Don't mess with Animal Crossing

by JC Fletcher { Nov 25th 2007 at 12:00PM }

This video of a sped-up Animal Crossing cleanup initiative highlights one of the weirdest design decisions made for the game: weeds. We get the idea of encouraging the player to keep up a daily routine, but by punishing you for not playing, after a certain amount of time you no longer want to play the game again. We have long since exiled ourselves from our town, out of fear of facing a weed-infested wasteland, full of cute, yet angry neighbors who hate us for ruining their shot at getting that glasses case over to Admiral.

Of course, two minutes of pulling weeds would not be entertaining at all to watch if Games Radar hadn't applied the basic principles of British comedy, as exemplified by Benny Hill: 1) speed up footage and 2) overdub "Yakety Sax".

Tags: animal-crossing, animalcrossing, weeds, yakety-sax

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Backslash @ Nov 25th 2007 12:24PM

I could never keep weedin' everything in ol' Newville. Unfortunately, I think the weeds there have gone sentient. They're probably waiting for me to play again so they can choke me to death.

mslecter @ Nov 25th 2007 12:49PM

I can't really remember the last time I played this game. But I did remember doing some weeding and hated it. God, it already is annoying enough to be doing weeding in real life, but to actually be forced to do it in a game when all you really care is to forget the number of times you cut yourself with thorns (by weeding, of course), is just cruel. And besides, thou shalt love thy neighbours as thyself, right? ;-D

pimpybra @ Nov 25th 2007 12:56PM

I've never played this game, but it reminds me of the Simpsons episode, where Bart/Lisa won't do yard work, but they go to a science museum and are overly excited about the Virtual Yard Work exhibit.

My question is, does this game require you to weed even if you play daily?

Zach S @ Nov 25th 2007 5:36PM

There's minimal weeding every day (like one every few minutes) but if you let it go, oooooh boy, you're in for like an hour of serious weeding! Yup, I'm also afraid to go back to my town now O_O

raindog @ Nov 25th 2007 1:17PM

Yakety Sax makes ANYTHING funny.

And yeah, Animal Crossing adds weeds to your town every day, possibly every time you load the game.

Mr Khan @ Nov 25th 2007 1:16PM

That video made me laugh

Animal Crossing can pull all the ranges of emotions, apparently, after seeing that tear-jerking YTMND, and knowing how infuriating some play elements can be

dreamparacite @ Nov 25th 2007 2:41PM

I'm glad someone made the sacrifice to make a video like that. That must have been UBER BORING. Not only that, it was sped up and it still took 2 minutes to watch...did this take hours in real life?!

rach @ Nov 25th 2007 3:31PM

a far more fun way to do it is to get a group of your mates over on the old wi-fi and have a competition to see who can pick the most before they're all gone. it's way better picking someone else's weeds than your own, especially if they give you free stuff. or alternatively you could just accidentally leave your year-and-a half-old copy of AC:WW on a train, thereby losing your fully paid off mansion, completed fossil collection, carefully cultivating hybrid flowers, and basically your entire village, forever and having to start all over again :'(

jesus_bon_jovi @ Nov 25th 2007 5:21PM

I believe Animal Crossing adds 3 weeds per day. Though i dont know if after a long time it really adds up exactly.

Blast Processing Megadrive @ Nov 25th 2007 10:12PM

He got four four-leaf clovers. :D

DESTROYER! @ Nov 26th 2007 4:07AM

i got a good laugh or two out of this. brilliant video :) makes me remember how much i hate weeding in game and IRL.

Jack @ Nov 26th 2007 7:50AM

I have had more... just set your DS's clock a few years ahead :D.

Nukie @ Nov 26th 2007 2:00PM

You get 3 new weeds each day. A proliferation of weeds like this comes from time traveling, usually to make interest on the your money in the bank. You don't have to pick the weeds if you don't want, unless you are going for Perfect Town status. Weeds can be your friends...especially if you don't have any real ones of your own.