Last night (US time) Nintendo introduced the new Animal Crossing mobile game in a distinctly Nintendo way, through a pre-recorded Nintendo Direct video. The game is called Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and it’s arriving on iOS and Android in just about a month, in ‘late November.’ It will be free to download with in-app purchases. You can watch the entire 15-minute Animal Crossing Mobile Direct above.
“As our past mobile games have proved, we love taking established and well-loved franchises and transforming them for the ways players use their devices,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior VP of Sales and Marketing. “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is great for newcomers to the series as well as longtime fans, and ideal for people playing on a mobile device.”
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is all about helping townsfolk gather supplies so you can build furniture and buy clothes. You play as a customizable manager of a campgrounds of familiar animal faces. Instead of a house you’ll have an RV camper you can decorate and fill with furniture. You also use your camper to travel between locations, including a forest, river, and island (wait, how do you take your RV to an island?).
A hallmark of the Animal Crossing series is a real-time clock with a day-night cycle. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will sync up with your local time, changing the scenery and altering the schedule of campers depending on the time of day.
Helping the campers and fulfilling their requests will raise their friendship level. In turn they can come visit you. You can also meet human campers, which are real player avatars. Friends as well as random players can populate your campsite, and you can trade with them and add them as friends so you can visit each other’s campgrounds.
Bells will be the main currency, but you can also use Leaf Tickets to speed up construction or purchases, as well as replace missing resources for crafting. Leaf Tickets can be earned in game and also purchased with real money. The game is otherwise free to download and play.
Nintendo promises to offer seasonal events and limited-time outfits and furniture after the game’s release.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will launch on iOS and Android in late November.
