Review By:  Siou Choy
Developer:	Nintendo
Publisher:	Nintendo
# of Players:	1-4 (alternating, per town)
Genre:	Simulation
ESRB:	Everyone
Online:	No
Accessories:	Memory Card (included), GBA, e-Reader
Date Posted:	10-7-02

Animal Crossing actively encourages the gamer to send letters to both other players and the other inhabitants of the village (who will harass you constantly about how you never write, regardless of the fact that you talk to them in person several times a day). This can be pretty damn annoying, as there is no keyboard add-on - you have to hunt and peck for each letter and symbol with your joystick on the virtual keyboard. Best of all? All this effort to type out a message only to discover your efforts were for naught, since the person you sent the letter to "didn’t understand it", resulting in a nasty reply. The really amusing part of all this is how the simplest letter, more often than not, gets a mean reply; yet a letter filled with swearing will be proudly shown around town.

(Animal Crossing on GBA)

As a good portion of your playing time is spent talking to the villagers, you’ll be faced with a lot of repeat dialogue. Sometimes you’ll actually go from one animal to the next and hear the exact same thing, mere seconds apart. Unfortunately, you can’t skip through it. It’s especially tough when you decide to donate an item to the museum and you’ll have to listen to Blathers go on for several minutes at a time.

One of the most unique things about Animal Crossing is that it runs on real-time, meaning no sped up clock to get through a day like in Harvest Moon. If it’s 3:00am then it’s 3:00am in the game. Certain events and holidays only take place at a given day or time so you’ll have to be around for it. If you work for a living, you’ll find yourself breaking ass to gather saleable items in time to rush them over to Tom Nook’s store before closing time. Fellow night owls will find that the only person awake after, say, 10pm will be Blathers the owl (at the museum) or nasty Pelly (at the post office); though in a true statement of "neighborhood watch" solidarity, you will find that most if not all of the village residents sleep outside their homes!

If you’ve got any sense of humor whatsoever, I strongly recommend pressing the reset button on purpose, several times if you like. By doing this, you’ll be paid a visit by everyone’s favorite mole, Mr. Resetti (get it?). He’ll explain, in best Mafia shakedown fashion, how hitting the reset button is not a good idea and how much it upsets him when you do this. If you choose to ignore his advice, he’ll pay you a return visit after each game reset. Naturally, each visit gets meaner and nastier (and he goes on even longer, if you can believe that). At one point, Resetti sends his brother Don to pay you a visit, because he’s just had enough. One of his more amusing visits involves you having to repeat (read: type) what Mr. Resetti says. Be warned - if you make a mistake typing you’ll have to do it again until you get it right. If you hit reset enough times, you’ll be privy to one of the biggest scares of your video gaming career – Eternal Darkness has nothing on him!

In all, Animal Crossing is a relatively innocuous, if patently absurd and subliminally subversive way to blow countless hours just winding down and doing nothing. I could throw in a drug reference, but that just wouldn’t be P.C. of me, now would it. After all, the animals might disapprove, and browbeat me into submission…or even set Mr. Resetti on me. And that could be pretty scary…

Highs:

• Surprisingly addictive and amusing
• Lots of things to do – more than you’d expect at first glance!
• Plenty of characters to interact with, particularly as your village starts to fill up with new residents

Lows:

• The characters tend to repeat a lot of the same phrases; especially if it’s product plugs or to harass you into conforming
• Impossible to skip through repetitive dialogue

Final Verdict:

Those looking for a simple, if fun and addictive game that makes few demands, intellectually or skillwise, should enjoy Animal Crossing. Anyone looking for highly detailed, mind-blowing graphics and action need not apply (think Harvest Moon without the farming or marriages). The graphics are hardly up to the level of Resident Evil, but does it really matter? If you’re looking for a few cheap laughs and a nice way to wind down and relax after a hard day at the office, Animal Crossing delivers. You’ll find yourself enjoying the everyday things that go on in your town and will probably end up spending more time than you imagine doing silly things like fishing, catching bugs and insects, and digging for fossils. Animal Crossing is a really silly, campy game for people who should know better, and should be (depending on who you’re playing with) safe for the kiddies as well. Mindless entertainment and a dogmatic conformist paradigm. Silva Mind Control has nothing on this.

Overall Score: 8.7

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