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Trouble in Paradise: An Animal Crossing homecoming
It's been over a year and a half since I last visited Paradise, the colorful Animal Crossing town I once called home. I named it Paradise with dreams dancing on my glazed eyes, envisioning the whistle-stop suburb as something I'd one day build and transform into a picturesque city; grass green, girls pretty.Despite my best intentions, Paradise never really was. Relationships, work, and other games took hold of my time, and a creeping anxiety thickened in me as remembered responsibilities built up with each day spent away. Those days turned to weeks, and eventually, that fog of worry precipitated, leaving a few minutes of light rain in its wake, taking with it my guilt and regrets. I was at a crossroads in my life recently, and my therapist suggested that I return to Paradise before I made any big decisions. I spent my first afternoon back pulling weeds and chasing bugs out of the house, before flipping through this week's Paradise Press, our local paper, to catch up on town happenings. I was astonished to find that Paradise had been racked by scandal, tragedy, and financial woes.As the Notorious B.I.G. once rapped in his chronicle of Brooklyn's decline, "Things done changed."
Animal Crossing cups for you and a neighbor
The Animal Crossing merchandising explosion continues. Soon you will be able to outfit your house only with things that bear Tom Nook's smug face.The latest cash-in is this series of Animal Crossing cups. They come in pairs featuring related characters, like the set with Mable and Sable above, and another set with Tom Nook and his roaming counterpart, Crazy Redd. Each cup holds about 10.5 ounces, and each set of 2 costs $8.75 from NCSX.We like the design of these cups. The colors are nice and happy, ensuring that your Sunny Delight (or purple stuff, you rogue) is somewhat sunnier and more delightful.
A Tom Nook plush toy at a Tom Nook price
NCSX is selling more adorable Animal Crossing toys, including a lil' plush K.K. Slider and Blathers the owl-- you can pretend to be annoyed about how long it takes to get your dang fossils appraised! But the real star of this update is the freaking huge Tom Nook seen here, gettin' his Potion on. He comes in at 15.74 inches tall, with an 11-inch-wide head. That's big enough to intimidate us about our house payments!Unfortunately, to get an armful of Nook, you need an armful of cash-- $49, plus shipping. Better get started selling cherries you find on the ground!
More academic discussion of Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing is more interesting than we thought, it seems! Whereas we (read: I) found the improvements in Wild World a poor trade for NES games, and not enough to hold our interest after a year or so of Gamecube Crossing, academics are speaking out in appreciation of Nintendo's pointless-by-design communication game.The latest essay on Henry Jenkins' blog, is an excerpt from a thesis by Kristina Drzaic, about "secrets" in Animal Crossing. The idea is that other games feature glitches that allow the player to redesign the game in small ways and alter the basic experience, whereas Animal Crossing features such "glitch-like" abilities as part of the natural design of the game, and allows even more customization than the engine was designed for. One example showed a player creating a narrative conflict between herself and Tom Nook just by trying and failing to buy some candy. We were just wondering aloud why customizable content was so compelling! Good thing there are people smarter than us out there.[Via GameSetWatch]
Animal Crossing: The Movie
There are few things more uplifting in the world of online games than Nintendo's Animal Crossing. We can't help smiling whenever we hear that theme tune. In Japan, where the DS version of AC has patterned the floors of three million households, Tom Nook and pals are leaving town and are headed for the big screens of Japan's movie theaters. Doubutsu no Mori: The Movie will be showing in cinemas across the nation as of December 16th. Tickets are already on sale at our local convenience store. We should go to see the movie on Day One, really, but we have a fishing contest to attend. Shame. Seems the nation's future generations of forest-dwelling fishermen and fisherwomen are all mad for it, though: Doubutso no Mori: The Movie Japanese TV commercial 1 Doubutso no Mori: The Movie Japanese TV commercial 2Doubutso no Mori: The Movie Japanese TV commercial 3
