"I just don't know what to think, but it's fun."

Ok, rather than to talk about this game (I mean there just isn't much to talk about, touched up N64 style graphics, not much variety in sounds and music though everything is there, it doesn't even have a real purpose or end...), I'm just going to describe my first day of playing it.

**What follows can be considered spoilers by some (I do not see it that way), continue at own risk**

As I start up, this talking dog just tells me about friends and stuff. Actually he sounded more like a fortune cookie to me than anything else... But when he was done, my game began it seems.

I'm on this train, just riding happily, then this talking Cat named ''Rover'' starts to talk to me (I was kinda thinking ''WTH? Why's a Cat named ''Rover''? But then I realized I was referring to a Cat that talked...) He (Rover, I'm just labeling ''him'' as male) started asking me the time, my name, where I was going etc. I was kinda getting annoyed at him so I started giving him lip, I mean he was making rude implications about me! He brushes me off and decides to help me find a place to live (it seems some strange and mysterious force is making me live somewhere else so I'm pointlessly traveling in a train or something) and hooks me up with a friend of his ''Tom Nook'' who deals in house's and stuff (I know this because I was eaves dropping on his conversation on his imaginary phone). Many things came to mind while on that ride, the most prominent was ''What a strange series of coincidences that I would be going to this random town and meet a talking Cat that would just happen to know someone in that town that deals in houses and would help me out.''

Anyways the train stops and I get off the train. This is the first time I've actually seen what I ''looked'' like. I was a rather goofy looking ''horny'' (literally speaking) boy with brown eyes. My shirt was purple and pink striped but what was I going to do? I go off to look for That Tom Nook guy and get assaulted by this raccoon who ends up being Mr. Nook. He show's me to this group of 4 houses and tells me to pick one... They were all similar in that they had the same 3 pieces of furniture and had about as much space as being in a big square box about your size that looked like a house (he called it ''cozy'' boy he knows how to scam people...). Well it still too me awhile to pick a house, there was this one with wooden walls and this one that looked more like a prison, I didn't know which one to choose, so I flipped a coin, it told me to live in the prison, I though ''Screw that I'm living in the one with the nice walls!'' That being said I went out side and there stood Nook. You see, what the Cat DIDN'T tell me what that I was going to be charged for the house. Oh well I had 1000 bells (the currency of AC) so I coughed it up. Nook laughs... he seems to want 20,000 bells or so for this cruddy hobble of a box... ''I was like BS!!! Wait until I get an axe, I'ma gonna cut you up!'' (Well I didn't actually say that, but I wanted to...) Since I didn't have an axe it looked like I was going to have to work for him until he was out of things for me to do or until I pay him off.

I finally get some serious freedom to walk around my town so I decided to see what I could do. I started Barging into other's peoples houses, taking things from the lost n' found for no real reason other than being a complete Klepto. I found some strange glee in shaking trees for you see, in this world, money really does grow in them or something (but I was gonna have to shake one too many trees to be able to pay that crook Nook off anytime soon). I decided to go to Nook and start my job so I could pay him off one day.

My first day at work was painful to say the least, he made me wear a PINK APRON and he's trying to pass it off as a ''Work Uniform'' (Bloody Hell...) He made me do the stupidest things too, like plant flowers, trees, writing advertisements for him... Well I showed him! After I got paid for planting the flowers, I trampled them good! And that ''advertisement'' I wrote, well it was all mean and telling others to stay away from that criminal. I still got paid in full so I was happy, and he's a moron, so he's happy too.

Well he ran out of things for me to do, so I started to wander around town. I shook some more trees and found more fruit along with some money. Something strange happened when I shook one of the trees though; a CD-Player fell on me... Oh well I thought, I'm up a CD-Player! This gave me incentive to shake more trees, this action would prove most painful. One of the tree's had a bee's nest, I didn't know there were bee's inside until I got close for an inspection, boy did I run when I saw them, but they were just too fast. After those bee's had their way with me, I was pretty disturbing to look at, even all the townsfolk agreed (for some strange reason they're all animals too,...).

I started doing chores for the towns folk to make ends meet. I realized something weird, every ''Male'' figure had left their clothes or something in that nature in this flirtatious little rabbits house. I was getting suspicious, especially when she started flirting with me (expressions with hearts in them, calling me ''hunnybunny,'' etc.). I immediately went to the Nook shop and bought some paper to write her a letter. I wrote her quite a mean one, asking if she were the town bicycle or something in that nature. (I'm still waiting on a reply to that)

That’s how my days went for awhile, but this life began getting tired of it. So much so that I got my friends AC memory card and just hopped a train to his town. My first place to go was of course my friends house, but he wasn't home, I was greeted by his automated answer thingy. I go inside and I see that his house is BIGGER than mine, it even has a TOILET! So not fair! Then my mind was set, I had to have everything he had but more! I'd work hard and slave for it if I had to! I go around his town and did chores and made friends with all the locals, I'd want them all to remember me when I'd leave and bug my friend about it. (secretly I hoped that I could make one of them move to my town too, then we'll see how my friend is gonna get deliveries to him **grins ''have a nice house will you!''**). Well I also noticed that oranges grew on his trees, this was weird because apples grew on mine,... I decided to fill my pockets with them and take them home with me. After a fairly eventful day in my friend’s town, alas, I was going home. Before I left, I put up a message in his boards (which couldn't be erased) ''I like your town, it's nice. If you mess with my town in any way, I'm gonna come back trample all your gardens and chop down all your trees.''

This was just the beginning though, now I had a goal! That wasn't it either, I had other towns I wanted to see, I had family that was going to move in. I had to make them ALL jealous of my wealth and flair! There’s also the ability to use the GameBoy Advance to transfer data through the E-Trader giving you access to a secret island, getting you all sorts of goodies, and so much more! And yes, my story still continues to this day. Something seemingly meaningless to do, times to be places, and streams of events all year long, will I be playing this for a long time to come? You betcha’!

Controls: 7.5
Everything works the way it should, all buttons are used and so forth. But some of the item interface can be a pain.

Graphics: 6.5
Touched up N64 style. Not bad, not great.

Sound: 8.0
Very plain, kinda repetitive, but once more, everything is here.

Entertainment: 9.5
I'm sure that this game is not for everyone. But that doesn't make this any less fun for me. Lots of things to do, lots of things to see, lots of reasons to try to get everything done. Yes this is what I call fun.
Replay Value: 9.9
A game that never ends,... I'll come back to this many, many, many, a times.

Point Blank: 9.5
Last Words:
A game that is soso in every possible category, has no real point to it, and has no end. What do I think of it? It's GREAT! (But also an acquired taste.)

Note: It comes with an AC memory card that has data for a special gift. Not part of review but something to know if you want more info.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/02, Updated 09/22/02