Review: Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Intro

My interest in New Leaf began when a good number of my friends started talking about it on twitter.  I'd heard of Animal Crossing before but never got any of them.  I looked up some videos and saw some trailers, and I took the plunge.  Even then I wasn't sure I'd like it.  You become Mayor of a town by accident and you build your town and house.  When I started playing it, my opinion changed, a lot.

Gameplay

 

Standing in front of the Town Hall with me new flag

The game starts off with a stranger starting to talk to you on a train.  Your answers affect the way you look, and there are various guides to this online.  Most important is that you get to choose from four randomly generated town maps.  You can see them all as many times as you want so you don't have to get to the fourth and think 'well, I liked the first one better' and have to stick with the fourth one.  Once you've chosen your map, you get off the train and become Mayor.

The only problem here is that you can't become Mayor straight away.  You need to be a citizen, which means you need a house.  While these are things you have to do, they are simple and shouldn't take long.  It'll help you get familiar with your town and the various NPCs who live there.

I just built a stone bridge for my town

The game world is a 2D map with 3D graphics and the ground curves dramatically into the background.  There are lots of trees to shake, with some bearing fruit and others hidden objects, sometimes bees.  Bees are bad, very bad.  In all the maps you'll get a river full of fish and a beach where you can collect shells and sea fish.  These will provide an income for your house and the town.

Once you become Mayor, what you do really is up to you.  There are things that you can't do as it's a game with a young audience in mind, so it is a bit restrictive in some ways.  However, there's still a whole lot you can do and listing everything would take too long.  Plus, it's always good to discover things on your own.

One complete dinosaur

You only thing I'll recommend doing is donating to the Museum.  You only need to donate one of everything so it's a good idea to donate the first one you catch so you don't lose track of what you have donated and what you haven't.  I love museums in general but there's something amazing about wandering around the Museum and thinking 'I caught that' or 'that was the first fossil I found'.  There is more to it than just looking at the museum though.  You will often see NPCs in there who will remark upon the items on display.  Additionally, when you complete a dinosaur, the plaque will tell you about it.  Similarly, the signs in the aquarium, insect section, and art gallery, will tell you more about the items on display.

Graphics and Sound

I could not agree more! I am a giant arachnophobe. :(

The graphics are really quite exceptional.  The 3DS has glasses free 3D which might sound like a gimmick but it's very impressive.  I'm quite a big fan of 3D in games so I have the 3D slider turned on full.  You don't lose anything by having it in 2D, though I do prefer it in 3D.  Can't put my finger on why.

Audio is very good too, with small sounds being distinct and clear.  You'll always know when a mosquito is nearby, for example.  The music is pleasant to listen to and never gets boring.  It also seems to be situational too, so it's not the same all over the town.  It's turned off while you're in your house, which is good as you can have TVs, stereos, and musical instruments.  Having background music while you're playing a guitar would be too much, and I like the quiet that the house offers.

Other Features

My Scott Pilgrim inspired t-shirt

As with everything, it's the little things that make the biggest difference.  Being able to design your own patterns is a great way to pass the time, and you can end up with some great looking designs.  These patterns can be worn on clothes or put on the wall or floor of your house.  It's great because it's so easy to use.

And now you've got some great designs, you feel like sharing them with the world.  They've thought of that and added a super easy screenshot feature.  Pressing the two bumper buttons with take a screenshot and save it to the memory stick.  These can then be uploaded to twitter, facebook, and tumblr, using the i.nentendo.net website.  In fact, all the pictures in this review were taken by me.

Overall

Having my fortune read. Why can't it be like this in real life?

I don't think there's any other game that I love in quite the same way.  There is The Sims which is similar in many ways, but with The Sims you don't directly control the Sim.  It's more watching the Sim do things rather than doing them yourself.  I don't know of quite the right words to describe it.  It's certainly very fulfilling and I can't recommend this enough.  If anything, it makes a welcome break from other games that involve violence and fighting.  The only downside is that you really need to experience it to understand why it's so good.  I am sure I will be playing this for many months to come.

The LEGO Movie

I make no secret of the fact that I have loved every single LEGO I've played and that any new LEGO game is a guaranteed preorder for me.  They have all been exceptionally fun.  They're not perfect and I can find flaws with them, but those flaws don't detract from the fun of the games.  Sure, LEGO Harry Potter might have too many variations on single characters, but it's ok.  I don't mind that.

Anyway, I'm not talking about games (directly) today!  Today I am going to drop a trailer for The LEGO Movie!  That's right!  A movie made out of LEGO!  It's going to blend traditional stop motion animation, CGI, and a small bit of live action, in what should be the greatest movie of all time ever bar none.

The trailer:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lPnY2NjSjrg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So yeah, I'm really excited by this and I cannot wait.  There's also going to be a tie-in video game that should be lots of fun too, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.  The movie isn't out until February 2014, which is a good few months away yet.  Before then is my birthday, and Christmas, and the new generation of consoles, and Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, and Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and, well, you get the idea.  There's lots of stuff to enjoy in the meantime.