the 3DS parental controls to ensure that no offensive content may be shown to younger players of the game. Also, at anytime if one of the villagers begins to say bad words due to a catchphrase given to them by another player, you can visit the ingame Town Hall to have that villager 'reset' and avoid from saying such things in the future. That being said, the game does offer online connectivity so that players can play with their friends over the internet, but if you're not far away it still supports local connections between 3DS's.I wish I could cover all of the new things that this game has brought and has done for the franchise, but then this review would never end. If you've ever been an Animal Crossing fan before, or have been looking for the right time to join this franchise, you'll never find a better opportunity than New Leaf.