Animal Crossing is a beloved Nintendo franchise that fans of the series have been hankering for since the launch of Amiibo Festival and Happy Home Designer weren’t necessarily the successors to New Leaf that they had hoped for. It was no secret we were getting Animal Crossing in some capacity for mobile phones since it was part of Nintendo’s initial strategy for tackling the platform, but I feel like most would argue the expectation was that the game would be something more akin to Happy Home Designer and not a mainline entry.
This week Nintendo officially revealed Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp due to arrive late next month. The reveal came in the form of a special Nintendo Direct that aired on October 24th. Pocket Camp possesses the same aesthetic of the main series entries, with many of the core gameplay aspects fans of the series come to expect– just in a more palatable version for the device it’ll be native to.
The game focuses around your villager and managing a campsite, incorporates social aspects to engage with other users, as well as micro-transactions. I’m not going to lie, when the majority of what they showed pertaining to micro-transactions all led back to Tom Nook I was struck with a fit of laughter– though deep down I knew the pain of being in debt to this lovable series regular. Micro-transactions carry heaps of baggage in any game they are associated with– but so far Nintendo hasn’t delved too deep into my wallet with their previous endeavors in unwarranted or, what I deemed unreasonable, implementations. I would expect progression and game completion to be attainable without pouring out your pennies into Tom Nook’s piggy bank.
From what we’ve seen so far, and being an Animal Crossing faithful, there are some improvements made to the game that will be welcomed with open arms when the eventual Switch installment in the series is announced. The ability to level up your friendship with your fellow neighbors and using fishing nets are just some of the little changes and additions that are lending to my anticipation. Look for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp to launch on iOS and Android late November.
You can watch the full Nintendo Direct below.
Pass The Controller 