As a die hard Animal Crossing fan, I’d been worried about this game, thinking that a mobile version of it was going to be terrible sellout, but so far it seems really good. I also like that once attached to my Nintendo account, I can pick it up and play it on both my iPad and my Android phone without having two separate games going on.
Anyway, my code is 1382 5636 635 (Hansey) if anyone wants to throw me a request.
What do you all think of this review?
I just finished reading the review, and I’ve played enough AC:PC to have formed some of my own impressions. Unlike the writer of that article, I have no prior history with the franchise, so I’m not at all upset about the pacing changes introduced by the possibility of IAP. Personally, I play these games in a very relaxed way, so I’m never in a hurry and that means that I rarely spend money to speed anything up. Instead, I spend money out of a sense of gratitude towards a developer who makes a compelling game that I want to spend time playing. From what I’ve seen so far, that’s exactly what I’m experiencing with this game. It’s cute, it’s relaxing, and it scratches my collector itch, which I honed on Viva Piñata way back when.
Not too far off the mark. But all the waiting for fruit/fish/bugs to respawn and the use of leaf tickets to speed it up is just a product of the f2p model. The AC games always had you wait around for certain things to happen. This just expedites that process.
Watching F2P infect every single IP on the planet is extremely depressing. The silly thing is, AC has always been about waiting, and it was set up really well, about the time you got done doing all the stuff you could do, you were just fine with waiting a day to come back to it. That entire loop…sort of still exists, but the constant harang of leaf tickets hovers over your head like a revenant at a kids birthday party. I think Nintendo has done as good a job as anyone at incorporating FtP, but at the end of the day it’s still a horrible, predatory, addiction building crock of bullshit. I find this especially disturbing in games that are likely to have a high volume of children playing them.
I would have happily paid Nintendo whatever they wanted for a full on AC on my iPad, as it stands, they will never get a penny out of me. I can’t be the only person that feels that way.
My “They still use these? Oh Nintendo…” friend code is 3670 8225 536. Need friends! My name is Editer
I think Nintendo is actually fine with that. The “full on AC” for a portable device that’s coming up next is almost certainly going to be Animal Crossing on the Switch. They’d rather sell a Switch and a full copy of AC than an iTunes Store discounted version of AC to an iPad owner.
None of the games I play have IAPs. They may not be the best games on Android, but they also don’t send me into a rage.
Shrug, I’m not the loser, I’m playing their game for free until it bores me or becomes pay to play, then uninstalling it. How is that a win for them? I also don’t own a switch, and have no plans to buy one. The reality is, by not at least offering a version that isn’t free to play, they are leaving money on the table, at least mine.
Stuff just costs too many leaf tickets. A reskin of your camper is 150 leaf tickets = 7 dollars.
That is a bit much for a single item.
So the novelty of this is wearing off already. I’m picking it up and playing it long enough to do animal requests and goals, but then often not picking it up again until the next day. As a result, I’m having a terrible time trying to get into Shovelstrike Quarry. I load it up, ask every single person on my friends list for help, but then by the time I pick it up again, the quarry has “reset”. It seems like each request is only good for a three hour window, is that right? It resets every three hours?
In any case, maybe I need more friends. A lot of the people on my list haven’t logged in for days. I guess the novelty is wearing off for a lot of people.
I uninstalled after about an hour of play. To be fair, that’s about as far as I’ve gotten in a real AC game too.
I’m with you. After trying out fishing and other activities, it seems like this is a slow progress “time waster” game. Some people (especially kids) have a lot of time on their hands to spend. My gaming time is limited, so the moment to moment game should be interesting and full of hard decisions.
Nice of them to at least make it free so I could try it out and discover it’s not for me.
It is, and it also isn’t. Making progress does require time, but there’s no rush to do so, so it doesn’t require a “lot” of time all at once. The game doesn’t really encourage you to hang around once you’ve fulfilled the fetch missions for the four areas that have animals (plus your campsite). What I do is log into AC in the morning to get the login bonuses, do all the fetch missions, start any long build time items, and then I’m done until evening when I do it all over again. On occasion, if I’m bored at lunchtime I’ll log back in to do the animal quests again since they reset every 3 hours. If I do feel like lingering for a longer play session, I focus on the timed or stretch goals for a bit, and use up some of my rare time-booster items. I also use up the My Nintendo Rewards (More > My Nintendo > Missions / Rewards) to get materials I seem perennially short on (e.g., cotton).
I’m basically ignoring Shovelstrike, since I have the same issue as @Hansey. I’ve been there twice and all it’s gotten me are Bells.
Today they also introduced Christmas holiday themed stuff. It’s all very cute. And that’s ultimately what this game is about. Cute animals, cute stuff, hanging out.
Until this morning I haven’t even attempted to get to Shovelstrike again after getting there for the first time a week ago and being completely underwhelmed.
I guess I may be missing some association with an awesome game that makes this one appealing to experienced AC players. Because as a newcomer to the franchise, this is… tedious and boring. I really don’t get the appeal. It’s a super-dumbed-down combination of The Sims and every boring fetch quest from an RPG ever. But with microtransactions!
I gave it a few hours and leveled up a few times, but still, it just feels like work with little reward, not fun.
Maybe if I’d played the original Animal Crossing I’d have liked it more? Like how Prometheus has some good parts if you’ve seen Alien?
You’re not missing anything. I like the earlier AC games but the gameplay loop in this is uninteresting and tedious. :(
Yep. I tweeted this the other day:
“I gritted my teeth and lasted 15 minutes with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. There’s no soul there, it’s all leveling and crafting and fetching stuff for needy materialistic divas. Later on I had 15 minutes with Wild World and, god, I’ve missed its breeziness and heart.”
That Ars Technica review @LMN8R linked to upthread is absolutely spot on. (It’s also really hard for me to type Ars without adding an ‘e’ on the end).
Pocket Camp is absolutely horrible as far as I’m concerned, based on what I’ve played and what I’ve witnessed through my girlfriend playing it and online. Animal Crossing: Pavlov’s Dog Camp. Its resemblance to Animal Crossing is literally skin deep.
As @Profanicus pointed out, you could say Animal Crossing is all about time-gated nonsense but the big difference between Pocket Camp and the real thing is that one’s frantic, needy and insecure, constantly showering you with rewards and lists of crap to fetch in case you lose interest. The other doesn’t care (because I suppose Nintendo’s had your money by that point) and is more than comfortable with you doing whatever you want, in your own time, expectation free. That’s the easy going spirit of Animal Crossing that Pocket Camp just doesn’t have.
When I loaded up Wild World (night time is just the best) I spoke to three or four villagers. They didn’t ask for a thing. Oh and Resetti gave me a roasting for apparently turning my DS off without saving. What a hilarious welcome back! The second screen could just have been used for the village map or your inventory or some other UI element but, oh no, Animal Crossing just wanted the sky there, with constellations and clouds and the sun and moon. I love that.
I will say this though: well played Nintendo. My girlfriend and I are considering getting a 2DS to play New Leaf. Perhaps two.
Those of us who have been playing the assorted versions of Animal Crossing for years have been waiting for a long time for an announcement for a new game in the series. New Leaf on the 3DS was the last “real” AC game and it came out in 2013. Everything since then has been simply using AC characters in other titles, making bad Mario Party ripoffs, or an attempt at a decent game that doesn’t quite capture the charm of Animal Crossing (Happy Home Designer).
When the mobile game was announced, many people, including myself, were simultaneously excited and nervous, because the last thing we want is for AC to be relegated to mobile game status. But this, at least for the short term, scratches an itch.
And when I say “short term”, I mean very short term, since it’s already losing it’s charm.
Nintendo would be stupid to not make a proper Animal Crossing game for the Switch; it’s one of their most beloved franchises. And yet, for unfathomable reasons, they haven’t even hinted at an announcement of any kind.
