Animal Crossing: Zen Fun and Gardens!

It was the year 2001, I was making the most of my Nintendo GameCube with all the joy of someone dealing with a marvelous machine, and the moment I inserted the Animal Crossing disc into the console, I knew it would be an unforgettable journey. My expectations were not disappointed.

Released also for Nintendo 64 and immediately becoming a cornerstone of the Kyoto-based company like Super Mario and Zelda, just to cite two eternal franchises, Animal Crossing won over legions of fans embracing both boys and girls with its colors, the cartoonish graphics and the extraordinary feeling of simulated life within a world not so distant, just one step and a breath away from our own.

It is part of that niche category called “life simulator,” a type of game whose gameplay is based on taking care of one or more characters and their needs, placing them in a context that represents the natural environment in which to be born, grow up, and even die, passing through the stages of existence with everything they entail. Hobbies, passions, work, in this case mostly in the fields, and a thousand adventures weaving friendships, acquaintances, and forming bonds with other people.

Exactly like in real life.

Il più famous of the ancestors of this category, and perhaps also the progenitor, is the Tamagotchi, a legendary electronic egg that was a true and proper icon for all kids, even outside Japan, especially in the Nineties, and it allowed gamers who in those years were battling infernal legions of demons in Doom and saving princesses and islands in Monkey Island to take a break, so they could feed their creature and, if necessary, clean up its poop on the edges of the screen. I'm not joking, try it and you'll see.

Animal Crossing to date has five official games, along with several spin-offs that expand its universe and implement some gameplay features absent from the main chapters: our protagonist, after traveling by train and meeting the first of the anthropomorphic characters who will be part of his new life, will have to build and customize his home by earning bells, the currency of Animal Crossing, do favors for the other residents, and arm himself with a shovel and hat to take care of plants and vegetables.

Agriculture has never been so fun and peaceful, and indeed the zen concept at the heart of it is one of the cornerstones of the saga: even in the latest chapter released for Switch, New Horizons, the result of the successful art direction by the great Koji Takahashi, the ability to turn on the console, enter the game and “return” to the parallel world in which our avatar lives and breathes, is a delightful and relaxing pleasure, a panacea for the soul that will allow us to ease the stress of everyday life, over which problems hang like swords of Damocles.

How to do all this?

Watering tomatoes and greeting one of our neighbors, perhaps a tanuki or a cat with a friendly face, beautifully characterized by the game designers thanks to a character design job that allows them to convey friendliness at first glance.

Nintendo wants the player to stay on the island as long as possible, and it does so with tons of side quests, the so-called “favours” I mentioned earlier, a maniacal attention to the alternation of the seasons and day and night (which will be based on the console’s internal clock), and many secrets to discover by playing as much as possible.

This is because, as in the real world, uncovering mysteries and getting to know every nook and cranny of the island means exploring, returning often, and allowing the game world to grow together with us.

Isn't this, after all, living?