Animal Crossing is a much beloved Nintendo title that's been a staple of its handheld consoles, so as the company starts to pay more attention to mobile - with Super Mario Run[1] and Fire Emblem Heroes[2] this year - it was inevitable that Animal Crossing has made it to mobiles as well. On Tuesday, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp[3] released on the US App Store[4] and Google Play[5] as a free download. Like the aforementioned Fire Emblem Heroes, it's not available in India officially, though you can download an APK on Android[6] to get your hands on one.
As fans of Animal Crossing on the Nintendo DS, we had to play it obsessively, and at first glance at least, the mobile version of the game remains faithful to the earlier games it's based on. But does it hold up over time, and how do the micro-transactions in the game play out, considering it's free-to-play?
Set at a campsite rather than the town environments of past games, the "goal" is essentially to get as many animals as possible to like you and give you things, with which you can build a better and fancier camp. To make this happen, you'll have to complete a variety of tasks, from fetching fruits to gathering the ingredients for making a soup or a smoothie. Doing this can get the animals to like you, but that's not enough to make them visit your camp. You also have to then craft specific pieces of furniture that they really want, otherwise they're not coming over.
Unlike the console versions of Animal Crossing, there are on-screen timers everywhere - collect fruit from a tree and you get...