Let Me Type About Animal Crossing
Ah, Animal Crossing! Or how I used to explain it to people "It's kinda like the Sims, but your neighbors are animals and you don't die if you can't pee!" It's a video game series that I can say I played most of the games in— we don't talk about Amiibo Festival.
It's sad to say I don't remember how I was introduced to Animal Crossing... was it the random boy at my Catholic school who talked to me about it since we talked about video games? Was it the TV ads with the people dressed as characters from the game that were shown in between my morning cartoons? Or was it the Animal Crossing Quarterly that was in the Nintendo Power magazines? Was it all of these experiences? Whatever it was, Animal Crossing got its hooks into me and I began to talk about it non-stop to my sister and one day in December 2002 my sister bought me the game!
When I first booted up the game, I messed up my first town. The military time threw me off and I didn't know you could change the time in the option area. I didn't get too far— Tom Nook just met my player avatar at the train station. I created my new town and officially started my Animal Crossing journey. I loved digging up fossils, fishing and catching bugs, and donating them to the museum. Paying off my debt to Tom Nook was fun and I loved the crassness of my neighbors. I loved designing each room of my house. I remember trying to make my main room into a tea room and a regal dining room. There was one time I wanted to host a party at my house I sent out invitations to each of my villagers— all I got back were rude letters telling me that they didn't know what I was talking about. Now in New Horizons— I can't stop them from constantly knocking on my home door... I'm just trying to put down a piece of furniture... I'm not going to stay for that long... Anyways, back to Animal Crossing on the GameCube.
I spent so much time on this game that in the summertime my character got a deeper tan than me. I wasn't the only one who got addicted— my sister got into the game. She bought us the Prima's Official Strategy Guide that listed every item, fish, and bug. She was the one who witnessed the large fish shadow in the ocean when she was coming back from the island. We had a good time and made some memories with the original Animal Crossing game.
So when Animal Crossing: Wild World came out in 2005, it completely flew over my radar. It's probably because my subscription to Nintendo Power ended and also this was around the time I started to get more freedom to hang out with friends... When you were deprived of something in your life and you finally get that permission to that freedom— you're going to go ham. I got my hands on Wild World a few years later and... I wasn't a fan. To be fair, I didn't have that much time to put into the game (logging on here and there) and I didn't like how your flowers died if you didn't water them daily. If I put as much time as I did for the original Animal Crossing game, I would have loved it. The same goes for Animal Crossing: City Folk— hanging out with friends/boyfriend, busy with drawing and school, I bought it down the road… wasn't a huge fan and I didn't like how the city and the village were separated by a car ride.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf got me deep back into the series. I was in college in 2013 and miserable. New Leaf was my light in the darkness during that time, it distracted me from the drama around me and my deteriorating mental health. I would stay up by myself in the darkness of my room fishing, playing mini-games on the tropical island, and seeing what Public works project I could place around my town. I always looked forward to that time of day.
Ever since the original game I always thought it would be fun to redesign your neighbor's houses because some of those houses were pretty bad. In 2015, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer came out and I had so much fun designing the vacation houses for the villagers and facilities... I have the urge to look at my old houses... I wonder what happened to my game and 3DS?
It was years since the audience heard anything about a new game being released in the Animal Crossing series. Then in 2020, New Horizons came out around the same time lockdown happened. My husband and I spent most of our time designing and terraforming our islands, visiting our friend's islands when there were shooting stars, and unlocking more and more Nook Points. Once again, Animal Crossing came in to help me to distract myself from the world falling apart. Years later after the lockdown, my husband bought me Happy Home Paradise add-on for my birthday and it reminded me how much I enjoy designing the interiors and exteriors of the villager's houses. When my daughter falls asleep on my lap for her day naps, I play Happy Home Paradise! Happy Home Paradise lets me release my creativity and I enjoy showing others the designs I have created.
In its different versions, Animal Crossing was always there when things looked down, or if I got bored. With its gameplay and customization, Animal Crossing has its way of cheering me up.