Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is the mobile version of the popular sim series just announced at tonight’s Nintendo Direct dedicated solely to it. While Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes stripped down their predecessor’s gameplay into something much more manageable, Pocket Camp looks and feels like essentially a sequel to 2012’s New Leaf.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp gives you a camp complete with an RV camper to trick out however you’d like with furniture and decorations. The camper can be completely redesigned much like your house in other Animal Crossing games, from the interior to even the exterior. You can even add new locations to your campsite like a pool that was seen in the Direct.
You use the camper to visit various locations like other campsites, an island, beach, forest, and river. In these places, it plays just like you would expect, including collecting bugs, fishing, and chatting with people. Everyone in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has a friendship level like in Persona 5 that can be increased through exchanging gifts that they’d like or completing requests for them.
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Those gifts and furniture are able to be crafted using materials that are gathered in the environment, which is where your old pal Tom Nook comes in. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp revolves around leaf tickets that are gathered through various activities and completing milestones. These tickets can be given to Tom Nook to have the opportunity to go and mine various materials in the world or speed the construction of projects. It’s clear this is most likely where the microtransactions will come in.
The world itself, much like New Leaf, plays out in real-time. This means that if it’s nighttime where you are, then it will be night in-game. The same can be said for the seasons and holidays. There will be specific outfits and items that you can collect only during those times.
Overall, it looks like Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is more true to its roots than any other mobile Nintendo game to date. From the graphical look to its gameplay, everything seems based off of New Leaf. Though there was no exact date given, it will bring the entire simulation experience to iOS and Android next month in late November.
Opinion: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp seems like a real Animal Crossing game, for lack of a better word. Nonetheless, it is exactly what I wanted and I’m shocked to see that it really is true to the series. I’m excited and will certainly give it a try next month.