{"id":20056,"date":"2020-04-24T00:01:02","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T00:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=20056"},"modified":"2020-04-07T23:47:12","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T23:47:12","slug":"i-need-an-island-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/24\/i-need-an-island-vacation\/","title":{"rendered":"I Need an Island Vacation!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I think we can all agree that 2020 is one of the worst years in recent history.\u00a0 It certain has been for me, and probably for most others, what with everything going on!\u00a0 I feel like I need a vacation on a desert island.\u00a0 And luckily, I kind of got that with Animal Crossing: New Horizons.\u00a0 I am so thankful that it came out when it did.\u00a0 It gave me a sense of normalcy and saneness during these times.\u00a0 You see, the Animal Crossing game series is very special to me because it\u2019s a game I\u2019ve loved playing with my friends and family over the years.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not the first time an Animal Crossing game helped me cope with a rough patch in my life.\u00a0 So in this blog, I thought I\u2019d go over the other times an Animal Crossing game helped me get through tough times, and I\u2019ll briefly talk about the other games in the series as well.<\/p>\n

Animal Crossing (GameCube)<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with Animal Crossing, it\u2019s a game where you play as a human and move to a remote village full of talking animals.\u00a0 You spend your days there doing favors for your neighbors, decorating your house, paying off your debt by fishing, picking fruit, and collecting bugs, as well as dig for fossils and other things.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very relaxing and fun game.\u00a0 The game uses a real time clock so seasons and holidays change with you.\u00a0 The first game on GameCube is one of my top five favorite games, too!\u00a0 Sure other games in the series were vastly improved, but the first game laid the groundwork and basic ideas that are still used.\u00a0 And the other reason why the first one is my favorite is that you could get NES games to play!\u00a0 Yeah this was before DLC and Virtual Console, so you could get all these NES games to play in your house!\u00a0 It was like having a classic Nintendo game collection!\u00a0 Now that Nintendo knows people will download and pay for those games separately, they won\u2019t be doing that again!\u00a0 But it was cool in that first game!<\/p>\n

So a little before the first game came out, I had just gotten out of college and was trying to find a job, which I was having a rough time with.\u00a0 To make matters worse, I had some minor quibbles with some of my family members.\u00a0 Nothing really TOO bad, but it was bad enough for me since I usually always get along with everyone in my family.\u00a0 So Animal Crossing on the GameCube came out right before my birthday, and it was a pretty rough birthday with everything that was going on at the time.\u00a0 But when I started up Animal Crossing on the day of my birthday, Prince the Frog was waiting by my front door in the rain to give me my birthday present!\u00a0 And it was the NES version of Donkey Kong!\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of sad, but that was one of the best birthday presents I got that particular year!\u00a0 So that\u2019s another reason why the first game is one of my top five favorite games of all time.<\/p>\n

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aside from some minor improvements, there really wasn\u2019t much difference from this and the GameCube game.\u00a0 But the big deal was that you could play this game online to visit others\u2019 towns! \u00a0You see, in the first game, you had to bring your memory card to a friend\u2019s house and put it on the second memory card slot of the GameCube to visit their town.\u00a0 But on the DS, you could just do it online!\u00a0 I think aside from Mario Kart DS, this was one of the first online games I ever played!\u00a0 I had a lot of good memories playing this game online with friends from 1up.com and such!<\/p>\n

Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of all the main games in the series, I think City Folk is my least favorite.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t much different from Wild World, and the \u2018city\u2019 you could visit was just a strip mall with some shops and such.\u00a0 But worst of all, about nine months into the game, my save file got corrupted.\u00a0 I never had that problem with any other Wii game or other Animal Crossing game in general.\u00a0 So while I played most other AC games for a full year, this one I stopped after that happened.<\/p>\n

Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of all the main games in the series, I think this one had the most significant improvements.\u00a0 Being the mayor of the town really opened up some cool customization features, and I like how they handled the shops and StreetPass functions.\u00a0 My mom really likes the Animal Crossing games, too, so when the game came out, I got her it and a pink 3DS for Mother\u2019s Day that year.<\/p>\n

New Leaf was another game that helped me cope with a rough spot in my life.\u00a0 A few months after the game came out, my grandmother on my dad\u2019s side passed away.\u00a0 After the funeral, the family gathered at her house to eat dinner and visit.\u00a0 My cousin and her kids all brought their 3DSes and New Leaf games with them, as did I, so we played together and visited each other\u2019s towns all that night.\u00a0 As I was playing with them, it made me happy because it reminded me of when my cousins and I would play together when we were little and I\u2019d visit them in Alabama on holidays and summer and stuff.\u00a0 But it was also bittersweet because I also thought this might be one of the last times we\u2019d be doing this together.\u00a0 But I\u2019m sure our grandmother was watching us up in Heaven and happy we were together.<\/p>\n

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (3DS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

So sometime after New Leaf, the makers of those games decided they could use the touch screen to make moving furniture around much easier.\u00a0 So they made a whole game out of that!\u00a0 So yeah, all you do is decorate houses for animal clients, as if you\u2019re some kind of interior decorator or something.\u00a0 It\u2019s not much of a game, more of an activity, but it still entertained me for a few months, and it was nice to play an Animal Crossing game where you didn\u2019t have to worry about the time of day or year or whatever.\u00a0 Later they added those furniture moving improvements to New Leaf with a \u201cWelcome amiibo\u201d update that also added a campsite with camper vans and such.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t enough to get me back into New Leaf after I had stopped playing it for a year.<\/p>\n

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (Wii U)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is just a board game where you use amiibo figures as virtual playing pieces, but all they do is just roll the dice when you scan them.\u00a0 Many people will say this is the worst Animal Crossing game, and I can certainly see why they\u2019d say that.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t think the game was THAT bad.\u00a0 For such a simple game, they certainly paid attention to a lot of details in it.\u00a0 And one of my friends said it was a nice game to play in the background while you are hanging out and talking with each other, and I\u2019d have to agree with that.\u00a0 But yeah, it\u2019s certainly the one game in the series I\u2019ve played the least of.<\/p>\n

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Mobile)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah there\u2019s a mobile game, too!\u00a0 You\u2019re a manger of a campsite, not a town, and everything is kind of just a bite sized version of the main game.\u00a0 But with constant updates and something new happening all the time, this one has kept me interested for two and a half years, longer than any other mobile game (and most games in general).\u00a0 It\u2019s just a nice relaxing game to play when I first wake up or about to go to sleep.\u00a0 And my mom still plays it, too!\u00a0 Sure it has bunches of in-game purchases, but I never felt like I needed to buy anything to get full enjoyment of the game.\u00a0 If you are still playing this game, here is my friend code and my mom\u2019s as well.<\/p>\n

Cary<\/p>\n

9466 4856 161<\/p>\n

Mom\u2019s ID:<\/p>\n

7059 3031 355<\/p>\n

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am a little disappointed with myself on how I\u2019m dealing with this Corona virus stuff.\u00a0 I wish I could\u2019ve dealt with it better, but I\u2019ve gotten scared and worried myself so much that I made myself sick from it a while back!\u00a0 I\u2019m better now, but I wish I could be more brave and positive during all this.\u00a0 Luckily, the new Animal Crossing game was there to help, and I\u2019m glad I got it.\u00a0 Of course I\u2019m also glad I\u2019m still working and my family is still healthy, but I\u2019m still scared.\u00a0 The new game has helped me stay sane and continue to play and keep up with my friends and family.\u00a0 It couldn\u2019t have come out at a better time, and will probably end up being my Game of the Year this year.<\/p>\n

In this game, you move to a desert island and start your town from scratch, crafting furniture from materials you find, and eventually you\u2019ll end up with lots of neighbors, shops, a museum, town hall, and more!\u00a0 I\u2019m enjoying the game a lot, but I\u2019m not sure if the changes they\u2019ve made are improvements, or just changes for the sake of making change.\u00a0 For instance, having to craft most everything at first kind of makes the game drag a bit.\u00a0 Also, your tools like fishing rod, shovel, and such, can all break and you must craft another.\u00a0 Nobody liked breakable weapons in Breath of the Wild, so why did they put them in here?\u00a0 I can understand why they made weapons break in Zelda, to keep you on your toes, but here it feels like an annoyance.\u00a0 But even with those problems, I\u2019m still playing the HECK out of this game.\u00a0 If you have a Switch and want to visit my town, I\u2019m putting my friend code in this blog as well as my mom\u2019s, who is also playing this game on her Switch that she won in a contest a while back.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to see what great memories I can make with this game!<\/p>\n

Cary W.<\/p>\n

1395-7159-9988<\/p>\n

She-Ra<\/p>\n

0699-4185-2793<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all for now!\u00a0 In the comments section, tell me your favorite Animal Crossing games and any other games that have helped you cope during tough times.\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think we can all agree that 2020 is one of the worst years in recent history.\u00a0 It certain has been for me, and probably for most others, what with everything going on!\u00a0 I feel like I need a vacation on a desert island.\u00a0 And luckily, I kind of got that with Animal Crossing: New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20056"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20064,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20056\/revisions\/20064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}