This will be the review of the ages. How does one review something as addictive as meth, though is not the shooty-bang murder fun hour? You see, Animal Crossing is a series that started life on the Nintendo GameCube, the first Nintendo console I owned. It was called so for being a cube you would play games on. Though that being said, I never knew of this land of farm animals living out a life on Wisteria Lane.

I also missed the one on the original DS, the Wii, and then finally, a few years ago I picked up New Leaf. Though I should say that, New Leaf – Welcome Amiibo is like a small expansion to the earlier one, but a million times better. Every day that goes by in Wisteria Lane is time for the daily grind. 7 AM and some of you and the other villagers are up. Though 7 AM is important because the in-game time is linked to your Nintendo 3DS clock, thus 7 AM to you will most probably mean it is 7 AM in-game.

This can be a problem for several of us who sleep until 3 PM, do all the work anyone can do, and then flop in a ball on the couch at 6 AM to do it again. I’ll tell you this for free, being the new one in town, with a shovel, at 3 AM, digging holes? Someone is getting really suspicious real fast. Though no one does, you live in the kingdom of the anthropomorphic rabbits, frogs, and dogs. No, I’ve not gone mad, taken too much meth, and fallen down the rabbit hole. This is a thing that happens in video games.

Upon arriving into town, you are greeted by Orwell’s Animal Farm; and they will find you at any time of the day. With this, you are quickly shuffled into the village and told you are the mayor. You become friends with Isabelle, and she runs the town from that moment on. It is all very nice and quiet when you really think about it. All you are expected to do is keep the village happy and tidy, something you’ll be doing instead of keeping your own house in that state.

You do so with remedial tasks like: dig up the dinosaurs, clean up the weeds, water the plants, make sure several residents don’t start eating each other, fish the useless guff out the rivers, and so on. This is your daily grind; you don’t go downtown swiping left on your phone and dancing in the clubs. It is all very happy, wholesome, and not too much like the average media representation of video games.

You will find villagers you like and hate, in my case, there was a bear called Groucho who wouldn’t leave me alone. Through several weeks of trying to avoid him or tell him, I’m not interested in his little side activity, he asked me to create a new greeting for him. I did the only right thing and I told him to yell, “LOVEME!” Which resulted in his following statement, “LOVEME! Yes, I like that.” Since then he would yell those words upon walking up to me, and I assume to everyone else too. That was until me and Tom Nook were digging holes at 3 AM.

There is no goal to Animal Crossing, it is much like those boring Facebook games yout nan plays. However, Animal Crossing (aside from the mobile game) doesn’t have microtransactions, several wait timers, or boring gameplay. If I’m calling out the likes of Farmville, I might as well call out Stardew Valley for taking Harvest Moon‘s gimmick as well. Nonetheless, I think that’s what makes Animal Crossing so good, it gives you a set of tasks to do daily. Want to dig up more bones? Well, they come back tomorrow. The gameplay runs out after about an hour.

You do all of this as escapism from the real world of dressing your house, keeping things clean, impending debt, and other human things. Though you are only escaping into a nicer world where all of this is prevalent. The town needs its’ gardening done, you need to make your house look nice, otherwise, your bells are just sitting there, and you do this by getting in copious amounts of debt to the raccoon mob. This is that Tom Nook fellow I spoke about a few minutes ago.

You will forever be in debt to that man, working hard, running down to the pawnshop with everyone’s ‘gifts,’ pawning them straight away, making small increments of money each day. Though to no end do you get any closer to finish paying your debt as Tom will always have a bit more he could do. The evil part is, he won’t put you in debt until you ask for it, the most satirical of comparisons to the real-life counterparts.

With that, there is very little to claim as a con in our pros and cons section. It isn’t a perfect game, but it is very well-made and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

In conclusion, Animal Crossing: New Leaf is endlessly addictive but never leaves you wanting more. By that I mean, you know you’ll have more to do tomorrow so there is no point in sitting about catching fish on the dock. Beautifully designed, endlessly colorful, and I love the waking up to walk out the front door and be told, “LOVEME!”

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Animal Crossing: New Leaf

$27.30 USD

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Brilliantly designed.
• There's always something new todo.
• Allows for crossdressing.
• Friendly Faces everywhere.

Cons

• Groucho.