NOTE: I Originally posted this review in Issue number 2 of 2.5D

     Touted as The Sims for kids, Animal Crossing is Nintendo's cutesy spin on the life-sim formula.

      AC is quite essentally a game about nothing. You play as a horned boy or girl (your choice) who moves to a randomly generated town that you name with randomly generated residents. The only constsnt character besides a few that show up on rare occasions, and the museum cureater, is Tom Nook the local shop owner, and slum lord extraordinaire. The whole premise behind AC is...well, whatever you want it to be. There are tons of activities that your character can partake in. You can spend the whole day decorating your house that's provided to you by said slum-lord Tom Nook by choosing the floor, the wall paper, and what furniture or knicknacks goes into it; you can choose to fish all day, and sell the fish for cash, donate them to the museum, or even use them in your home decor; you can even run errands for the residents of your town who will reward you handily with new clothes for your character, furniture, and even fruit. There is so much to do in this game. You even have to upkeep your town by pulling weeds that pop up from time to time. You can even save your character to a memory card, and take it to a friend's house and explore their town.

     AC runs off your Gamecube's internal clock, and calender, so there are some activities that only take place at certain times of the year. Tell one of the residents your birthday, and every year on your birthday, you'll be showered with gifts, cards, and a cake. Not only does the game celebrate birthdays, but every holiday, and the seasons also change with the calender. In autumn the leaves on the tree will change colors, in winter rain will turn to snow, and in summers everything's green and lightning bugs appear. It's a really fun concept, and it adds so much to the experience. The Gamecube's internal clock is also put to good use in this fashion. Tom Nook's store closes at 9:00 pm every night in your time, and there are certain activities like the summer yoga that takes place at certain times during the day. I can actually see some people getting up at 6:00 am just to catch it (I'm not one of those people).

     For as addictive and fun as AC is, it does have it's faults. Once you've paid off your house and have decorated it to your liking, there's not much else to strive for in the game. After that, you might be entertained a little while longer by the quest to complete the museum's collection (my friends and I had a little competition going), and maybe by certain yearly events, but for the most part, there's nothing left to strive for after you've got everything to your liking. Also, even though the size of your house is upgradeable via Tom Nook, the final size of your house is still too small. You get so much furniture throughout the game, that you end up having to store it all by putting it into letters, and then storing those letters in the post office. This can be combated by filling the three other slots with new characters you've created (assuming you've got no one else playing the game along with you), and then having four houses to decorate, but even then you'll have more stuff that you know what to do with.

Bottom Line: Animal Crossing is a super addictive life-sim game that you won't be able to get enough of at first. However, once you complete certain aspects of the game, there's nothing else to strive for.

Here's a vid I made of me goofing around in my town: