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It is The End Times. Again.
Remember Animal Crossing on the Gamecube? I played it daily for months. Remember Animal Crossing on the DS? I played it daily for over a year. Remember Animal Crossing on the Wii? I played it daily for three months until my Wii died and I lost my saved game.
I now have the 3DS version.
In the first week of owning it, I’d played it for 34 hours. It became my most played 3DS game in 5 days – despite having owned a 3DS for more than two years. Not bad considering “it’s not a game”, “it’s boring” and “there’s nothing to do in it”.
All these things there isn’t to do that I’ve done include getting my house, expanding it several times, becoming Mayor, getting a new bridge built, planting all the fruits, winning the first Bug Off, getting lots of Nintendo-themed prizes in fortune cookies, having mysterious people from other towns visit my town and leave me messages and presents, planting more fruits, visiting other people’s towns and giving them fruit and leaving them messages, making not much money on the Stalk Market, taking a boat ride with Kapp’n (who is a bit creepy) to an island and playing “island games”, and digging lots of holes. And planting fruit. All the fruit.
Since this new Animal Crossing game lets you share screenshots on t’tinternets, I even braved Tumblr to create this masterpiece of storytelling: http://plantallthefruit.tumblr.com/
Am I loving the game? Yes. Yes I am. Even Nook’s evil moneygrabbingness. It’s all awesome.
A game with a sub-subtitle? Amazing.
First things first. This is not quite like the Metroidvania Castlevanias that I love so much (like Dawn of Sorrow or Symphony of the Night). It’s also not quite like the “original”, more linear Castlevanias like those on the NES and SNES. And it’s not even quite like the new “reimagined” Lords of Shadow game for the Xbox 360, despite the title and the fact it follows on from that game’s story.
It is, instead, a mashup of all three types of game. It’s pretty linear, like the originals, but it does have some map colouring and exploration (and the “new items unlock new areas” thing) from Metroidvanias. Finally, it has an approximation of the combat from the 360 game, with combos and air attacks and all sorts, plus that version’s art style.
I thought I’d hate it. I actually love it. The graphical style of the 360 title translates to beautiful 3D backdrops, but the game plays out on a 2D game – which is great as I’ve hated every 3D Castlevania I’ve ever played. The combat and levelling up system is a joy, and the game is suitably hard with seemingly impossible bosses that suddenly become walkovers once you learn their patterns and weaknesses – just like all the best Castlevanias.
Without wishing to impart spoilers, I’ve played Gabriel’s intro, then Simon’s bit, and now I’m into Alucard’s bit. Although I think I’m pretty close to the end of that.