Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Social Simulation Game

Release Date: June 9th, 2013

Date Reviewed: August 26th, 2013

Gameplay:

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a social simulation game by Nintendo. It is the fourth game in the series to have come out in North America, the first one being on Nintendo Gamecube. First off I would like to say t here is so much things to do in this game it is mind blowing. You start off Animal Crossing travelling to a new town that you name yourself. As soon as you arrive everyone thinks you are the new mayor they were waiting for. So right off the bat you become mayor of your town. When you first start playing this game it starts a bit slow then gradually works it's way up to be something you don't have time to do everyday. You start off with living in a tent. While you are living in this tent you are to work and make money to pay Tom Nook to be able to buy a starter house. Now once you pay off your house you can move forward and do other things. I will try my best to list as much as I can in this review. So once you purchase your first house you can keep on upgrading it to make it bigger and bigger. Obviously the more you upgrade the more it will cost you. On top of upgrading your house you need to run your town. Once enough people like you, you will be able to add additions to your town like buildings, bridges, fountains, parks, etc... and make the town the way you want it to be. In order to make these creations you need to also have the money to purchase those things. To do that you set up a donation pool. You can donate it yourself or have some people come visit your town and make donations. So after you have set up your town it is time to do other things. Why not go to the island and take part in some games with some friends or maybe by yourself. Done that? Okay how about you go enter the bug catching contest that happens once every month on a Saturday and win the trophy!

Fishing and Swimming with Friends.

There is so much to do in this game it is hard to list them all in here. There are events, season, weather, farming, creating, exploring. In New Leaf there is even a strip mall in your town across the train tracks, The more you spend or the more time you play New Leaf the more they get upgraded. That isn't all though, as you progress through the game new shops get added to your little shopping centre. Once thing I really enjoy about New Leaf is the fact that you can go and visit ANYONE'S town and explore, help, play games, etc... Once you have played two full weeks of New Leaf you are able to enter other towns that other people have created. You can even go into one Nintendo themselves have created! The possibilities are endless and you will never get bored and fully complete this game. Overall this game is an absolute joy and recommend every get this.

Graphics:

If you are familiar with any Animal Crossing game the graphics or style of the game are usually the same. The one think I find weird about the graphics in New Leaf is how shiny the grass in the game is. The graphics in this game take advantage of the 3DS. The character models are great looking and the environment are fantastic as well. The style of this game is more of a cartoony style. But it all looks sharp and crisp. Whats really enjoyable is the different seasons that par take in this game. Each season has it's own unique look and feel to it. Every season has something great to offer and makes the game that much more beautiful. Fall has a lot of different colours, winter is as white as ever with the Christmas holiday around the corner it adds a ton of colour, spring is bright and beautiful with flowers and rain showers, and summer is hot, green, and beautiful as well. Whatever the day, season, night, event, and others, Animal Crossing: New Leaf looks fantastic! Overall this is one great looking game.

Exploring the Island.

Audio:

New Leaf has a TON of great bits of audio in the game. Whether it is the music while you are walking around outside, at a store, or even at the night club the variety is endless. Another great feature is say you win one of the Nintendo items from the fortune cookies each one has it's own audio. For example with the Triforce when you press "A" on it it will play the triforce sound with a nice animation to it. Eventually you are also even able to get a CD player and buy or find your own music to spice your house up and bit more. Overall the music in this game is fantastic!

Pretty House!

Conclusion:

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is probably the best Animal Crossing game to date in my opinion. There is so much to do in this game you will never get bored of it. From exploring, playing games, decorating, visiting other peoples towns, playing with friends, shopping, upgrading, fossil finding, fishing, bug catching, events, your birthday, etc... this game and endless amount of content for you to enjoy. The graphics are fantastic, audio, and everything else! I highly recommend this game.

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Project X Zone

Console: Nintendo 3DS

Genre: Tactical RPG

Release Date: June 25th, 2013

Date Reviewed: August 18th, 2013

Gameplay:

Project X Zone is a tactical RPG for the Nintendo 3DS developed by Bandai Namco. The games story is played through chapters. In total there are 42 chapters in the game. After chapter 10 each mission is about and hour or so long. Overall it is a pretty long game especially if you take your time going through it. After you beat he story mode you unlock new game+ which allows you to keep all of your items but the monsters are a lot stronger and you gain exp a lot slower so levelling will be much more difficult. If you want the challenge then go for it. When you start the game you start off with very few characters but after almost every chapter you gain new companies to help you out. Each of your companions have their own move sets you can master to perform powerful combos. In total you get about 50 characters to control. Each of you're companions also get their own solo units as well. Solo units are additional units that you do not control. You call them in to do some extra damage and add on to you're combo. The higher you're combo the more xp you get. Xp is not the term for experience points. In Project X Zone xp is almost like mana. Every time you do some damage this bar gets increased. If you get it to 100% you can use a characters special attack. The xp bar also allows you to use you're companions skills which can increase your stats, or even an increased walking range. Solo units also provide your companions with extra skills which are useful.

Battle Screen.

When you gain a level you get a stat increase like with any RPG. But when you gain levels you also unlock new move sets for your companions. Levelling is a key part of your adventures. You need these to be able to unlock more moves and more attack opportunities. You also learn skills by levelling. During the campaign you also get items and weapons from bosses and treasure chests which can be used to make your characters a lot more powerful by increasing their stats. The four stats that your characters have are HP which increases your health points, attack which increases how much damage you do, defence to take less damage, and tec which launches your enemies higher into the air to perform more combos on your enemies. Overall I really enjoyed the game play of this game. There are a couple of downfalls though. For example most of the levels you do are very repetitive and can be frustrating when you think you are almost done the chapter when out of no where 30 more enemies appear on the screen. This game also needed a lot more customization options, more moves and items to use or even a shop.

Graphics:

The graphics are decent. It is a tactical RPG so the character models are very small and do not have a whole lot of detail on them. What I do like about the graphics is that when each character performs their special attack they each have their own special little animations, some are 3D and some are 2D but overall they are great. The graphics during combat is crazy like with most cross over fighting style games. When you're doing the combos there is so much happening on the screen at one time especially when you call in support units and solo units to do cross over combos to increase your xp bar. There are no cut scenes in the game it is all mainly dialogue. 

Movement Screen.

The 3D on the 3DS is good, not great but good. When the combat sequence begins the 3D can really hurt your eyes due to the fact that there is so much happening on the screen at one time. The 3D while you are moving your units around isn't anything to interesting. The only time you see the 3D effect well is when each of your character do their special attacks. When some of the characters do their specials some of them have 3D models so the 3D works really well with that. 

Audio:

This is one of my favorite parts of this game is the audio. When you buy the game or pre order the game when the first batches come out you will get the limited edition box which includes a poster, art book, and the soundtrack. The soundtrack is the best part of the package because it has all of the music from the game itself. The music in the game is fantastic and goes very well with the game, and battle scenes. The audio overall from the game is crisp, sounds great and works very well with the game. 

Limited Edition Bundle.

Conclusion:

Project X Zone is a really fun and enjoyable game. When you buy the first initial batch of the game you get the limited edition for the same price of $40. This is a fantastic offer because it includes an art book, a poster and the fantastic soundtrack. The gameplay is solid but is a bit repetitive and can drive you nuts a few times due to the fact that some chapters it seems like the enemies never stop appearing. Project X Zone is a fantastic cross over game, has a lot to offer and is an extremely long game. I personally put 49 hours into the game before I actually beat it. f you are a fan of fighting games, tactical RPG's, and cross over games then I highly recommend trying this game out.

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