"Animal Crossing" is now on your smartphones! No need to spend sixty dollars on the game and three hundred dollars on the console. This time you can play at any time of day at the tap of an app. Not only is this game convenient, it's downright cute.
You play as a character with the gender, hairstyle, and color, and eye style and color of your choosing, which is a step up from previous games where you were either stuck with your character's hair or you had to spend bells to get a new style. Your character is managing a new campground, which you can theme as cute, sporty, natural, or cool.
Whichever you choose will lead you to a different first villager. Of course, I picked cute, because Rosie is my favorite villager, but after the first one, you can choose any villager you like to stay at your camp. That is, provided that you can win them over by doing requests for them.
How to play
The game gives you several things to start out with at no charge to you: a fishing pole, a bug catching net, and a throw net for both river and ocean fish. The great thing about this game is that, overall, it does not cost you an exorbitant amount of money like most mobile games. Even for things that require leaf tickets, the game gives you a certain amount of leaf tickets every time you level up (which isn't hard to accomplish).
Your character runs around the campsite and nearby areas doing requests for various villagers. You get to choose which requests you want to complete, and all you have to do for most of them is shake some fruit off a tree or catch a fish or bug for them.
Sometimes you even get special requests that will trigger a mini cut-scene when you deliver the item, which gives you extra rewards.
The rewards can be used to build furniture or amenities in your campsite. You can go to the Market Place to buy clothes, which rotate every few hours, or furniture for inside your camper. Your camper can be renovated or redecorated just like a house in previous games, and you can even take out a loan to make it bigger. And, you can add your real friends to this little world, which makes it all the more fun!
Worth it?
If you are a die-hard "Animal Crossing" fan, or just really love to get away from life for short periods of time, this game is absolutely worth playing. Even if it drains your phone battery a little faster and eats up your data, this game is adorable and just plain fun. Again, it doesn't cost much actual money, which is your decision if you want to spend or not, so there's little to no risk to getting caught up in this little world. However, my prediction is that this game will control our minds and souls for a good three to six months, then fizzle out in the main public's eye just like "Pokemon GO".