When you start Animal Crossing(AC from here on in) it may seem like there is not much to do. And there isn't all that much to do when you start. But give the game a few actual days and it will open up a whole new world where you care what is happening, where you'll get up early just to participate in a fising tournament or morning aerobics. The first thing you must get over with AC is the graphics which are tottaly N64, although the hires of the GCN helps a bit. Nothing in AC will feed the Graphic junkie within you. But when you read on you'll realise that the lowres textures etc. can be overlooked. There a few cool effects, like the water in the stream on ocean, and the art style is unmached, it is so unique.

The gameplay is where AC really shines. Like mentioned in that list above, there are tons of things to do and see. The best way to discribe what AC is like is to discribe a somewhat typical play session. Let's say you start in the morning(or when ever you get to the game) at about 9am. You check you mail box and read your new mail, next you check the town bulleten board for any town news. After that you stop by the town dump to see if any threw out something you might want. Next you head off to the store to buy and sell items. You take your new stuff to your house and set it up, by pushing, pulling and rotating it. After that you leave your house and go over to the river and do some fishing, nothing good there then you go to the ocean. On the way to the ocean you talk to the towns police officer and ask him if there is anything going on. He says no this time so you go into the police station(which is basically the lost and found) to check the lost items. You take a few things and continue on to the ocean. As you arrive you realize that your clothes are kind of weak, so you stop in at the local tailor shop and design your own styling outfit. You finally get to the ocean and do a bit of fishing, back to the store to sell the fish. You then talk to a few of your animal friends. Then maybe you plant a few flowers or trees. Then you stop for now or for the whole rest of the day. That is what could happen in a typical AC play session, you can do more or less, but that is one of the best things about AC is that you can do what ever you want. AC also has a few uber-cool features that I have to talk about. The first is the GBA connectivity: You can download the pattern designing program to your GBA and design patters on the road. Or use the GBA to visit an exclusive island that is ONLY available if you connect your GBA to the GCN. The final connectivity item is that you can download you collect NES games and play them on you GBA! The second cool feature is the password based item trading feature. You have an item your friend wants, you wanna trade it for an item he that you had your eye on. Make and agree ment tell the store owner your friends Name and Town Name, choose the item you wanna trade and boom you get a password that only he can use. You email/phone/message/post on a message board the password and he tells it to the store owner in his town and the store owner pulls out the item for him in his game. And he does the same for the item you want. It's almost like trading in person. The thrid cool feature is the Animal Crossing e-Cards, these cards will allow you to add patters/town songs/get items for Animal Crossing. Fourth would be find and collecting over 15 playable NES games. And the final cool thing is you can visit other peoples towns, you borrow thier memory card and but it slot B, then you go to the train station and go on a trip and since every town is different it really feels neat to explore a new place.

The sound in AC is good, but again it is still stuck in the N64 era. Not to say it's bad music or sounds, they are(especially the music) sound alittle MIDI and digital. Alot of the sounds are good though like clinging of you shovel, or the ambient sounds from the insects or stream/ocean. The music is plentyful and the song changes every hour. Some of the music is themed, the morning music is alittle more upbeat, where as the night music kind of has a spooky quality. Extra sounds like jingle bells when it's snowing. Over the sound it good, but a lot of it adds to the feeling of the game.

Animal Crossing is a game you must play if you have a Nintendo GameCube, with so many cool things to collect, see and do, you could play this game for years(30 to be exact... I'd be 51 by then!). And with the real time clock and calender with REAL holidays, seasons and events it fun to come back and see what is going on in your virtual town. There are many things that I didn't get to in this review, like the negitive points, like the sometime awkward menu system. But they are tiny flaws. This is kind of GENIOUS game you'd expect from Nintendo and only from Nintendo. This game is great, and there tons of fans who have set up communities where you can find their patters/town tunes or trade items. I'm rambling but you must atleast try this great game.

9.5 out of 10

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