Gamers around the world are getting ready as Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons prepares to launch. The fifth entry in the Animal Crossing series is set to release on March 20. Camille Kleiman, a 20-year-old gamer and student at the University of Northern Colorado, is just as excited as everyone else about this game.
Kleiman was introduced to the game series at 14 with Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Kleiman first heard of the game through the videos of YouTuber Chuggaconroy. The game’s American version, released in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS, found its way into her hands at Christmas that year.
“From there, the addiction kind of just spiraled,” Kleiman said.
The game lets players act as the mayor of a small town populated by animals, and focuses on relaxed gardening, fishing, and fossil collecting. Players can add to a museum, support local businesses, and expand their own mayoral mansions. Kleiman’s town has been in operation since 2016.
That’s not to say the games are without emotional impact. Each animal resident, called a villager, can make connections with the player. Sometimes, if the player doesn’t interact with a certain villager enough, the villager can move away, never to be seen again. Sprinkle, a blue penguin, left Kleiman’s town without saying goodbye. Animals can come and go as they please, but the humans playing the game can still be affected by it.
New Leaf isn’t the only Animal Crossing game Kleiman has played. Before finding it, she played Animal Crossing: Wild World. Because not many improvements were made between the first game and Wild World, she had a hard time getting into it. Kleiman also has experience playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the mobile game released in 2017. She enjoyed it, but also had some criticisms of the game’s design.
“I wish it didn’t take up so much space or use so much energy,” she said.
Kleiman also called out the game’s use of microtransactions to progress in the game. In Pocket Camp, the activities players can do are limited, and rotate every three hours. By paying small one-time fees, or joining a subscription, some players are able to bypass those wait times.
One reason behind Kleiman’s criticisms of microtransactions is personal experience. At age 12, she spent almost $400 on her parents’ credit cards towards a similar game. She now avoids spending any money at all on these types of games, but the gulf between paying and non-paying players in the game is obvious.
Because Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a console game, it is less likely to have the issues that are endemic to the mobile game industry. In the seven years since Nintendo has released a game in the main series, the video game industry has changed and fan expectations have grown. Kleiman hopes that features from previous games are brought back, and that even more features are introduced.
“I just hope it lives up to the hype and that Sprinkle comes back,” she said.
Whether the game meets Kleiman’s expectations remains to be seen, but fans around the world are hopeful. In the lead-up to the release, gamers are counting down the days and celebrating each step closer to a new game in the Animal Crossing series.
Comments
Post a Comment