You’re sitting in a train carriage looking out the window, when a small anthropomorphic cat makes his way over for a chat. The conversation you have with Rover will determine an aspect that will be a permanent addition to your character – their eyes. It’s reminiscent of the previous instalments of the Animal Crossing franchise, except this time you are the mayor of the town that you can choose. It’s a nice addition; instead of being given a random seed, you have the option of picking one that you want to live in. Though the options aren’t exactly hugely different, it’s a nice touch.
Isabelle greets you when you move into the neighbourhood and insists that you are the new mayor of this small town that you’ve never heard of. Nevertheless, you take on the challenge and proceed to make it the best town ever. You can build community projects from a new bridge, to an expansion in the museum; there’s even a night club. Villagers will suggest new things they want in your town, some being cosmetic and some being new buildings with recurring characters, their suggestions will also depend on their pre-determined personality.
As with all games in the series, Tom Nook squeezes you out of your Bells (the usual Animal Crossing currency) with the constant upgrades for your house. My expansion currently costs 500,000 bells, but I totally need the expansion for my second floor that is being turned into a bedroom, since I already have a living room and a computer room in my basement. You can customise the exterior of your house much more now, with there being options to change your roof, fence, mailbox, the exterior walls and even the paving that surrounds your house. Once you have an even larger house, you can change the shape of it altogether with one of the models that Nook displays in his Estate Agent – Nook’s Homes.
To even further customise your characters, there are the Able Sisters for clothes and accessories, Kick’s brings in the new addition of shoes, and Shampoodle will allow you to change your hairstyle, your eyes and even your face! You’re able to add your Mii’s face to your character as a “mask”. Nookingtons, the store run by Tom Nook’s sons, also have Fortune Cookies in which you can get character clothes and accessories or decorations for your house, all of these have a Nintendo theme. Currently, I am the “Hero of Time”.
My town, Integra, currently has a bunch of villagers and I enjoy spending my time seeing how their day is going. Merengue is my favourite character that lives here, she’s a Rhino that looks like she’s made out of strawberry cheesecake. Other fun additions include a jock-Lion called Mott that calls me “ladybro”, and a bunny called Chrissie who wants to be a star. There is a large base of different animals that you can get into your town, who fall under one of nine personality categories, so they don’t all act the same. Your villagers can move to other towns, either just by leaving or moving to a friend’s town that you have visited, but you can gain new ones.
If you’re a social person, you can visit your friend’s creations or have them over in your town. I frequently have a nice social evening with one of my friends in the US, who I am upset with at the moment since one of my characters decided to move over to her town, Sungate. We trade fruits, since every town has a different native fruit and having a variety is nice, and we get to know the villagers in the town.
For those that like to collect, there is plenty to do. Blathers runs the museum where you can donate fossils, insects, fish and paintings. Personally, I am a collector, so I have spent countless hours sitting at the river with my fishing rod, waiting for one specific fish that only appears at a certain time in a certain part of the year to add to my collection. Diving has made an appearance in New Leaf, where you can jump into the sea and collect deep sea creatures, such as Sea Urchins, or you could be super lucky like me and only manage to find Seaweed.
New Leaf, much like the other games, is a nice relaxing way to just spend some time chilling out. It doesn’t require too much effort or brain power, but it does require some commitment. If you leave your town for too long it will be overrun with weeds, and your villagers may leave because you’ve not given them enough attention. Though, some will stay and just wonder why you have abandoned them and left the town unattended for so long.
The game itself has a bunch of different ways to play, though you cannot “win” the game, there’s no score and there’s no end. For example, I am spending most of my time catching all the bugs and fish to fill my museum and on occasion I will upgrade my house. My friend on the other hand has added more buildings to her town via the Town Community Projects.
Graphics-wise there’s not a whole lot different from any of the previous versions, it maintains the same charm the older games have, but a bit smoother and cleaner around the edges. Not much has really changed, it keeps a very familiar feel while being something new on the plate. The immersion from the sounds in the game as always is a very nice touch; from being at the beach and hearing the waves, or in the midst of summer the cicadas serenading you while you’re trying to hear for the sound of the fish taking your bait.
All-in-all I really enjoy this game that is now part of my daily routine. If you’re looking for something casual that doesn’t require you to think too much, then I would recommend picking this up. It’s charming and very addictive, though you might not realise it until you are obsessively collecting everything in game or trying to pay off your house.
Now if you don’t mind me, I need to get back to my town and sit at the river waiting for this last fish that I need until August comes around.