Animal Crossing

            The new Animal Crossing has become one of the highest selling games on Switch. It has overtaken Pokemon and Mario Odyssey. Traditionally Animal Crossing is not one of major seller. It probably benefits from the current world climate. With the pandemic in full swing a whole lot of people are sitting at home and yearning for the time when they were allowed to go outside and socialize.

            The game forces a schedule on the player. You have to log on every day and run through a list of chores. For those who are stuck at home without work, the game brings a welcoming familiarity. Player and also go visit the towns of friends. In this time of social distancing, people are not going to visit friends in real life. These virtual visits will have to do for now. Animal Crossing is providing some semblance of normalcy to all those who are shuttered in.

            With the extra time so many find themselves having, people are also trying out games they may not have tried ordinarily. I wonder what the retention rate for these games be once everyone returns to work. It will also be interesting to see what the rates for similar games such as Stardew Valley.

            I have played the 3DS version, The New Leaf, before but not the original on Gamecube. I remember when the original one was launched. There was a strong hype about the game world continuing on even when you were not logged in. It ended up being a casualty of Gamecube failure. Even though New Leaf was enjoyable in short bursts, there wasn’t much to do in it. There is only so many times you can shake trees for money before it gets tedious. The strongest aspect of the game is visiting other towns, which I could not do because there was no one else around me playing this game.

            I am getting on the AC train at the first stop this time so hopefully this time around I will have a much more fulfilling experience. Already convinced at least one other person to buy it.  

04-25-2020