Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp came out around the world on November 21, and a whole lot of people started playing it. Despite a few days of frustrating server issues, I saw several of my friends and colleagues gladly submerge themselves in the hot new animal camp management simulator over Thanksgiving break. Strong starts are great (remember when the streets were crawling with Pokemon Go players?) but longevity is even more important for service-based games like Pocket Camp. Speaking of which, I have a quick question for you:
When Super Mario Run came out on iOS a year ago, it seemed like everybody was playing… for roughly four or five days. Then it fell into a bottomless pit while screaming "Oh, no!" I have a feeling that Pocket Camp's more low-key playstyle and lack of a "you must pay beyond this point" free-trial feeling will keep it in people's rotations for longer than that at least.
Personally, every time I start playing Pocket Camp I wonder why I'm not playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf instead. I miss being able to design my own clothes and fill out the museum with fossils and bugs, and my 3DS is still right where I left it after finishing Metroid: Samus Returns. Then I feel guilty for abandoning Isabelle to run my village all by herself for years at a time. Then I back out of Pocket Camp and play Flipflop Solitaire instead. Flipflop Solitaire is good.
With Miitomo, Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem: Heroes, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp all out to varying degrees of success, Nintendo has finally released all of its announced in-house mobile projects. I wonder where it will go next, and if we'll still be leveling up our animal friendships when Nintendo's next phone game arrives?
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