Introduction

I'm sure most of us have traditions, New Year's being one of them. But what about video games or movies? Do you play a particular game or watch a particular movie during a certain time of every year?

I got Animal Crossing for the GameCube in Dec. 2006. I still have my original copy of the game, and have played it every year since. I've also celebrated New Year's in the game every year since, and it is sort of a tradition. I've since also played Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS, and have celebrated New Year's in that game too.

Since I've played Animal Crossing for almost two decades, I thought I might as well make a blog about it. I might make a more thorough blog about these games someday, but for now I'd like to talk about the New Year's celebrations in the original Animal Crossing for GameCube and Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS.

Celebrating New Year's in Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing (GameCube)

Ah yes, the original Animal Crossing...still my favorite game in the series. One of the best games on the GameCube, and a game that I can play pretty much every year.

As I said in the intro, I got Animal Crossing in Dec. 2006. I got it at an HMV that still had a few copies left more than four years after the game was released (Sept. 2002). I can still remember seeing pictures of it in 2002, thinking it was weird that it looked like an N64 game (and later found out that it was originally released for the N64 in Japan). When I finally got the game, the main reason why I decided to get it was because of the many NES games that are included in it (including major NES games like Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Punch-Out!!, and Wario's Woods). As I played it for the first time on a cold winter day, I noticed that, while getting the NES games was a priority, the actual game of Animal Crossing was and still is pretty darn good. Moving into a town (with a randomly generated layout), getting your own house, getting lots of furniture, changing weather and seasons, making lots of friends, and celebrating real-life events like Valentines Day and New Year's Eve. All really cool stuff.

Beginning at 11:00 PM, your character and his/her friends are told to go to your town's lake for the New Year's countdown. During the countdown, you can talk to any of the characters who showed up, including Tortimer (who is the Mayor). Whoever's standing beside the countdown sometimes announces how much time is left until the new year (half an hour, ten minutes, etc.). Everyone gets more and more excited and nervous. During the final minute of the year, the characters are silent and you can hear the countdown (which gets louder during the final ten seconds). Once the new year begins, fireworks goes off, everyone wishes each other Happy New Year, and everyone sings and dances.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1104119176686105

From 12 AM to 1 AM, if you walk away from the celebration to other areas of your town, a rendition of the song "Auld Lang Syne" plays (no joke...this game has it all).

I've celebrated New Year's in this game since 2006, and am going to continue doing so. I'm also going to continue playing it other days of the year. I've also celebrated New Year's in Dōbutsu no Mori e+, the updated Japanese version of the game from 2003. This version of the game has a snapshot feature and SD Card support. This picture was saved onto the GameCube's SD Card accessory released in Japan and transferred to my computer years ago.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)

In 2019, I bought the "Welcome amiibo" edition of Animal Crossing: New Leaf (which has several additions and improvements compared to the original release from 2012). It was my go-to game during the pandemic, along with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Switch. Like the original Animal Crossing, I celebrate New Year's in New Leaf though not every year. 

As expected, the New Year's celebration in this game is similar to the original Animal Crossing but there are some changes. Instead of by a lake, the event is located by a tree. Instead of a random character, the New Year's Celebration is announced by a character named Isabelle (who was introduced in this game, and is your character's secretary). If you talk to her, she'll give you some Cider to drink. As in the original game, you can talk to characters who showed up to the event and, of course, there are fireworks. Also, because this game has a view that's behind your character instead of above, the camera/view can move up so you can actually see the fireworks in the sky (rather than their reflections in the water).

There's not much else to say. It's New Year's Eve, and well...it's obviously going to be very similar no matter which Animal Crossing game you play,

While similar, I think I like the New Year's Celebration in the original Animal Crossing a little bit more. Having "Auld Lang Syne" play at 12 AM in the original was a nice touch.

Conclusion

This is my 30th blog, and it is complete.

This blog is obviously a lot shorter than my other blogs. That was intentional. I wanted to do two things: make a New Year's blog and talk about Animal Crossing. There's not much to say about either that hasn't already been said, but I still felt it was necessary to make a blog about Animal Crossing. And celebrating New Year's in the original has been a tradition of mine since 2006, so I thought that maybe now would be good time to make a blog about that. Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year.

-MegaMan52