A good example of why Nintendo is so successful

I know it's been said time and time again -- if you own a GameCube, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Animal Crossing. I'll go ahead and add my voice to the chorus. My son and I both own GameCubes, and I'm surprised the two of us haven't worn out the disc yet. And, my wife gets in on the fun, too. This thing is nothing but addictive and stands as an example of the relentless innovation which has kept Nintendo in the video game industry for over two decades (and, yes, I'm counting back to standup arcade classics like Donkey Kong).

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of talking to George "The Fat Man" Sanger at the Oklahoma Gaming Exhibition in Tulsa, Okla. Sanger has been in the video game business for a long time, and is known for bringing fantastic musical scores to titles like Wing Commander. Sanger mentioned that the video game industry has advanced to the point where it's more of a business than an art. In other words, the emphasis is on the bottom line rather than groundbreaking titles, meaning companies tend to stick with "safe" games which are proven money-makers. Think of the Madden series of football titles from Electronic Arts, for example. Now, there's nothing wrong with the Madden line of games, of course, but how original is this year's installment in the franchise as opposed to last year's? How about the year before that?

So, into the arena Sanger described stepped Nintendo back in 2002 with Animal Crossing -- a quirky, child-friendly title which makes me glad I went and got a GameCube. Yep. This title is exclusive to the GameCube.

Describing this thing is a bit difficult because it sounds, well, boring no matter what's said about Animal Crossing. Essentially, the game starts with you -- the happy player -- leaving home to go live among the animals. The main goal in the game (if there is one) is to grow your town by getting along well with neighbors, doing enough business with Tom Nook (a friendly raccoon who runs a general store) so he can expand his business and attract residents, keeping the town neat and etc.

Sounds dull, huh? Well, it gets worse -- these graphics look like they were taken straight off of a Nintendo 64. Everything's fairly well detailed and the colorful environment looks good enough, but don't expect anything groundbreaking hear in terms of visuals.

What makes Animal Crossing so great is that the concept sounds mundane, but there is a lot to see and do during the course of the game. First of all, the game takes advantage of the GameCube's internal clock so that it moves in real time. That's right. You can miss things if you lay off the game for a couple of days, and the seasons change as they do in, well, the real world. I'll get more into the season changes later, but the real time clock keeps dragging the player back again and again. Why? Well, let's say you make money by harvesting fruit. The trees bear fruit every three days, and you want to harvest as soon as you can to make money. Also, neighbors tend to get irate if you wander off for a few days and don't visit with them from time to time.

The seasons, too, are important, as are the various months. For example, you get presents from the animals on your birthday, various events happen (fishing tournaments and the like) during certain months, Halloween is a big deal featuring animals in costumes and etc. There are a ton of special events built in to the game, and the player can often get one-of-a-kind items by participating in them.

And, speaking of items, they are important, too. Arranging furniture in a certain way, for example, will lead to compliments and good luck in finding items. Animals will trade items with you and will favor you with some great stuff if they like you. Perhaps the most fun to be had is in collecting NES games. That's right. You can "find" games like Wario's Woods or Excitebike and emulate them in Animal Crossing. How's that for cool? It's a true thrill to dig up something like that old eight-bit Tennis game while out treasure hunting.

Now, when the game starts, you wind up working for Nook to pay off some debt. How do you get in debt? You have no money and you buy a house from Nook, hence the debt. Once you pay off the house, you can opt to expand it, and eventually wind up with a two-story house and basement. There are lots of ways to make money, and most of them are fun. I already mentioned planting fruit trees, but there's money to be made in both fish and insects. I particularly enjoy the fishing part of it as it's peaceful and quite a challenge to catch every fish in the game (once that task is completed, you get a "golden fishing pole" which makes landing even the most troublesome fish a snap). There's a certain art to fishing, and different fish are out there at different parts of the year.

Once you get a fish, you can either sell it to Nook for cash or take it to the museum. The museum is another nifty place in the game as it's your job to fill it with insects, fish, rare paintings and fossils. You can dig up fossils every day, and take them to the museum in an attempt to help the curator build models of dinosaurs. In the case of fossils, fish, insects and paintings, the museum only needs one of each kind -- the rest can be sold to Nook for cash.

Nook's store has about all the items you'll need in terms of clothes, stationary, furniture, tools and the like, and it's a good idea to spend money with him. Why? The more business you do with Nook, the larger the store gets. A larger store means both some prestige for your town as well as more available items. The items change daily, by the way.

I mentioned clothes and stationary, so I'll hit those topics a bit. I'm not sure how many different outfits are available, but there sure are a lot and it's a bit of a kick to make sure your character looks snazzy everyday. If you feel particularly artistic, you can design your own clothing patterns in the game and have them on display. Often, you'll find your neighbors appreciate your work and will wear clothing displaying your patterns. Hot dog! Stationary is important because mail is the main means of communication in the game. When you dig up a fossil, you have to mail it off to be identified. You can send presents to your neighbors, and they'll often write back and send presents of your own (you can pick up some rare items that way).

Neighbors are particularly interesting because they have various personalities ranging from grumpy bastards to sunny, cheery types. Some love getting letters and write back often, while others just ignore your correspondence. Finding out how to deal with different personality types is all part of the fun.

Another great feature is that you can visit other towns by hopping on the train and having a friend's memory card on hand. I've had a great time heading to my son's town, for example, and leaving him a bag of loot or a rare item. He seems to enjoy that. Also, you can get someone's name and town name and "mail" them an item. When an item is mailed from Nook's store, you'll get a code and can pass that on to your friend so he can pick up the item at Nook's store in his town. There are places on the Internet where people send items to each other by exchanging the codes. Pretty neat.

I could write on and on about the great things about Animal Crossing, but I'll stop there. Yes, there are some drawbacks in the game. First of all, there's your house. Even when you build the largest house possible, you'll still run out of room fairly quickly. Clothes, furniture and everything else take up a lot of room, and there are so many different things available you'll not want to get rid of a whole lot. For some reason, I got on a kick changing wallpaper and carpet about daily in my house, but storing the stuff I wasn't using got to be a bother. Similarly, I lined my basement with bureaus so I could store clothes in them, but couldn't keep too much on hand because each bureau only held three outfits. That's a minor gripe, I know, but it just seems like items take up much more space than they should.

Also, the real time clock is a bother. For example, Nook's store closes at 10 p.m. I usually start a night's gaming around 9:30 p.m. after the kids are in bed, so I have to juggle my clock some in order to hit the store when it's open. Believe me, there's not a whole lot to do after Nook's store is closed as a lot time is spent collecting fruit, fish and such and selling them to Nook. The clock is a drag in another way, too. If you miss a few days, you'll find cranky neighbors and a town full of weeds. In my case, I played the game for about two months straight, left it for a week and came having to pull a lot of weeds. At that point, the fun kind of ran out -- checking in every day and going through a list of chores got to be a drag. Once the fun leaves this game, you really can't go back. Indeed, it's time to drop Animal Crossing when all the fishing and such starts to feel like work.

All in all, however, I'd suggest anyone with a GameCube should have a copy of this game. Nintendo is to be congratulated on this delightful, innovative title. I hope the soon-to-be-released next installment of Animal Crossing is even more fun. Well, maybe not. Once you pick this game up, it's hard to quit for the night. About the second day I had it, I started playing at 9 p.m. and noticed it was 4 a.m. the next time I looked at my clock and I had to be at work in four hours! Yikes!