Flashback: Why Am I Doing This?

It's the third post of the week, so you know what that means, ladies and gentlemen! It's time for another random game out of my "of old and forgotten pile of nostalgia." Today's feature is from the Gamecube. I probably played this game as much as I did MKDD or Smash Bros. Melee. I had the cheat codes for this game memorized before I knew my entire alphabet. If you guessed Animal Crossing, then you would be correct! Animal Crossing is like the version of Sims that everyone has played, but you are ashamed to admit. Playing Animal Crossing was like joining AA; you had to admit at one point that you had a problem. Animal Crossing was the epitome of me doing stupid things as a child, until I got onto the computer and started play Runescape and some other games of course, but that is a completely different story. Today, I dive into the past of my childhood, and decide on whether or not I could have actually done anything worthwhile with my time.

Animal Crossing starts out on a cute little train, as you are moving to a new town; this is where various things happen, like meeting an annoying little cat who asks you your name, the town you’re moving to, and most importantly, where you’re going to live. Since you have no house, he hooks you up with Tom Nook, the insane shopkeeper who gives you the smallest, dirtiest house in the entire world. Oh yeah, you got to pay him for it too. And how do you receive money? You do random tasks for the villagers living with you; dig random holes to find money, catch flies, fish, find fossils, or cheat. When you pay him off, you can re-model your house. Like make it bigger, get a basement, or even an upstairs, all of which you must pay for. After 500 hours, and you may have paid him off, he erects a giant gold statue of your character in front of your house, and since he is now a multi-millionaire, he doesn’t charge you this time. From this point on, you can do what you’ve been doing, socializing with your virtual friends, buy things for your house, fish, etc… when you place objects in your house, your house rating goes up, if it is fashionable. From this point on the game is just a slurry of nothing but pointless gameplay hours. But, you could just start a new house. Each town has room for 4 people. And if you want to get adventurous, grab another memory card, start a new world, and bring your old guy over via the train you came to town on. Yeah, you can visit a friend’s town, or just build one yourself, whichever way you like to spend your hours.

            Animal Crossing is legitimately one of those games I would look at when I was trying to decide to play either Luigi’s Mansion, or Mario Sunshine, or Melee, and just to Animal Crossing. It was effortless, like the Sims before I got Sims III. But, why did I do it? I had more fun on every other game I played. Even Shark Tale for the GBA, which was a game I randomly found on the bus in 4^th grade. But, I think it was simply because I had nothing else to do. I mean, really, if they had put all the man-hours of Animal Crossing into something like curing AIDs, we would have found the cure years ago. Animal Crossing was the greatest waste of time since watching paint dry on a wall, and then realizing that you were staring at the wrong wall the entire time. But, you can try for yourself. When you find yourself waking up at age 32, playing AC on your Wii with your Wavebird’s batteries dead again, you have been warned. This game could teach WoW a thing or two on addictivity. Although I did have fun (and I still can’t remember how) I will admit, there are some games not worth playing, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish the pool for my Sims on Sims 3.




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