I’ve been playing Animal Crossing which is one of those do-nothing type of games (you know chores and such) like Harvest Moon. It is “fun” and addicting in the same way that The Sims is, due to the gamers’ NEED to level up collect every piece of clothing, carpet, wallpaper, fish, bug, fossil, etc. It is more attractive because the characters are cute (i.e. animals), and well, that’s it.

What’s interesting about this game is that I think there is a programmed block against playing too much. After playing a certain period of time within a day, your fellow townies ask you to do a series of actions which end up in a logic circle, so you can’t really get anything done. By that point, all you can do is wander around town, even if you want to keep playing levelling.

What the Gamecube version is missing however, is a social aspect. This game would be great if you could visit other gamers’ town without having to physically cart a memory card to your friends house; something that they fixed in the Nintendo DS version. In Animal Crossing: Wild World, you simply need wireless. I also think there are traits of the Animal Crossing character system are built into the design of the Wii. A Mii which you can send over to wirelessly to your friends’ system is a lot like visiting another person’s town!

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: games, nintendo