Animal Crossing: New Leaf

If you are looking for a casual game for your kids or for yourself, then look no further as this game is the king in the genre.  Animal Crossing: New Leaf is for the Nintendo 3DS and is the fourth installment in the Animal Crossing series, it is by far the best one yet.  For those unaware of this series, Animal Crossing has no story or plot, no actual goals, and works in real time, meaning as thirty minutes go by in real life, thirty minutes pass in-game.  Each game starts off fairly simple, you name your character and name the town, but how you answer the questions can change your appearance.  The town is completely random, however, in New Leaf while the town is still randomized, you can select one out of four towns to use.  Another difference from past games is that you, the player, are now mayor!

But enough of how the game starts, this is a review, not a walkthrough.  The game is, in fact, endless or at least until the calender ends (December 31, 2050).  The main aspect of the game is to develop your town, as you are the mayor.  This game could be considered a collect-a-thon, a game that is based around collecting items to progress, however the items that you collect can mainly be used to decorate your house.  Each town has three major buildings and a Main Street.  The three buildings are a train station, a recycling center called Re-Tail, and a town hall.  From the Town Hall, you can set ordinances and manage public work projects, the main bit of the game.  At Re-Tail you can sell your items and anything you catch, or you can put them up for sale to which animals in your town can buy or friends visiting your town via the internet.  I am not entirely sure how good the internet capabilities are, but I am sure that they are fairly decent.  As this is a 3DS game, there is a 3D effect that is present, however it is not that good. Whenever a text bubble appears, it seems out of place as it seems like it is in the 'foreground' and that everything else seems to be in the 'background'.  In conclusion, there is quite a bit of game play but seeing that the game doesn't technically end, it doesn't really have enough content to have you keep coming back to it.  Sure, each animal has a different personality and you can customize your own furniture after a while, but it is just not enough to keep your attention.

For casual gamers, this is a must have.  For hardcore gamers, they should probably stay back.

This game gets my rating of a Yellow Star,

or a 3/5 if you are one of those people.