Animal Crossing has always been a bit of an anomaly for me. I was 13 when the original came out on the Gamecube back in 2002. I remember seeing the commercials for the game and thinking: “That looks like the dumbest game I have ever seen.” How could I not? The commercials had a bad sitcom vibe to them and the gameplay looked like nothing more than just walking around a lot. It looked stupid. It looked boring. It looked like the exact opposite of the kinds of games I liked: thrilling adventure and platforming games. However, a friend of mine got the game and insisted that it was good and that I’d love it if I gave it a chance, and oddly enough they were right. I wound up sinking dozens of hours into it without the slightest idea of why I enjoyed it so much. The original Animal Crossing was a huge departure from the norm for me, and its sequel, Animal Crossing: Wild World on the Nintendo DS, was also the last mobile game that I spent any significant amount of time in the last several years after it’s release.
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