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 The Museum's Aquarium |  Camping out? |  Nookling Junction |
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 Getting tired of the tent |  Housewarming |  At the neighbours' |
 New sweater for Hanukkah |  Company's over |  Happy New Year 2015? |
 Westfold Town Flag |  Such a calm place |  Fishing for sharks |
The player character moves to a new town and is immediately mistaken for the town's new mayor when they disembark. After being greeted warmly by the mayor's assistant, Isabelle, and seeing local real estate developer, Tom Nook, about a house, they begin their mayoral duties.
I'll admit, I hadn't played any of the Animal Crossing games before yesterday. I know, I know, I've been recommending them on my 15 Essential Games lists for months, but I hadn't played them. Well, now I have, and I can see why this game was so popular. It has a passing similarity to The Sims, but only in a very minimal amount. If anything, I can immediately see where DS version of The Sims 2 (and possibly the PC version of The Sims 3) borrowed from Animal Crossing. I think all life simulators are fated to be compared against The Sims, but I firmly believe Animal Crossing influenced The Sims just as much as people think it was the other way around.
It's such a charming, endearing game, New Leaf. You immediately care about the villagers and you want to help them succeed in any way you can. At the same time, you discover how easy it is to help yourself succeed too. You can collect fruit from the trees and seashells from the shoreline to make enough money to buy a shovel and a fishing rod from Nookling Junction, at which point you can fish and dig for buried stuff. All the items you collect in this way can be sold at the Re-Tail store to finance the down-payment on your new house. The thing that always irked me about The Sims 3 (the only game we can feasibly compare) was that it was too easy to earn money. Plus, once you had earned the money, there were never enough ways to spend it. I talked about that on Cohost one time, and I'll make it into a blog entry here at some point, but I don't foresee that as being any kind of a problem in New Leaf. At least for new savefiles, you can give the fish you catch and the fossils you excavate to Blathers to put in the museum, which, on its own, is quite possibly the single best location I've ever seen in any videogame. The developers put all their creativity into the entire Museum concept that the place itself is a work of art, even while totally empty. I feel such a great sense of accomplishment, seeing my donations in the collection; and such a feeling of calm satisfaction, finding the items in the first place. And, of course, stuff that Blathers already has can be sold to Reese for a few Bells (the game's coin currency) or displayed in a building.
Another important thing is the persistent gameplay. The Sims 2 for DS had this, but it always felt like more of a stumbling block than a feature, insofar as it was applied so conservatively. Everything was open all the time, everyone stayed awake and went out at night, and it didn't really affect gameplay beyond how long it took one of your hotel guests to leave and give you his money. In New Leaf—as with all the other games in the series—things have operating hours. Different characters are awake at different times of the day. Different fish can be caught. Even the music changes depending on the time of day. While this might make it a little inconvenient for people who want to play at night, it adds an extra dimension to the gameplay that makes you want to come back and experience it at a different time.
I'm going to carry on playing now, and this is definitely what I needed to get into the series. The next step will most likely be Wild World since I have it on my 3DS already.
100/10, definitely would recommend for ANY player, regardless of age, gender identity, or ability.
