PixlBit

Yes, Cary, I finally bought AC: New Leaf, and I'm blaming my current obsession on you.

I had a day coming up where I was going to be stuck in the booth all day, and I needed something to keep me occupied and that it didn't matter if I was being constantly interrupted. Reading is usually out for me, as there's too much distraction and I end up reading the same paragraph over and over again, and the same goes for RPGs. I'd finished off LEGO City Undercover and needed a new game. I had it pared down to Fantasy Life and AC: New Leaf and wasn't able to find Fantasy Life at any of the stores I visited, and I haven't got the patience or desire (or gas money) to drive all around the State of Maine looking for one particular game, so I ended up with AC (because it's everywhere). I could have gotten it for five bucks less at Best Buy, but I chose to go back to the small independent game store down the road and give them my money instead. I also discovered something annoying and upsetting about Nintendo, but I'll save that for another paragraph later in this blog entry.

Aaaand once again, I am obsessing over Animal Crossing. I played it for almost an entire eight hour shift yesterday when I wasn't dealing with customers or answering the phones. I also spent a goodly chunk with it Wednesday evening after I bought it. I think Jason may have felt a little neglected. I was really tired when I turned it off, and I forgot to save before I shut off the 3DS, and had to deal with Mr. Resetti and then Isabelle chastising me about shutting down without saving. I think that's a feature that needs to be gotten rid of. It's very 1984 Big Brotherish.

I like my little town. All of my AC towns have been named after my pets. The current village is Banditon, population about six, not including the characters that are always around, but don't seem to have homes (Isabelle, Pelly, Pete, Blathers, the entire Nook clan, and the other shop owners). Maybe they take the train and commute from some unnamed and unknown worker town. Or maybe they just sleep in a broom closet or basement of their shop. Who knows? Certainly not me. In my two days as mayor of Banditon, I've received an 80% approval rating (mostly due to all the bugs and fossils I've donated to the museum, I think), payed off my down payment to Tom Nook and half of my loan, and been busy catching cicadas and other bugs, watering flowers, digging up fossils, and chatting with my fellow residents. I've also been writing them meaningless little one sentence letters to keep them happy.

The thing I've always had the most fun with in the Animal Crossing games is filling the museum. Right now, my biggest frustration is not having a fishing pole. I suck at catching bugs, especially the ones on tree trunks. I'm much better at fishing.

One thing that I really like in this version (or maybe I just never noticed it before?) is that you can tell when you've successfully watered the flowers: water drips off the stems and then they sparkle afterwards. Too bad there isn't some way to tell whether you've shaken a tree or not.

Well, Pixlbit Nation, I'm off to check on Banditon before I have to go to work. Hopefully there will be a fishing pole for me in the shop today and I can get my approval rating to 100% so I can get my Town Development Permit and see what further hoops I need to jump through.

 

EDIT: I forgot I was going to gripe about Nintendo! One of my nephews had a birthday a few days ago and got a new 3DS and I told him I'd send him an e-shop card for his birthday. I went to buy one at Bull Moose and they didn't have them, even though they had Playstation and Xbox. OK, not a problem, I was going to Game Box Video Games anyway. They didn't have Fantasy Life, so I went to the Best Buy down the road, which had the cards, but not Fantasy Life, so back to Game Box after I decided I was getting AC instead. No eshop cards at Game Box, either. The owner told me that Nintendo won't sell the eshop cards to them because they're a small independant. I find it disturbing that Nintendo does that - they'll put the cards in grocery stores, but not a game store because it's small? People are still going to buy the cards in game store, so why does it matter how much business the store does over all? WTF Nintendo, get your head out of your ass.