For those of you who know what kind of video games I like, you know that I’ve always loved Animal Crossing. It’s one of the first series I name whenever I’m asked what my favorite games are. But for those of you not in the know, or not that into video games in general, this might be coming out of left field a little bit. Animal Crossing is a series of video games in which you play a human character living on a town/island with an array of humanoid animals. You can customize your living space, interact with the animal villagers, or go fishing, dig up fossils, and catch bugs to add to your museum. These are just some of the things you can do, but most activities fit within this laid-back and relaxing theme. What makes the series uniquely different from most others is how the game progresses in real-time, meaning that the season, the time of day, and certain key holidays all coincide with how they do in the real world. It’s a really unique characteristic that sets it apart from most games.

On the surface, it might not seem all that appealing and it might not seem like the kind of experience you’d be looking for from a video game. And honestly, for a lot of people, it actually isn’t. It’s an acquired taste and you certainly have to have an appreciation for this kind of game to get full enjoyment out of it. It’s definitely not for everyone, even though it seems like more and more people are jumping onto the bandwagon as the series goes on, especially after Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out right at the start of the pandemic. But Animal Crossing as a series has always held a special place in my heart, and the recent announcement of a buttload of free new content just has me thinking about it again.

I actually feel a strange amount of guilt for not staying devoted to New Horizons like I had planned. For a solid several months I had made a point to hop on at least once a day, but after I finally missed a day I haven’t picked up the game once since. And at that point, even over 100 hours in, I still had plenty of work to do on making my island what I wanted it to be and fully utilizing all the features. So if I still had plenty more to do back then, now I feel an even more overwhelming desire to get back into the game since there will be so much more to do come November 5th with the new update.

It’s hard to explain what exactly drew me into Animal Crossing and what has made it stand the test of time as one of my favorite series ever. On paper the concept seems so bizarre, but something about the laid-back nature and relaxing charm of the series has stuck with me. I give a lot of credit to Animal Crossing for pushing me towards my love of life simulation genre games in general, too. In the future, when I have more time, maybe I’ll go into more detail on my love for the series and what it means to me. But for now I just wanted to throw my love for it out there since it’s top of mind for me at the moment. I guess we’ll see come next month just how much time I put into the game again.

Videos I Posted This Week:

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Things I Enjoyed This Week:

Midnight Mass (Netflix series)
Metroid Dread (video game)
GG Melee (YouTube channel)
Pentatonix – The Lucky Ones Deluxe (album)
Little Mix – Confetti (album)