An escape to another reality, only on the Gamecube.
The Gamecube is my favorite console to date, and with good reason. With excellent titles like Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine, and Luigi's Mansion, it's possibly Nintendo's greatest system. When I heard that a virtual life game called "Animal Crossing" was coming out, I wasn't really interested. However, the more I saw of it, the more I wanted to play. Finally, I broke down and bought it.
Today, I play a copy that I bought used, but I still have my original memory card 59 that came with it. I still love it, and here's why:
Graphics: 9\10
Many people probably don't know this, but Animal Crossing is a remake of a Japan-only Ultra 64 game called "Animal Forest". It's essentially the same thing, though the Gamecube version adds some new features. The, original Ultra 64 graphics were carried over, and while some would say that they are dated, they still look good.
There's no "realism" or flashy transparency\particle effects here. Instead, we get a toony-looking town with toony-looking characters. However, it all blends together very nicely, and there's no loss of frame rate or bad slowdowns like in many newer games, and even some older ones. For that, I'll give the graphics a 9.
Sound: 8\10
While the sound effects are a bit dull, and some of the general tunes get boring, the saving grace of this game is the music by Totakeke, or K.K. Slider. He arrive every Saturday in front of your town's train station, and will play a song for each of your human characters either randomly chosen or, of you want, a song that you request. He also gives you an "aircheck" version of the song to use in your own stereo in you in-game home. It's a very nice feature, and really adds a lot to the game's sound score, as there are *fifty-five* songs to collect, three of which have to be requested. However, such a feature can only take the game so far, so I give it an 8.
Gameplay: 10\10
What can I say? You live you life as a human in the middle of a village populated by anthropomorphic animals, all in real time. It's a furry's dream game… If you got to play as one of the animals, that is. However, that's neither here or now. When you start off, you have very little money, and can't pay off the debt on your new house. You end up doing a few missions for the local shop owner, Tom Nook (a Tanuki… Think SMB3 and the suit). After those, you're free to pay it off at your own pace. After paying him off, he'll upgrade your house. You get a total of 4 upgrades, but each have to be paid off before you can move on to the next.
You have neighbors in your town, usually starting out with 5 or 6 of them, and they can be one of many animals. Tigers, cats, dogs, wolves, pig, and even ducks can make up your town's roster of up to 15. These neighbors will chat with you, or you can ask them if you can run an errand for them, resulting in some sort of reward like money, furniture, or even rare items. You can keep the rewards to decorate your house or whatever, or you can sell them to make money to pay off Nook or buy something from his store.
You also have room for up to 4 human players to play on the same card, in the same town. While there is no simultaneous multiplayer mode, you can communicate with your friends or family with the in-game mail system, or even using a bulletin board in the middle of the little block where your houses sit. You can also utilize your Gyroid (aka The Save Point) to store items for other players to either see, take, or buy from you.
In addition to all of this, other players with the game on their own card can visit your town via the game's travel system. That player can then do most of the things in your town that they can do in theirs, except for donating to the in-game Museum and saving at a the normal save point. It's a really nice feature, and it's required to have someone to visit and buy an item at your town's store for it's last upgrade.
The game also has a special password system for trading items, which enables item trading over the internet via email, message boards, or anything that can display text. In the game one person will tell Tom Nook the receiving player's Name and Town, and then hand him the item, which will prompt Nook to give them a password. The receiving player can then give that code to the Nook in their town, and receive the item. Fish, insects, and small list of items are considered untradeable, though, so not everything can be sent to other players in this fashion.
What's really impressive, though, is the game's use of the Game Boy Advance, Card e-Reader, and GBA\GCN link cable. Using the GBA and GBA\GCN link, you can get the game's "design tools", which allow you to create patterns for your clothes, some tools, wallpaper and flooring for your house, or (later on) to display around town on signboards. You can also use it to go to a small island for various other tasks that would require a slight spoiler warning, so I'll let you discover it for yourself.
The Card e-Reader can also link up for various effects. Some cards will have various animals send you letters with items, while others will upload patterns, items, and even special town theme songs. Just connect the Card e-reader via the GBA and GBA\GCN link, download a special application, slash the appropriate card through the device, and your effect will appear soon enough.
Really, there are so many gameplay elements to go through that I could write a book on the matter. I'm going to leave it here for now, and say that you should discover them on your own by buying the game. I give the game a 10 in this category.
Overall Score: 9
In the end, this game is a true gem in the Gamecube's library of amazing games. There's tons of replay value, tons to do, and even more to discover. While I cannot say the same for it's sequels, Wild World and City Folk, I will say now that this game is a MUST HAVE for any Gamecube collector's library. I enjoyed this game, and I'm sure you will, too.