A Plea To All Animal Crossing_ New Leaf Players Out There

Hey. How’s it going? Are you having fun digging up fossils and being the mayor of your town? Yeah? I’m glad. Will you have a seat? No, calm down. This isn’t an intervention per se, but…listen, we need to talk. I’ve noticed something while playing New Leaf. At first, I thought I was just imagining the frequency of Nintendo items, rummy noble gyroids and balloon items. “Surely,” I thought to myself, “All these Nintendo items in people’s houses on StreetPass are just a phase. After the novelty wears off, I’ll definitely start seeing houses with rad, unique decorations.”cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"804057638","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"uncategorized","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"uncategorized","TAGS":"nintendo","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); And yet, house after house, there it was. Koopa shells and question blocks, gyroid basement after gyroid basement, rooms dedicated to the furniture you catch from floating balloon gifts. The houses might look different on the outside, and they might even have slightly different layouts inside, but really, they were all variations of the same house. The same house built by people in different cities, states, countries—something that strikes me as more “eerie” than any basement church dedicated to gyroids ever could. I get it, I do. It’s not like the Nintendo-themed items, which you can only get through play coins, aren’t cool. They’re superbly cool! I appreciate seeing all the nods to other Nintendo franchises, especially when many of the items in the Nintendo set are interactive. The theory is that Haniwa house the souls of the dead, which changes the way you look at all the dancing and songs gyroids do in Animal Crossing. And the gyroids? Also mega-cool. Did you know that they’re based on clay figures that are buried with the dead in Japan during the Kofun period? These are called “Haniwa.” The theory, according to Wikipedia, is that Haniwa house the souls of the dead, which kind of changes the way you look at all the dancing and songs gyroids do in Animal Crossing, doesn’t it? When you dig up a gyroid, the implication is that you’re digging up a grave. Woah. Then we have balloon items: I know I’m not the only person that gets excited every time a present floats overhead. I don’t even care what’s inside, I’m more than happy to pull out my slingshot rummy satta and pull the present down—even though I know it’s only a matter of time before the presents start repeating themselves. It’s still a cool set to collect. The problem is that everyone else thinks so, too. Filling your house with these items is Animal Crossing’s equivalent of having all players pick Ken in Street Fighter, or having everyone play the same class (typically sniper) in a shooter. This is my plea: please, for the love of god, do something unique with your house. This is a selfish request, to be sure—I keep going into houses that are boring and familiar where I can’t buy anything off the HHA Showcase—but it’s also a selfless one, to a rummy star degree. I’d love to see what you’re capable of producing, of seeing your inner interior decorator shine. In a game that’s all about self-expression, it feels disappointing to have many people express themselves in the same way. I’d like to think there’s more to Animal Crossing players than liking Nintendo items, or having a fascination with gyroids or balloon animals. And when you make your cool, one-of-a-kind house? If you throw some Nintendo items, or gyroids, or balloon items, they’ll be more notable than usual. So go out there, and make something so unforgettable that it’ll make people on SpotPass save your house to their favorites. I believe in you.