Animal Crossing

Platform: Gamecube, Nintendo 64 (Japan)
First Released: 2001
Watch Animal Crossing videos on the GameBlaster64 Youtube channel

The Animal Crossing series has won gamers' hearts for a decade now. First developed for the Nintendo 64DD then on the Gamecube for worldwide release, it became one of the Gamecube's sleeper hits. Pretty much anyone who owns a Gamecube owns this game with it and loves it.

For this edition of Game of the Day, the focus is on the original Animal Crossing released in 2002 for the Nintendo Gamecube. But, the entire series follows a similar pattern with upgrades such as online play (Animal Crossing City Folk on Wii) and portable town-ing (Animal Crossing Wild World on DS).

If you've never played any games in the Animal Crossing series, here's a run-down: You are a fresh face to a randomly generated town. On the day of your move-in, it's discovered you actually haven't found a place to stay yet! Silly sausage, always leaving things to the last minute, I swear...

Anyway, the town's convenience store owner, Tom Nook, offers to sell you a house (an offer you can't refuse, I might add) at a grossly exaggerated price. Since you also don't have any money with you (well prepared, eh?) he offers you debt in exchange for shelter. So, for the rest of the time you are playing this game, you are working at jobs to pay down your debt. Wait, is this a game or is this real life?

While the premise sounds horrible, the game's quirky style, characters, music, jobs, and collection quests are a hell of a lot of fun. The good part is that you can pick this game up with a used Gamecube as a cheap birthday or Christmas present for any family member at any age and they'll fall in love with it. It's simple to control, so it's great for kids and grannies alike.

One of the neatest things about Animal Crossing is that it plays differently depending on the time that you play it and also depending on the day that you play it. If you play too early in the morning (in real life) the game's characters are sleeping and you may even run into ghosts! If you play it on or close to Halloween, the game's characters and their homes are decked out in proper attire. It's neat!

If you're a fan of Animal Crossing, you'll definitely want to check out the accityfolk channel on the Youtubes. It's pretty much the de facto standard when dealing with Animal Crossing videos.

Enjoy.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Release date: 1998
Platforms: N64, Gamecube, WiiWare, 3DS (special 3D remake)

I'm sure everyone reading this has played and thoroughly enjoyed Ocarina of Time, so there's not a whole lot of point in introducing the game assuming it's not been heard of before this blog was written. But, no "Game of the day/month/week/year" series would be complete without this game included. So, here it is.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time finds a special place in my heart as it was my generation's Zelda. I was 13 years old, playing it through for the first time on the Nintendo 64 in 1998. I somehow finished a whole box of maraschino cherries working through the dungeons and puzzles in the first sitting.

There are many aspects of Zelda: OoT that make it one of the best games ever made, but if I had to pick just one thing that makes it memorable, I would say the soundtrack. The quality of the music in the game is amazing and the songs tell the story well. I'm lucky to own one of the real 12 hole Triforce ocarinas and songbooks from STL and enjoy playing it when times are tough :)

Is Ocarina of Time the best Zelda? It's hard to say. What do you think?