My Animal Crossing Memories!

One of the first friends I ever made here on the wonderful WordPress community, Yvonne, has been doing a series on her blog called Animal Crossing Memories. In the series, a blogger writes about the various memories they have with Animal Crossing, and the entries are quite charming to read! Recently, Yvonne contacted me and asked if I wanted to write my own post about it and be featured on her site, and I thought that was very sweet of her to consider me! You can find my entry on her blog here, or just keep reading! 🙂

(Of course, the first paragraph is just a little into about me for Yvonne’s readers who don’t know me, so feel free to skip past that if you want!)

Hey everyone! My name is Brandi. I’ve been a gamer for as long as I can remember, and I enjoy many different types of games. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Nintendo games, but I have love for all platforms! A couple years ago, I decided to combine my love of gaming with my love of writing, and I started a blog. That’s how I met Yvonne!

Recently, Yvonne contacted me and asked if I wanted to be featured on her wonderful site, writing about some of my Animal Crossing memories! I thought that was very sweet of her to consider me, so here I am! 🙂

My obsession with Animal Crossing started when I saw it featured in Nintendo Power as an upcoming title for the GameCube. I was instantly intrigued, because the idea of living in a little village populated with only animals and no pesky humans sounded like a great escape to me!

I got the game the day it was released in North America. I remember that day, too- I was 16 years old, and my mom and I had taken my dog to get surgery done on her leg. While we were waiting, we popped over to Target and bought a few things, Animal Crossing being one of them! The second I booted the game up and K.K. Slider began playing his guitar for me, I knew I was in for something unique.

I put SO MANY hours into the GameCube version of Animal Crossing over the years! Every day was something different. I loved how the villagers acted, I loved how it was all played in real time, I loved the music that played every hour… never before had a game captured my heart in the way this game did. I thought it was such an amazing concept. Also, the holidays were so much fun to play!

I also really appreciated the fact that the seasons changed. Considering I live in a state in the USA where we don’t exactly have four defined seasons, it was nice to experience something different- especially the snow! 🙂

As the years went by, I continued to purchase and play every subsequent version of Animal Crossing that came out. Wild World, City Folk, New Leaf, Happy Home Designer, Welcome amiibo, Wild World (Wii U Virtual Console), New Leaf: Welcome amiibo… I have them all! I also obtained a version of Doubutsu no Mori for the Nintendo 64 a couple years back, and I love playing that as well (even if my Japanese isn’t very good). I have Doubutsu no Mori + and Doubutsu no Mori e+ for the GameCube as well- I just need to convert my spare GameCube into a Japanese GameCube so I can play! I also play Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for the iPhone (though I refuse to partake in microtransactions- I just enjoy the game casually!).

When it comes down to it, I guess you can say I’m probably a little obsessed with Animal Crossing. I don’t mind one bit! I do wish I had more time to check in on all my villagers in my various towns, though- but such is life. I know whenever I get the chance to, they’ll be there waiting for me, happy as ever to see me!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Animal Crossing memories!

 

My Animal Crossing Collection Part 2: Toys!

In the first part of my Animal Crossing Collection post, I showed you all of my games and strategy guides. This time, I’ll show you my various “toys” (which is basically just a collection of figures and a plushie). Enjoy! 🙂

First up, I have two little figurines that I hold near and dear to my heart. Many years ago for Christmas, my husband made me clay sculptures of two of my favorite Animal Crossing characters, Octavian and Rhoda! Annoyingly, Octavian is now missing a couple legs and Rhoda is missing a leg too, which is very sad! I blame it on moving, as the figures are pretty delicate. Taking a picture of them doesn’t really do them justice, either: the detail is so amazing in person! (Also, my lighting sucks…. Octavian is a deeper red and Rhoda is a deeper blue than these pictures show)

Next, I have a small collection of amiibo. Here’s what’s funny about me: I LOVE Animal Crossing… but I didn’t have much desire to collect all of these amiibo. They aren’t cheap ya know! 😉 So I decided that I would only purchase the amiibo that I REALLY wanted, instead of getting them all just for collection’s sake. A couple of these amiibo I got really cheap, and a couple I received as gifts 🙂

Lastly, I have one lonely little Animal Crossing plushie, which I’ve shown on here before. I still don’t know if he’s Timmy or Tommy!

Here’s my whole collection:

So there you have it! Not a ton to show, but I still like what I have. For the final Animal Crossing Collection post, I’ll show everything else Animal Crossing- related that I have 🙂

My Gaming Week in Review (2/05- 2/11)!

Console

NES

Yesterday, my in-laws came over for dinner and we were going to play a board game afterwards, but it was too hard for my mother-in-law to sit up and play one at the table. My husband surprised us all by bringing out Anticipation, a Trivial Pursuit type game made by Rare way back in 1988!

Michael and his parents used to play this game a lot when he was a kid, so it was a blast from the past for everyone! I myself did not play this game until Michael and I met 14 years ago, but it’s a fun game that I still enjoy playing from time to time.

We decided to play in teams; Michael and I on one team, his parents on the other. His mom was actually doing pretty good! Like I said, this game is similar to Trivial Pursuit. Your game piece moves along the board, and you land on a colored square. Each square has a different category. Some of the clues are pretty easy:

While others are extremely vague. None of us figured out what this was:

The goal of the game is to collect one square of each color in each of the three levels. Whoever passes all three levels first is the winner!

It was a close game, but Michael and I ended up winning. It was fun! It was nice to see my mother-in-law having some fun, since she hasn’t been feeling well lately. Anyway, playing this game made me really happy and I want to play it again soon!

P.S. Sorry for the glare that is present in all the above photos. From where I was sitting, it was hard to get a good picture!

GameCube

I visited my little Animal Crossing village of Branvil this week for the first time in 5 months. The first thing I noticed when I started up the game was that it was snowing, yay!! I think the snow is one of my favorite parts of the game, especially since I never get to see any in real life!

Sydney moved away, which was a bummer. She’s a cutie!

Maple acted like she didn’t know me.

And Wart Jr. made me laugh with his crazy comment. Apparently I’m a real shady character…

And just like always, Queenie was a big BITCH to me! Why doesn’t she move the fuck away already!

I met my new neighbor, Buzz. He’s pretty handsome, I think!

He has kind of a weird house, though.

I found a snowball hiding in the flowers, which was kinda strange.

After saying hello to everyone, I spent the rest of my evening pulling weeds and shaking trees! I deposited some money in my bank account, too. I wish it was this easy to make money in real life!

Wii U

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I finished our playthrough of Yoshi’s Woolly World this week! What a great game it was. Since I’m going to do a separate blog post about finishing the game, I’ll leave you with a screenshot of an oddly-titled level we played!

Handheld

Nintendo DS

I played just one level of The Legendary Starfy this week. Apparently the Hot-Spring Snapper (a really rude rock/ turtle thing) was terrorizing Hotcha Springs, and it was up to Starfy to stop him!

I had to outrun lava, which was super. It moved kinda slow, but I still almost died trying to take this picture!

The battle against the Snapper wasn’t too bad. I couldn’t get a decent picture of him to save my life, because he wouldn’t stay still!

I am now on Level 3-1 Chillydip Cove: Snow Starfy. This should be fun!

Mobile

iPhone

I played some more Cooking Fever this week.  I’m still working on leveling up my Fast Food Court. It not really as bad as I thought it was going to be grind-wise- I find I can upgrade my stuff after playing one or two levels and getting some coins from them. I just don’t upgrade anymore when the upgrade requires gems, because I feel like I need to save my gems to unlock other places. Here are my current stats:

I am currently on Level 36 of the Fast Food Court. Only a few more levels until I am finished!

I also played more Pokémon GO. I was very happy to catch a Growlithe- so cute!

I evolved my Ekans into an Arbok.

I also evolved my Exeggcute into an Exeggutor. Finally! Seems like that took forever.

I also played a game called Strike! Ten Pin Bowling.It’s a simple bowling game that both my aunt and my mom played awhile back- I don’t know if they still do or not! Anyway, it’s a fun, free little game that is a great way to pass a couple minutes.

For some reason, though, the game erased all my previous high scores! That annoyed me a little bit. Oh well, not like I’m very good at it anyway!

I played some Solitaire this week too, and it seems I’m back on my losing streak.

PC

Steam

Finally played some Stardew Valley this week! I haven’t played this game for a couple weeks, and I missed it! 🙂 Anyway, I continued clearing out my farm, and I came across this tiny, cute tree!

I ran into Haley, who was a bitch as always.

I finally figured out how to fish!

It’s really fun. I only managed to catch one fish and everything else I caught was trash, but it’s all good. I need to catch more fish, because I am broke!

One of my current objectives is to build a coop. With how expensive it is and how many resources I need, it’ll take me awhile!

One night when I went to sleep, a fairy came and made one of my crops grow. I don’t know what that’s all about, but thanks, little fairy!

I also grew to Level 1 Farming.

On the 10th of Spring, Year 1, I had a nice surprise when I woke up and was greeted by a friendly dog!

Marnie explained to me that he was a stray and asked if I wanted to adopt him! BUT OF COURSE I DO! 😉

I named him Wicky as an homage to a disabled dog that I worked with who has been gone for almost 2 years now. His name was Nykon, but his nickname was Wicky! He was near and dear to my heart and I loved him so much.

While continuing to clear out my farm, I found a geode. When I took it to the blacksmith, it was some rare mineral or something, and it was advised that I donate it to the museum!

I didn’t even realize it, but when I donated it, I completed an objective in my journal, so I got a nice little reward for it!

I then grew to Level 1 Foraging.

I am currently on 11th of Spring, Year 1. This game is becoming addicting!

Misc.

While my husband was out and about earlier this week, he came across some VR (virtual reality) headsets for only $6! They are compatible with both of our phones, so he bought one for each of us. I’m going to do a separate write up on this, but here’s a pic of the headset:

So, looks like I was able to do a lot more gaming this week! That’s always a good thing. Thanks for reading!