Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the fourth addition to the Animal Crossing franchise. It was released in 2012 and has sold 1.5 million copies (as of June 2018). It’s also the 7th best-selling Nintendo 3DS title, coming in behind Super Mario 3D Land, according to GamesIndustry.

   The basic outline of the Animal Crossing series is as follows: the player moves into a town completely inhabited by cute animals, and spends their time fishing, catching bugs, getting to know their neighbors, and collecting clothes/furniture, among other fun activities.

   In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, this outline is changed a bit- in this game, the player is actually the mayor of the town. With this update in seniority comes new responsibilities, such as making sure the citizens are content with the management of the town, decorating their own mayoral home, and upgrading/placing new buildings or public works projects.

   In older games, the player had a lot more boundaries- essentially all that you had power over was yourself and your house, whereas, in New Leaf, you have more to busy yourself with. Instead of just worrying about yourself and your house, you might also keep your neighbors in mind too, helping them out once in a while, or getting to know them better over time.

The game also includes a reward system. If you put effort into collecting enough of one furniture series, you will get points, if you pull up enough weeds or plant enough hybrid flowers, you’ll get points, etc. These points are simple and easy to earn, and they go towards badges you can earn which will go onto your player profile card. These badges are more like long term goals, and it honestly feels really good to complete them.

   Additionally, New Leaf is very relaxing. The main points of the game don’t require rushing to complete tasks, they require thinking about the next day, having patience, and setting up a sort of strategy to get things done more efficiently. New Leaf is a calming experience, and it’s a fun way to wind down after a hard day of work or school.

New Leaf has been out for 7 years now, and although Nintendo confirmed a new addition to the series to come out this year, we still have not heard anything about it since the September 2018 Direct announcement. Despite this, Animal Crossing fans have their hopes up to hear more about the game in the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct stream that will go live June 11! Hang in there y’all, hopefully, we’ll hear more soon. For now, at least, we have New Leaf, which is a great game all by itself.