Top 50 Video Games: Number 43

#43: Animal Crossing
System: Nintendo Gamecube
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: 2002
Players: 1


Your character in Animal Crossing is cute but kinda freakish.


In the previous entry in this list, I mentioned how Devil May Cry was a departure from usual games I like, such as RPGs and "weird sissy farming sims." Animal Crossing falls under the latter category. This technically isn't a farming sim, I just put it that way because it reminded me of Harvest Moon, which was a farming sim. Animal Crossing is one of those games that has no real goals, no defined beginning or end. You could say that the goal is to pay off your house loans, but there is really no pressure or rush to do so. You make money by doing favors for neighbors (all of whom are humanoid animals; I'm sure the furries probably jack off to this game) digging for treasure, picking and selling fruit, fishing, etc. Doing all of these tasks plus decorating your ever-expanding house is plenty to keep one busy. There is also a massive amount of things to collect. A mass of furniture sets, wallapaper, carpet, clothing and objects, not to mention all the different fish and bugs to collect. Each season has different insects and fish, many of which only come out during certain hours of certain days. Many things in the game are only available on holidays which makes collecting everything damn near impossible unless you cheat.

The game has an undeniable cuteness in both it's look and sound. It's almost like drinking a bottle of syrup. It's very family-friendly, and the characters in town are only naughty if you draw genitalia on their faces or tell them to say dirty things. One day a couple of years ago, I came home from work and my roommate says "So I was playing Animal Crossing today...aaaaaand I spoke to Bob the cat and he says to me 'Good afternoon, Cocksucker!' " My roommate then cocked his head at me and asked "Any idea why he'd say that?" I replied that I had no idea and it sounded like a bug or possibly someone had hacked the Gamecube.


True to life, some of your neighbors in town are real dicks.


Harvest Moon suffered from not giving the player enough time to perform their given tasks in a day. If anything, Animal Crossing suffers from the opposite problem. Animal Crossing takes place in realtime according to the Gamecube system clock settings. When you turn the game on at 2am, it's 2am gametime. This is a cool feature, but also can be frustrating when you want to play in the wee hours of the morning and the entire village is sleeping. This does have it's good points though. Holidays and the changing of seasons are more of a big deal, because they happen just once a year. If you go for days without playing, your neighbors will actaully bitch at you about neglecting them and cockroahces will start to pop up in your home.

Generally after a couple hours of play, you'll have done everything there is to do for the day and only tomorrow will you find new items, jobs, etc. This makes Animal Crossing a good game to pick up for a short time every day or two. It's relaxing, laid back and an all around good time.