This week’s Nintendo Direct was something of a whopper, opening with a bang in Luigi’s Mansion 3 and ending the exact same way when it was revealed Animal Crossing is in development for Switch. I like Animal Crossing, I’ve purchased every game in the series, but my fandom for the franchise has waned over the past few years. I very much stanned the GameCube original to anybody who’d listen to me back in the day, but now, when a new entry comes out, I can easily telegraph how it’ll go: I’ll play solidly for two weeks, then slowly taper off as other games call my attention. It’s a bit sad Pocket Camp is the only title to keep my attention for months on end since the first game.
But oh what a first game that was. Animal Crossing on the GameCube educated me to the truth that engrossing and entertaining games didn’t always have to be full of action and excitement. Animal Crossing taught me to find the joy in the minutia of life, the aspects I’d otherwise overlook in my journey to reach the end of a level or quest. It also gave me my first experience of something so common to the generations before me: homeownership.
The first house I bought was a delightful orange-roofed cottage in the center of my Animal Crossing town. I arrived in that burg with nothing but the clothes on my back and 1,000 bells in my pocket. No job, no savings, no inheritance check in the mail from a rich uncle who just had an unfortunate accident with an elaborate death trap somebody built for them. I was riding that train into town as a vagabond, a man with no prospects until Rover made a call for me. It’s a call that would change my life, to a man who’s, quite frankly, had their name dragged through the mud online over the years and especially in the past few days following the Direct. It’s a call to Tom Nook, who is actually good.
Source: Destructoid Tom Nook is a saint because he’s the only person who’ll ever give me a home loan