Let’s give the virtual pen to Brandi
Recently, Yvonne contacted me and asked if I wanted to be featured on her wonderful site, writing about some of my Animal Crossing memories! I thought that was very sweet of her to consider me, so here I am! 🙂
My obsession with Animal Crossing started when I saw it featured in Nintendo Power as an upcoming title for the GameCube. I was instantly intrigued, because the idea of living in a little village populated with only animals and no pesky humans sounded like a great escape to me!
I got the game the day it was released in North America. I remember that day, too- I was 16 years old, and my mom and I had taken my dog to get surgery done on her leg. While we were waiting, we popped over to Target and bought a few things, Animal Crossing being one of them! The second I booted the game up and K.K. Slider began playing his guitar for me, I knew I was in for something unique.
I put SO MANY hours into the GameCube version of Animal Crossing over the years! Every day was something different. I loved how the villagers acted, I loved how it was all played in real time, I loved the music that played every hour… never before had a game captured my heart in the way this game did. I thought it was such an amazing concept. Also, the holidays were so much fun to play!
I also really appreciated the fact that the seasons changed. Considering I live in a state in the USA where we don’t exactly have four defined seasons, it was nice to experience something different- especially the snow! 🙂
As the years went by, I continued to purchase and play every subsequent version of Animal Crossing that came out. Wild World, City Folk, New Leaf, Happy Home Designer, Welcome amiibo, Wild World (Wii U Virtual Console), New Leaf: Welcome amiibo… I have them all! I also obtained a version of Doubutsu no Mori for the Nintendo 64 a couple years back, and I love playing that as well (even if my Japanese isn’t very good). I have Doubutsu no Mori + and Doubutsu no Mori e+ for the GameCube as well- I just need to convert my spare GameCube into a Japanese GameCube so I can play! I also play Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for the iPhone (though I refuse to partake in microtransactions- I just enjoy the game casually!).
When it comes down to it, I guess you can say I’m probably a little obsessed with Animal Crossing. I don’t mind one bit! I do wish I had more time to check in on all my villagers in my various towns, though- but such is life. And I know whenever I get the chance to, they’ll be there waiting for me, happy as ever to see me!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Animal Crossing memories!
This post warmed my heart! Animal Crossing is such a special series to me. The music especially makes me so sentimental. Have you heard of this website, http://tane.us/ac/? It cycles through hourly music tracks from different Animal Crossings and plays the corresponding track to what time it is in real life! I have it playing in the background a lot when I work
It’s the feeling of sentiment Animal Crossing seems to evoke in a lot of people. I guess once the game takes a hold of you, you are a fan for life! Good tip about the music. I had heard about it years ago, I’d quite forgotten!
You are a writer yourself, should you be interested in making a guest article with your special AC memories, then please let me know!
I will definitely keep that in mind. Thank you!
Thanks for reading my post! I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂 I LOVE the music, especially from the GameCube version. I have not actually used that website for AC music, but thanks for sharing! That’s something I may use at work as well! On my home computer, I have a little plug-in that I downloaded from Google that does something similar. It puts an adorable little K.K. Slider icon on your toolbar and when you click on it, it plays hourly music as well 🙂
Good tip too Brandi! Hourly music by KK on your toolbar!
Thanks so much for allowing me to write a guest post for your blog! It was a lot of fun and I am happy to share my Animal Crossing memories with everyone! 🙂
You’re very welcome Brandi!
What stands out here is how closely the game memory is tied to an ordinary real day—the trip to Target while your dog was having surgery—rather than only to an in-game milestone. Animal Crossing’s real-time clock is especially good at fastening those two calendars together. Newer farming games create a related feeling with compressed fictional seasons: in Fields of Mistria, a 28-day season, birthdays, festivals, changing forage, fish, and crops make a year feel like a set of places you have revisited rather than a level list. It is less demanding than checking a village in real time, but I still remember the first storm or festival more clearly than most upgrades. The hourly GameCube music may be the strongest version of that effect, though; hearing one track can bring back a specific room and time of day.