INTRODUCTION
Welcome to a wonderful land of intrigue and delight, where you live a whole new life outside your own. There is no blur between the moving tides and changing of seasons in the real world and this new land you explore. You speak, and the people here listen, and speak back to you. Make friends and they'll start to miss you over time. But feel free to leave for a while; our land will be waiting for you, thinking of how to entertain you even while you're gone.
The game is Animal Crossing, and within is this incredible world of quirkiness and discovery. You play as a young man or woman, trying to make your way in a new town full of talking animals. One animal, Tom Nook the tanooki, befriends you from the start and helps ween you into the world of Animal Crossing, first and foremost providing you with a home to live in. Over time, you must pay off your debts to him, but this can be acheived in any number of ways, and only serves as the bare minimum of a premise for this adventure.
Dubbed for years as the premiere in "communication gaming", Animal Crossing has you talking with more characters than in any other game. In fact, the text on the disc ammounts to what developers have described as five times that of even the longest RPGs. With the function of a virtual keyboard, customized to the comfort of a GCN controller, you're able to write letters that say anything you want with relative ease. Make friends, become bitter with people, or just converse - it's all up to you. Three of your friends in the real world can even move into your town, leave notes for eachother, shop at one another's stores, and even burglarize eachother's homes (but please, be nice). The theme of communication is abound, intelligent, and nearly limitless in this game.
As well as communication, many radical new ideas are being put to test in Animal Crossing. The unique link between the GCN and the Game Boy Advance will be used to open up brand new gameplay features. One of which is the ability to customize by hand your very own textures to be used on your character's clothing, umbrella, and other accessories. The link will also unlock a special tropical island that the sea-fairing kappa, known as Kapp'n, will row you toward. During special events in the year, you may win a virtual NES for your play in Animal Crossing. Classics such as Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, and Donkey Kong III may eventually fall into your hands, and can then be transfered to your GBA for free-roaming play. The Card-E reader, which is already a very popular device in Japan, will make its American debut in Animal Crossing, where you'll be able to swipe special character cards (sold seperately) to gain new textures, wallpapers, and songs to play in the game.
It's highly likely that more and more exciting things will be discovered by gamers once Animal Crossing is released this September, and we at NGEB are quite excited.
