Animal Crossing Pocket Camp really is Mobile Hell, eh?

[Stopdoor]

I just picked up Animal Crossing New Leaf and Happy Home Designer recently to kind of "catch up" with Animal Crossing before the Switch game comes around. I thought I'd give Pocket Camp a tour as well because my recollection of it from trying it out for like a single day at launch was murky.

I start up the game, and it's:

- 30 Second Loadtime
- Data Download
- Notices: Valentine's Day
- Login Bonus
- Login Bonus 2
- There's a Bug: Tutorial
- Event Ending Soon! Isabelle's Café Cookie
- Event on Now! Hamlet's Chilly Cookie
- Event on Now! ...
- Event on Now! ...

The game seems to "start", finally. But I check out the UI, and it's endless icons as far as the eye can see, with piles of red notification lights and text.

- "Try crafting some furniture!"
- NEW: Isabelle Icon
- EVENTS: Some Snowball Globe Icon
- Hamburger Menu: ! Even more Icons Hidden here!
- Scrolling Ad in the the top-left corner: Events!

Ok, so I tap "Craft Furniture"

- How to Register a Favourite!
- EVENT
- Red dots on everything
- A plus icon on the top screen: Expand Crafting Capacity! Leaf Tickets!

Like, what even is this UI. How does some casual soccer mom or 10 year old understand this, whoever the audience is supposed to be.

So, I finally pick one to craft... and then another tutorial popup is there for:

- "Try inviting another animal to your campsite!"

Trying to satisfy this, every animal I click says "Already visiting location!". I click another, and I'm greeted with "Use 1 Calling Card to bring Apollo here for 3 hours!". Uh. No. I don't even know what that is, what that means, why I want it, where those come from, and how to get more. What.

I exit that menu, and somehow it actually went away without me doing anything. Whew. But now there's a

- Complete! for my furniture
- A Pac-Man symbol on the Map??
- A floating honey icon on the actual gameplay screen

I click on the Events icon just to see what it is. I get dumped this giant text dump and more. Right. I'll just uh, memorize that. Hopefully I'll pass the exam later.

I check out the Isabelle icon. I have 6 HOURS TO DO MY GOALS. One is RECOMMENDED! There's a "New!" flag below that. Piles more icons and counters related to this event I clicked are all tracked now, I guess.

I click the hamburger menu. It has 2 more exclamation marks for me to check. I click the Megaphone. Notices - most of it is stuff I've been bombarded with already, but it's just layers and layers of more and more and more.

I click the mailbox. I have stuff to collect, I guess? With "Storage Time" that will expire. I "Collect All", but I could collect one at a time. For some reason? For any reason? Whew. Taken care of. But why?

I walk over to the the floating honey icon on the game screen, and get this insane menu instead of actual gameplay.

Holy goodness, you can actually see the "Disclosure and Supplemental Info" "Catch Rates". Man. I don't know if knowing this would make actual Animal Crossing better or worse. This is real life now. The mystique is gone, because the mystique literally has become manipulative and evil. Cool. good.

I do the Honey thing, and it's pretty much just a lootbox I guess. And I have some "Stretch Goals" then immediately max out. I have to check the Isabelle icon. I accept the reward, but then I have to double accept it in the "Mailbox".... ? Or else the items will expire arbitrarily. Why. Great. Cool.

I go to the Map. There's 3 more "New!" icons. Another one says "New Cookies!", instead. Some timer says "Moving in: 15 min". What.

I collect my furniture I ordered 3 minutes ago or whatever, and the "Invite an animal" message comes back. I spend a dumb "Calling Card", get some heart resources because I buy friendship in this game, and then message just doesn't go away anyway. Cool. That's stuck on my UI forever.

I click the "More" icon in the bottom right (there's already a hamburger menu top right...) and there's like, 15 more menus in here. Half of them repeated from the top screen. With more exclamation icons for me to chase down!

I give up - this was all within like 10-15 minutes of "playing". It seems like a game about chasing down menu icons forever, managing 20 different types of resources and timers with the ever present, considering the hidden "real money" cost behind all these resources and timers, and even the actual gameplay of dragging your character around to do things just pops up more menus and numbers and text dumps. I honestly don't even understand how this is appealing to the mainstream common denominator consumer, because the UI is a labyrinthian mess, the amount of resource management seems comparable to some hardcore strategy RPG, and the text dump tutorials just seem like they'd be skipped by or immediately forgotten.

This is even more dire that we're just kind of "Ok" with Nintendo doing this to Animal Crossing, of all things. Like, Animal Crossing, a game that figured out ages ago how to make chores into compelling, relaxing gameplay with relatively light tutorials. I might've thought it was a bit too much of a resource managing chore before, but compared to the intense spreadsheet simulation behind Pocket Camp, it's like a bouncy castle. It's like... a real video game. It's fun. Pocket Camp isn't fun? It's a numbers simulator. Why are all the mobile games numbers simulators. How is this real life. Ahh.

Anyway, cool. No big deal, I'm just out of touch probably.

 

[Dr. Feel Good]

I play Animal Crossing to relax. Nothing about Pocket Camp is relaxing.

 

[Green Mario]

I played for around a month with all of my friends giving up within 2-3 months. It's not exactly what I look for when I want the Animal Crossing experience.

 

[night814]

Yes that UI is gross. I love AC but never bothered after I heard how bare bones it is.

 

[ZeoVGM]

It should be said that all of those notices you got is a rare thing. If you're jumping on every day or every few days to grab some dailies, you're not getting all of that stuff. Getting Leaf Tickets is trash though and it's not as easy as it should be.

 

[Kapryov]

I "play" this from time to time, I think they keep pumping out events to stop people from leaving. There's always some kind of event on, and its usually the same stuff (grow flowers, catch fish, pick up gyroids, etc). When you're high enough level it doesn't harass you as much, as you are already friends with most animals anyway.

The game is a collectathon if you want to collect furniture and animals at your campsite, that's all. It's not actually Animal Crossing.
It's a mobile time waster wearing AC's skin.

They got the movement right though, it controls just like AC but with a touch screen. Good on them.

 

[Tfritz]

It's amazing how I'd pop in to play New Leaf daily, chill out, and catch some beetles for half a year, and could only muster about a week of Pocket Camp. I really don't like the crafting from a catalog system.

 

[Stopdoor]

It just continually bugs me they turned Animal Crossing into something so... not itself. I thought Nintendo would have shame. Like, it's all wrapped up in the correct veneer, but the core is evil. I kind of expect it from Fire Emblem because they're milking people who should know better, but it's honestly pretty gross for what Animal Crossing's audience is supposed to be, and simultaneously makes no sense to me that those people can absorb this.

 

[Driggonny]

I hit a glitch in the tutorial that I had to message nintendo to fix because I can't restart of my own accord and it took so long I never went back

 

[Linde]

Yeah I had to quit that game pretty early.
Was not a fan of the ui at all
Here's to animal crossing switch tho

 

[Stopdoor]

Honestly it confuses me how anyone could be excited for whatever Mario Kart Tour will be. If this can happen to Animal Crossing and Super Mario Run was apparently a financial disappointment (and that one was already pretty annoying), I only have fear of whatever junk will come.

 

[Tfritz]

Honestly it confuses me how anyone could be excited for whatever Mario Kart Tour will be. If this can happen to Animal Crossing and Super Mario Run was apparently a financial disappointment (and that one was already pretty annoying), I only have fear of whatever junk will come.

Click to shrink...

a lot of people seem to like fire emblem heroes and it makes money hand over fist

 

[Deleted member 7279]

I'm glad I never got started with this. I play FE and Pokemon almost daily but this I just could never get into.

 

[BoxManLocke]

I'd still be playing it if there wasn't this dumbass item display limitation at camp. It's a dealbreaker considering the tiny amount of space they offer you in the first place.

All I wanted to do was put tables with the pictures of all my maxed out friends on them and the game won't let me.

Apart from that yeah, the UI is a cluttered mess and the events/goals require a signficant investment in a short time frame, but hey, when you're hungry for some AC what else are you supposed to play.

They update the game very regularly with new content, I'll give them that.

 

[ZugZug123]

I played it for a few months and it's super aggressive with timed events and such, plus the events seemed to be getting stingier over time (trying to get you to spend real $).

It's AC without the charm and soul of the main games :( AC Switch can't come soon enough.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

Played it for a month to get a feel for it. It didn't hook me. I'm eagerly awaiting the Switch Animal Crossing though.

 

[Stopdoor]

a lot of people seem to like fire emblem heroes and it makes money hand over fist

Click to shrink...

Well yeah but I don't care about what makes them money hand over fist, lol.

At least with Fire Emblem, all the numbers and stat grinding and whatever is inherent to the genre. Here, I'm baffled. Mario Kart would be even worse. Mario Kart is all about that raw, beautiful, thrill of the moment.

 

[Lump]

Hey OP, decorate your post with at least three pink colored gifs and I'll consider replying to your message.

That's Pocket Camp.

 

[night814]

Honestly it confuses me how anyone could be excited for whatever Mario Kart Tour will be. If this can happen to Animal Crossing and Super Mario Run was apparently a financial disappointment (and that one was already pretty annoying), I only have fear of whatever junk will come.

Click to shrink...

For what it's worth my 2 young kids LOVE Mario Run, after I unlocked Peach my daughter couldn't get enough of it

 

[swift-darius]

I play it every day. it sucks, but it's an animal crossing fix. I just play to collect furniture and have something to do with my phone in idle moments. it's really not that obtrusive if you're a regular, but the UI sucks. the ACTUAL lootboxes (the fortune cookies) suuuck, and are way overpriced. the monetisation is bad. but like... I can set up my campsite in cute ways...

tl;dr animal crossing 2019 can't come soon enough

 

[Kapryov]

I'll say the one thing they NEED to bring to AC Switch from this game is the character creator. The mobile game has the right idea.
Fuck random faces.

 

[Stopdoor]

For what it's worth my 2 young kids LOVE Mario Run, after I unlocked Peach my daughter couldn't get enough of it

Click to shrink...

I like Mario Run, but it's still brimming with this raw, evil energy under the surface, with the weirdo Kingdom Builder mode that's all about weirdly complicated resource management and I'm pretty sure includes timers. You can tell the only thing holding them back is the $10 one-time price tag, otherwise the dam could burst any moment.

 

[Stopdoor]

I'll say the one thing they NEED to bring to AC Switch from this game is the character creator. The mobile game has the right idea.
Fuck random faces.

Click to shrink...

You can credit Happy Home Designer for that, it seems. There's a lot of weird interesting quirks about that game that I could see being built on for Switch, like how Hospitals and Offices exist in the Animal Crossing world.

 

[night814]

I like Mario Run, but it's still brimming with this raw, evil energy under the surface, with the weirdo Kingdom Builder mode that's all about weirdly complicated resource management and I'm pretty sure includes timers. You can tell the only thing holding them back is the $10 one-time price tag, otherwise the dam could burst any moment.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I didn't mess with any of that stuff, I just cared about the levels. Actually got the game for free from stock piling my Google rewards during a sale where it was like 6 bucks so it's been more than worth it for me..my kids asked constantly if they can play "Mario game on your phone"

 

[Enduin]

I tried to get into it a few months ago to get that AC fix and yeah it was tedious and tiresome. I dropped it after like 3 or 4 days. It's pure busy work and time wasting, which is kind of what AC is about but this is annoying and unfulfilling busy work. AC Switch definitely needs to happen fast and hopefully not be used in any detrimental way to prop PC up.

 

[Executive Taxi]

I'm always in awe when people bring this game up whenever Animal Crossing fans complain about the lack of news for the mainline game. It becomes very clear that they have not played Pocket Camp

 

[Deleted member 21709]

It is real mobile garbage. A shame they dragged the IP through this muck.

 

[Kapryov]

You can credit Happy Home Designer for that, it seems. There's a lot of weird interesting quirks about that game that I could see being built on for Switch, like how Hospitals and Offices exist in the Animal Crossing world.

Click to shrink...

Oh right, I forgot about that one. I skipped it :/ I like collecting rare furniture and bugs/fish, my home was always a mess.

 

[Mechaplum]

It's a horrible horrible soul sucking game.

The only reason Yoko Taro gave it such high praise is to troll us.

 

[Stopdoor]

Oh right, I forgot about that one. I skipped it :/ I like collecting rare furniture and bugs/fish, my home was always a mess.

Click to shrink...

It's not really worth playing, because the game doesn't score you on anything, you have to really like decorating. But it's an interesting diversion from the regular Animal Crossing thing, much more than this and Amiibo Festival.

 

[RedDevil]

It just continually bugs me they turned Animal Crossing into something so... not itself. I thought Nintendo would have shame. Like, it's all wrapped up in the correct veneer, but the core is evil. I kind of expect it from Fire Emblem because they're milking people who should know better, but it's honestly pretty gross for what Animal Crossing's audience is supposed to be, and simultaneously makes no sense to me that those people can absorb this.

Click to shrink...

Anybody thinking an Animal Crossing mobile game was going to be anything like the usual Animal Crossing games were setting themselves for disappointment.

 

[Camjo-Z]

I got briefly addicted to Pocket Camp for a month or two when I was desperate for an AC fix, but I eventually realized it's one of the most simplistic and ultimately boring mobile games I've ever played. You literally just walk around the place loading up on resources, talk to animals to level them up by giving them said resources, and repeat ad nauseum. I guess you can mess with furniture and stuff but it's completely meaningless outside of when a villager requests that you put up some specific items (which you can have it automatically do for you anyway). It's not even worth spending any money on Leaf Tickets or lootboxes because what's the incentive to speed up progress or get exclusive items when there is no actual progress to be made or reason to get those items?

It is kind of hilarious to think about how complex the F2P formula really is from the perspective of a mobile game neophyte though. I'm used to it now after dabbling in so many gacha games but they really are a numbers game more often than not. Doesn't matter what genre they purport to be - rhythm, action, puzzle, RPG - it always boils down to a shitload of statistics and boosters and multipliers.

 

[Kouriozan]

I played it daily since day one and got pretty far, atter the 5th gardening event I couldn't stand up the grind anymore. This game is far from being relaxing.
Gardening events can go to hell seriously. It transformed a game you can take the time you want to get stuff done into "must play at least 2 hours per day or miss all this!"

 

[RoadDogg]

I "played" it daily for a year and never spent a cent on it. It was boring and pointless bit the event loops and new buildings kept me putting 10 minutes into it 3-4 times a day anyway. They started doing back to back events for dumb items and I just gave up and uninstalled it. I had over 3000 tickets that I never saw a reason to spend. The game seemed to quickly gear towards a female demographic and most of the events gave flowers and dresses. All of the friend requests I got and people I saw around were japanese female accounts too.

I doubt I will ever go back to it, but it would be nice if they put a better collection loop in there.

 

[Lusamine]

Hopefully lootboxes come to AC Switch, too many amazing new furniture in PC.

 

[Deleted member 1635]

I "played" it for about 5 minutes. It's not a game.

 

[xendless]

I still play it daily, as a habit. Part of me hopes I can transfer my piles upon piles of stuff and money to Switch.

 

[Deleted member 11985]

I didn't mind it when it was first released, but they quickly ramped up pay walls after like a month or so. I was still kind of ok with that, believe it or not, but another thing that happened was the game got really laggy for me. The frame rate dropped down to like 5 fps any time I tried to do anything.

I just got a new phone last week (Xiaomi Mi A2), and one of the first things I did was install Pocket Camp to see if it runs properly, but it still runs like crap. I would get frame drops every time I moved my character. Not down to 5 fps at least, but the stutter was still way too annoying.

It's like this game is optimized for the iPhone X/Galaxy S9, and every other phone can just fuck off.

 

[HomespunFur]

Yeah it was pretty disappointing, just doesn't feel like animal crossing to me.
The basic stuff like fishing is just not even fun in pocket camp.
Then all the other crap you mentioned just made me uninstall it.
Animal Crossing is rubbish outside of the main titles.

 

[Deleted member 6215]

Holy shit, I had no idea the mobile thing was such a mess. Recently fired up ACNL after being away from my town for years and it got me hooked again in minutes.

 

[Tfritz]

Holy shit, I had no idea the mobile thing was such a mess. Recently fired up ACNL after being away from my town for years and it got me hooked again in minutes.

Click to shrink...

yeah it's gamified and monetized in a really, really, really off putting way.

 

[samred]

I wrote this up at Ars in Nov 2017 after it launched with a headline reading, quite simply, "Nintendo should be ashamed." There's nothing wrong with making a dumbed-down village game for a smartphone, but slapping the Animal Crossing name on this is a different level of misleading. And yet wallets opened wide.

At least Nintendo's mobile follow-up, Dragalia Lost, bothered with some actual GAMEPLAY (however thin) instead of following the exact same tack. Makes me hopeful that Mario Kart's mobile version might have some fun and gameplay, as well, but that's just not guaranteed in a world where Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp makes money.

 

[ListeningGarden]

I found myself quickly exhausted shortly after the first Flower based event, and every time I've logged in since I have been overwhelmed with way too many boxes to check, chores to do, and been shocked at the amount of effort required to keep up with events. It actually made me boot up New Leaf to start a new town just so I could experience AC how I loved it. Pocket Camp is a very draining and soulless experience, and I am really hoping that the Switch AC is nothing like it at all.

 

[RedDevil]

I wrote this up at Ars in Nov 2017 after it launched with a headline reading, quite simply, "Nintendo should be ashamed." There's nothing wrong with making a dumbed-down village game for a smartphone, but slapping the Animal Crossing name on this is a different level of misleading. And yet wallets opened wide.

At least Nintendo's mobile follow-up, Dragalia Lost, bothered with some actual GAMEPLAY (however thin) instead of following the exact same tack. Makes me hopeful that Mario Kart's mobile version might have some fun and gameplay, as well, but that's just not guaranteed in a world where Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp makes money.

Click to shrink...

But really, people should've seen it coming even when the whole mobile thing began they said they weren't going to release "real games" of their IPs.

 

[Stopdoor]

But really, people should've seen it coming even when the whole mobile thing began they said they weren't going to release "real games" of their IPs.

Click to shrink...

It's still a marriage of the best with the worst though. Like, weirdly high quality models and mechanics you'd expect from Nintendo, whittled down with the most obnoxiously overbearing UI and resource management complexity, definitely targeting a large audience of like, 10 year old girls probably? And just corrupting all that's good with purely manipulative, unfun drudgery.

It's just especially "un-Nintendo", cut-down mobile or not.

 

[Polioliolio]

So why exactly couldn't it just have been a standard animal crossing game?
Because mobile game design is bullshit and predatory, yes, even from the mighty and pure nintendo.

 

[Professor Beef]

It's the perfect evolution for Animal Crossing tbh

 

[mopinks]

I don't mind it but it ain't Animal Crossing

 

[TheCongressman]

The most bare bones AC experience you can get. I play it every few weeks for a few mins, but there's nothing there to keep me engaged. I only bother with it because I'm thirsty for the Switch game.

Yeah, the UX is excruciating. The loading, constant screen transitions, so many different menus, info overload. Ugh. Someone else said it well, far from relaxing.

There were a few good additions I hope they expand on though. Friendship level is interesting. Make it less of a carrot on a stick/progression gate, and more about reflecting actual interactions between you and your villagers, you know, like a sim. I also like the addition of materials. Gathering wood and other resources other than bells is fun and could mix up the mainline in a good way.

 

[maximumzero]

I did my best to enjoy it but it descended quickly into visitors requesting furniture with way too high requirements and it was either grind away or put money into the game and FUCK that.