Animal Crossing: a Familiar Childhood

This blog took me a really long time to arrange because I kept forgetting and remembering the timeline of my relationship with Animal Crossing. This actually led me to dive into my childhood memories, but of course not really “childhood” more like… tweenhood? Pre-teenhood? I really don’t like those words. Actually, I don’t like anything that has to do with the ages 9-12.

It’s really unfortunate that I have to start this blog by telling you that I never played Animal Crossing as a little kid. Obviously it’s not a big deal to anyone but me, but I swear it’s important for the context of this blog.

The Animal Crossing franchise was a huge part of many people’s childhoods. I hear so many stories from adults about how they spent most of their childhood playing Wild World and City Folk. I wish I was a part of that, but I was born when Wild World was released so there’s not much I can do about it.

My first Animal Crossing game was actually Pocket Camp, which is a strange mobile version of Animal Crossing. It has most of the characters and some really cute decorations but it’s not really an Animal Crossing game. Of course, Pocket Camp was built around the whole idea of camping. You did all of the Animal Crossing stuff like fish, catch bugs, and I think that’s it… I spent my entire 11 to 12-year-old life on Pocket Camp. I don’t remember much about it, but I remember sitting in my (empty) church’s youth-group room playing Pocket Camp in the corner. I was in some sort of puppeteering club so I would get to Wednesday night service like 2 hours before it started and I would spend that entire time playing Pocket Camp. That also led me to discover my favorite villager, Goldie! She’s just a golden retriever who likes to read and eat apples and whatever else she does and I love her for it. 

The talk about Animal Crossing died down for years and I stopped playing Pocket Camp because it was taking up half of the storage on my little Motorola phone (I think).

 Then (many years later), Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released on the Nintendo Switch right as quarantine started in 2020. March 20, 2020. 4 days before my 12th birthday. Also, super crazy that I was 12 in 2020, like that is just so weird to me. Anyway, I couldn’t scrounge up enough money to buy a Nintendo Switch and New Horizons, but I was able to get Animal Crossing: New Leaf for my 3DS!

So I spent most of 2020 playing New Leaf, and it was a total blur. I know I really liked it, and I know I spent a lot of time on it, but I don’t remember anything else. Except my other favorite villager, Pashmina, who’s a goat with blue horns that likes to wear colorful sweaters and eat oranges. New Leaf is mostly known as the best Animal Crossing game. When you first start up a save, you wake up on a train and answer the questions of a cat named Rover to determine your appearance, name, and town name. It’s a great way of immersing players with something that would usually take them out of the game rather than pulling them in. When you arrive in your town, the villagers mistake you for their mayor and now you’ve got a bunch of mayor duties so get to work! It’s such a cute beginning and I had so much fun replaying it when I restarted my save for this new year.

It’s kind of hard to explain how I felt while playing New Leaf for the first time. It felt like I was reliving my childhood, or dwelling in déjà vu. I never played New Leaf before, yet it felt so familiar.

Anyway, Christmas of 2020 came around and I ended up getting a Nintendo Switch early! Of course, I got New Horizons along with it. It was just my luck that everyone on the internet started talking about how they thought New Horizons was boring and everyone (but me and my friends) stopped playing it.

There are so many memories that I have from playing New Horizons with my friends and it’s definitely a time that I look back on very fondly. I never got around to making my island cute or even making a 5-star island because the game did get boring. I hate to admit that, considering how much fun I had, but I am not hard to entertain. It’s not a hot take that New Horizons is boring. Lots of people think the same way.

So now I’m replaying New Leaf and it’s pretty nice. It’s a great feeling to hold a 3DS again after so many years. That little game console has found itself in my hands time after time and I think that’s really sweet. I should give my 3DS a name…

Anyway, I hoped everyone liked going back in time with me to my dreaded pre-teen years to look back on my relationship with Animal Crossing. I miss Pashmina and Goldie now.

Author: Steph Hartmann

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4 thoughts on “Animal Crossing: a Familiar Childhood”

  1. I love that your blog posts give us such an insight into your developmental moments, and the things that make you you! I’m so happy to call you my friend and to see all these unique facets of you.

  2. i relate HEAVY to the “i was obsessed with this game but i never actually played it” especially because i grew up with an old pc that barely worked and we didn’t really have spending money for gaming consols or anything like that. i still havent played animal crossing to this day but i want to so badly. im planning to save up soon for a nintendo switch bc i feel like i’ve missed out on so much

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