Birthday Animal Crossing

Last week I found out that my age entitles me to a discount on my haircut. The last time this happened was when I was eight years old. I hope I didn’t upset the hairdresser though. Having asked for my age and informed me of the money I could save she probably expected me to be pleased, rather than baffled. In the end I left a rather large tip, exactly equal to the discount that I could have had. Anyone who has met me will know that I’m not one for spending much on hair styling, so this won’t really free up a lot of funds, but it still feels odd to be offered a saving just because I am now “officially old”.

And today it was my birthday. And the great thing about it was that I got given toys, among them some “Despicable Me” models and a copy of “Animal Crossing New Leaf”. I remember the first time I played Animal Crossing on the Gamecube. After playing it for two weeks I eventually had to force myself to stop because it was just taking up too much time. I fared a little better with the Nintendo DS versions, at least I could carry them around with me and play now and then. And now we have the latest version. This one is different because you not only get to take part in the community, you also get to run it when, for reasons that are not really adequately explained, you are elected Mayor as soon as you arrive in your new town.

As part of enrolment you have to tell your assistant when you were born. And she gets ever so excited if you arrive on your birthday, take it from me. I’ve not really spent that much time in the town of “Cheesy” yet, but it looks like the usual fun and games just getting along with all the folks who live in the neighbourhood, doing stuff and making friends.

If you like the previous versions of the game you’ll love this one. If you’ve not played the game before, but are hankering for somewhere to go that is just plain nicer than anywhere else, full of folks who are quirky but not nasty and lots of things to do, then it might well be for you.