A game that has, in theory, the capacity to maintain its value forever has always been some sort of holy grail of the gaming industry. This self-sustaining entity of gaming goodness, though, was not only located, but popularized by Will Wright's Sim City. The solution was simple; if you want a game that will never end, strip it of any goals or points that might mark the reaching of a finishing line. Written on a piece of paper, it sounds crazy, impossible even, but the reality is that those games exist and are quite popular. Nintendo, as a company that seemingly attempts to have franchises that cover each and every genre without major overlaps, has created their own unique version of the formula. Instead of a simulator of some mundane reality, which is the direction most great games of the genre tend to head towards, they have created a wacky animal village where raccoons monopolize business, a dog drops by to play guitar every once in a while, and ridiculously cheesy lines are bound to make you chuckle.

Twelve years into its history, Animal Crossing is about to reach its fourth installment, and while the in-game possibilities are many, most of the franchise's fans will converge to a single point when it comes to what it needs to do with New Leaf, which is to recover. The original Gamecube title was bursting with visual charm, and the simple joy and relaxation one got by walking around the village was more than enough to warrant a daily visit, whether it was to see what new items were on sale, to check if new fossils had popped up, or to discover what new fish the tides of a new season would bring. The online mode brought by the Nintendo DS' Wild World opened up horizons so effectively that it made the original look rather restricted, which should be the goal of every sequel; and the punctual additions and tweaks made here and there vastly improved gameplay. Whereas Wild World was a good leap, City Folk was a stumble in the attempt of a hop; the ideas pooled in-between games ended up not being enough to warrant a sequel, and the result was a pale game where the only supposedly big change was the arranging of all shops in the same location.

Arriving in the United States nearly five years after its predecessor, a time that is good enough for the gathering of many additional gameplay elements, New Leaf looks like a solid contender to replace Wild World as the definitive game in the series. Its handheld nature is very sensible, because a game like Animal Crossing heavily benefits from the possibility of being played anywhere at anytime, after all, it is centered around time-based events, and it is best enjoyed on short gameplay bursts. As any open-ended franchise, Animal Crossing holds an incredibly big array of possibilities to be explored, and while previous games of the series took more gentle steps towards opening things up, New Leaf seems to jump right into the fire by placing players as the mayor of the town. At least theoretically, it is a choice that will bring forward many new activities, tasks and responsibilities; giving players an extra reason to make daily visits to that world.

While often being brave in the concepts utilized in their games, constantly swimming against the current; Nintendo has been occasionally conservative in the development of a few of their franchises, and Animal Crossing undoubtedly suffered from that with City Folk, but New Leaf looks like a firm step in a correct and significant direction for the series.