Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Review
Recently, Nintendo has started to make games for smart phones using their well known IPs. Some of these games include Pokemon Go, Fire Emblem Heroes, and as of now, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. However, the jump from console to mobile game shouldn’t be a large one, considering that the Animal Crossing series has many fundamentals of modern phone games, such as a pick up and play style. So, does Pocket Camp help bring Animal Crossing to a wider audience while still keeping the main experience intact?
Story
The Animal Crossing series isn’t known for its great story, and Pocket Camp continues with this tradition. In Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, you’re the Campsite Manager, and you have to create a campground where animals can have fun. You do this by getting materials and having Cyrus turn them into furniture. Other than that, it’s your job to get animals to come visit your campsite by doing tasks for them.
Gameplay
As Pocket Camp isn’t on a console or handheld, the gameplay had to be tweaked. However, the Animal Crossing series is known for its pick up and play style, which easily translated over to mobile devices. The gameplay of Pocket Camp focuses mainly on decorating your campsite with furniture such as sofas, beds, tables, instruments, and much more. You get the furniture by using materials to craft the items. But to get the materials, you have to complete tasks for animals. These tasks are always involved with getting items, which are either fruit or fish. You can also decorate your RV with furniture, reminiscent of the RVs in Animal Crossing New Leaf.
Presentation
Visually, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is as much of an Animal Crossing game as any other. Even though it’s on a mobile device, both the graphics and the music are on par with the rest of the series, which is a huge compliment. The environments are bright and cheery, with tons of variety between the different places you can travel too. However both the campsite and your RV are great, embodying the different designs each player wants to make, giving the freedom of the normal Animal Crossing games. This is in addition to the normal cheery background music and sound effects, which continue to help keep the upbeat vibe of the game.
Final Thoughts
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is the closest we’ll ever get to Animal Crossing game on mobile, but I think that’s totally fine. It delivers an experience that embodies what the Animal Crossing series has always been, a nice way to unwind and relax. It also keeps many of the main features that make the series so fun for so many people. It seems Pocket Camp will get the Nintendo app treatment with constant updates, including the Holiday event that started today.
