On the surface, New Leaf looks exactly like what's come before. But dig a little deeper, and the extensive overhaul Animal Crossing has been given for its 3DS debut becomes clear From the extraordinarily deep customisation options to the online multiplayer minigames, the next instalment of town-tending is set to be the biggest and most robust yet. Animal Crossing's appeal is simple live in a town full of animals, pick fruit and plant flowers, generate Bells to upgrade your home and generally soak in the good life, with the time of day and day of the week in-game matching the real world. Now, online multiplayer has been thrown into the mix, providing perhaps the biggest single addition the series has seen since its GameCube inception. The mode sees your Mii-faced character team up with a group of friends on a tropical island setting (accessed by taking a boat together from your town) or matched up with random players across the world. The idea is to beat minigames in order to get rewarded with medals to spend in the island's store on exclusive items for your town. But it's in the confines of your town that you'll be spending the most time, and its safe to say that town life has been given some enormous overhauls, too. Old-timer Tortimer has shuffled off into retirement, putting you in the mayor's shoes. This means you're in charge of the entire town's design, not just your house, and can kick-start new projects from the town hall - anything from a new bench or streetlight, right up to fountains, statues and bridges.
We use the term kick-start because these 'public projects' are crowd-sourced. Start one, choose its location and a building site pops up, with a Gyroid asking animals to donate Bells to get it off the ground; a Kickstarter for town furniture. Of course, you can pay for it all using your own funds, or you can go round the town pillorying your fellow folk into coughing up. It's not just the town that has seen an overhaul, but the city, too. Animal Crossing: City Folk on Wii introduced the big-city concept to the series, although its execution fell flat. Here, the idea is fleshed out with a spate of different shops - everything from a nightclub and supermarket to a much larger museum complete with gift shop.
The museum actually serves more purpose beyond browsing and buying; you can now set up your own exhibits of items, complete with handmade posters displayed in the lobby, drawn using the touchscreen. Want to show off every wiggling, gyrating Gyroid you've ever dug up? Here's the place to do it.
New items? The megaphone allows you to shout the name of an animal character across the map using the 3D5's microphone in order to find them quickly, while a wetsuit lets you swim and dive into the sea. Even returning features have been revamped. Customisation runs deeper than it did on DS or Wii, with the touchscreen able to be zoomed in and the full gamut of available colour shades selectable (not just a small group of preset hues) These more detailed designs can then be slapped onto almost any furniture: bedspreads, shelves, carpets, wallpaper, tables and chairs. Mixing and matching different designs is not only possible, but encouraged. You can even take these designs and create a OR code for them. Streetpass also offers extra depth. Every time you pass someone in the street with New Leaf their house will be added to a block of homes saved on the Home Showcase. This is a place where you can visit and inspect every home of every single player you meet, as well as talk to their accompanying resident and receive gifts. Looking at still screenshots, New Leaf looks like old hat. But there's enough new content here to justify a New Forest. We're looking forward to taking over the world, one cashed-in turnip at a time.
