Animal Crossing: New Leaf

UPC: 045496742393

Platform: Nintendo 3DS

Publisher: Nintendo of America, Inc.

Developer: Nintendo EAD

Category: Simulation

Style(s): Life Development Sim

Synopsis: Nintendo's popular life development sim comes to 3DS for the first time in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. As always, players are free to explore their quaint village, interact with anthropomorphic animals, and customize their home and physical appearance, but New Leaf also introduces a mechanic that lets gamers become the town mayor, create laws, and build public works projects. Players can collect money from fellow citizens in order to build things like bridges, fountains, and police stations, and they can make laws requiring citizens to be active at certain times of day.


As they explore their town, gamers can visit familiar characters like Tom Nook, K.K. Slider, and Blanca, or they can meet new characters like the gardening sloth Leif, the alpacas Reese and Cyrus who own a re-sale store, and the dog personal assistant Isabelle. As with all games in the series, time passes in New Leaf just like it does in real life: seasons change, villagers wear weather-appropriate outfits, and the town celebrates a variety of holidays. Players can relax with fishing and swims in the ocean, or they can use Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection to visit a friend's village, or head to Tortimer Island for multiplayer mini-games. ~ Christopher Brown, All Game Guide

Package Contents: Club Nintendo Code

Controls: Joystick/Gamepad

Animal Crossing: New Leaf, much like its persistent-world predecessors, is the video game equivalent of Cancun, Myrtle Beach, or the Hamptons; a place to unwind, kick back, and soak in the sun, where what you do is entirely on your own terms. It's also a respite from other video games, trading death, damage, and destruction for bells, bee stings, and butterflies. It is a leisurely stroll instead of a sprint, a game defined by a whole lot of littles.

What New Leaf isn't, despite the title, is a strong departure from the series. If the gameplay from the 2002 original didn't grab you, the gameplay from 2013's version won't either. Sure there are refinements, some welcome changes, and a few new wrinkles here and there, but the basics of what you are doing are pretty much exactly the same. Your character, who resembles the illicit offspring of a scarecrow and Kewpie doll, travels via train to start a new life in a town populated by anthropomorphic animals. And your character immediately finds himself (or herself) in debt to Tom Nook, the proprietor of past games.

You will literally dig yourself out of mortgage as well as fish, chop, swing, and pluck. You will shake trees for their contents, pick flowers, swipe at bugs with a butterfly net, and sell nearly everything you gather at a shop, which will buy anything and everything you find. The hook of the game is how it uses the handheld's internal clock and calendar to change things up, using time, day, season, and month to offer new things to see or do. You're meant to check in on your cozy little town frequently to see what might be on sale at local shops, enter a contest or two, catch different types of bugs or fish, or strike up conversations with some of the townsfolk you might have missed the first go-around or two or ten.

As with the earlier games, you'll be able to buy a wild assortment of wallpaper, furniture, and other knickknacks to personalize your dwelling and show it off to neighbors. New Leaf's most obvious change is that you are a more integral part of your town, at least to an extent. The community believes you are its new mayor, so you will be able to perform civic duties in addition to your other activities. Decisions such as installing a public works project or issuing edicts, such as forcing other townsfolk to clean up the town, are among the amusing options you'll have as you progress.

The problem with New Leaf is not what it is, but what it isn't. There is so much potential for the series to truly grow, blossom, and thrive, but the developers seem wholly content on rearranging, nipping, and tucking instead of actually expanding the concept. Too many of New Leaf's "new" options are limited in depth and scope. The world still feels confining, and some will yearn for more control over the layout and customization of their town. New Leaf is still an addictive and charming game, but its biggest weakness is that it doesn't fall far enough from the tree. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

the game requires Joystick/Gamepad.