I’ve spent a big chunk of this year revisiting one of my favourite eras in modern gaming: that of the Nintendo Wii. While this era introduced me to so many memorable household classics like and , younger me had a finer taste for small town gossip that only one anthropomorphic franchise could quell. I didn’t spend as much time with as I did with its DS predecessor , but since revisiting the Wii instalment, I’ve been yearning for a certain /Stars Hollow-esque quality that has never quite fulfilled.
Older games were a place for characters to be the worst versions of themselves, and in my ripe old age I’m appreciating that more and more. Blathers had higher anxiety, the Label family tea felt juicier, Lyle was (and still is) probably entrenched in some elaborate insurance grift, and even Resetti had to be . Players who have only been exposed to don’t know the trauma attached to Tom Nook.
They weren’t introduced to the version of him that exploited us for labour without bells, and made us wear a uniform that washed out our cool tones. Sure, maybe now he’s taken new form as a benevolent island landlord, but seeing him as a childhood villain gave me some fodder to chew on in my own head canon. Bring back the old Animal Crossing dialogue While I’m definitely going to hell for laughing at the Resetti edits, these on-the-nose character traits did effectively prime me to disassociate through the ramblings of equally annoying men in adulthood.
Dialogue in older instalments.
