I played Animal Crossing

The original on the Game Cube.

I recently found an old memory card labeled AC. The town on it called Bordello, my brother and I used to check in daily. We kept the place clean, had a well cared for orchard of all kinds, even money (as much as you can since they die after three harvests.) We had completed the museum. The residents were happy. Our town was nice.

That was more than ten years ago.

Now there were weeds everywhere and trees had sprouted up all over the place. And most of the residents had moved away.

Now, I could have started again: deleted the town my brother and I had abandoned, get all new debt, work again to have all the things we had earned together.

I could have done that. But that's not the point of this game.

I knew what needed to be done. Rolled up my sleeves and started pulling weeds. Walked in and out of my house and killed cockroaches, introduced myself to me new neighbors, and re introduced myself to the old. Somehow Rosie had never left, and even showed me a letter that my brother had sent her.

Because that's what the game is about. Living life with those around you. Yes, it may feel, and sometimes be, that you're doing all of the work. But you do it because it's your town, it's where you live, and you want to make it better than it was from the last time. Be it a day, or nearly fifteen years.

You meet your neighbors, get involved in what's going on and work hard. And you get to live in a place that, while not perfect, is your own.

There's a definite satisfaction watching how the town improves, and knowing that you're the one responsible for how well things are going. And even back when all the towns were the same, none ever felt like yours.

Also, just bringing up, the games you would get in animal crossing were actual Nintendo games. I played my Animal Crossing copy of the original Mario Bros. and had plenty of fun with that too. I had forgotten that with this game you effectively got several more with it. I don't remember if my brother had all of the games available, but we both had a lot.