This piece was written by Emily Mozzone, one of GeekGirlCon’s Marketing Designers. If you’d like to pitch a guest post, contact us at blog@geekgirlcon.com!
There’s no doubt that Animal Crossing has come far as a Nintendo IP. For those of us who have played since the beginning, Animal Crossing has metamorphosed from an odd, obscure game that none of your friends played into the worldwide phenomenon it is today. The data backs this up: Animal Crossing for the GameCube sold a little over 2 million copies worldwide, while Animal Crossing: New Horizons “sold some 1.88 million copies in its first 3 days on sale in Japan” only, and that’s not even including digital copies.
A lot has changed in the Animal Crossing universe since its launch 19 years ago, and overall I think these changes are for the better. The game is generally more accessible and friendly to players: I’m thankful that I live in a world where I can just fly to my friends’ islands over the internet rather than try to find another kid who owns Animal Crossing on the GameCube and then trust them enough to physically swap our memory cards. I’m glad that kids don’t have to get constantly berated and teased by their villagers (let’s be real, GameCube NPCs were savages).
[Image Description: Screenshot of Animal Crossing gameplay. The dialogue reads, “Why, you’re so short, I can’t help but laugh! Whoa ho ho!”] Source: My Potato Games
But as the series has progressed and strived to be even more fun and enjoyable, I think a little bit of the magic and freedom has been lost. f
Historically, Animal Crossing has been about taking your time. We live in a world that constantly asks you to rush, be productive, make money. In video games, we fight, we level up, and we try to win. Animal Crossing throws all this out the window. There is no way to win: Animal Crossing simply asks you to value “family, friendship, and community.”
So what’s changed in the Animal Crossing world? Why do I feel like the game has strayed from these original values?
by GeekGirlCon Tumblr Adminstrator Member Emily Hendrickson
I’m more neutral about Animal Crossing’s Bunny Day event than a lot of other people. And from a game perspective, I understand why Nintendo made the eggs so ubiquitous. This is a children’s game, and if you were a kid who actually wanted to find recipes for and make all the egg items, you’d want the materials readily available. Plus, learning some of the recipes is contingent on how many eggs you’ve found; so, it makes sense to make quickly finding a lot of eggs easier.
All that said, the event has some major issues, which have been meme’d nonstop pretty much since the event began. And since the Bunny Day event is overlapping with the Cherry Blossom event, I feel it’s apt to compare the two and to answer why one (Cherry Blossom) is so much more popular than the other (Bunny Day).
[Image Description: Screenshot of Animal Crossing gameplay.] Source: Emily
It’s summertime, which means that besides doing family chores and playing in the pool, the tweens are enjoying their free time by playing games. I asked my kids and their friends about some of the games they are playing this summer. They are going under the names Mei, damage6, Haruhi, and Boyzsuckjkjk*.
League of Legends (LoL) came up as the game to play this summer by several of these just-into-and-out-of middle school kids. The worst part of the game? “The players can be toxic, and will hate you forever if you do something that they don’t like,” reports damage6 about LoL. This sentiment was shared by all the kids playing LoL. Haruhi and Boyzsukjkjk both said, “The people are mean.” Even though damage6 plays League of Legends, he said he has no favorite games right now. He just likes to play, stating, “I play with people I don’t know and real life friends.”
Other games that were brought up included TFL, Pokemon, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Unanimously, the kids said their favorite part of these games is that they can play with their friends. A bonus of Animal Crossing is that you can customize, reports Mei. According to Gamersyndrome, characters, clothing, furniture, and interactions are customizable, giving a lot of individual play.
I also happen to know that Sonic and All Stars Racing: Transformers is being played nightly with one of these girls and her father. This is leading to family bonding and working together to reach goals of unlocking characters, mods, and more races.
What games are your favorites this summer?
*All names given in this post are gamer usernames or pseudonyms.
