I woke too early for schedule Thursday morning and managed to avoid writing anything by picking up my DS. I had intended to relax, but I went for the old game of Animal Crossing: Wild World, from which I had been absent for ten months, according to the animal-character friends of my playable character, Alexa.
I remember ACWW well from my childhood. If we ignore the various absences I took for my schoolife, I have been playing that game for a good eight years or so – since my last year of Primary School. Because it’s not a ‘platform’ or level game, the gameplay is infinite according to the needs of the user. And I have quite a lot of history with ACWW – before I became a ‘proper’ writer, I had written the tales of my character(s) into an on-going story that charted their life in a sleepy town trying to get rich. ‘Write what you know’ indeed! After that, I swapped its first-person past format for a choose-your-own add-venture of sorts.
So, there I came, playing the game again. It’s amazing how I remember the majority of the controls, except A and Y, which I keep getting mixed up. And, as I probably had done many a time before, I set myself (or more precisely: Alexa) some goals:
In order to complete the list of bugs: 1. Catch an Oak Silk Moth
2. Catch a scorpion
3. Catch the bug absent from each character’s lists. (edit: I looked it up, and I’m missing a Banded Dragonfly.)
Well, the Oak Silk Moth… Time was almost 11pm on that Thursday night when I finally spotted the broad wings spread across a tree. I shouldn’t have taken so long to come across one large bug, but I did spend the hours trailing. I edged up close to the waterbank, halting at every cautious flutter of the creature’s wings. I’d lost it to haste before; I wasn’t going to spend these nights within the same fate.
Then, ‘snap’ came the net, across the goliath bug. Caught, it flapped helplessly in my hands as it displayed it and my pride.
As for the scorpion…well, I was about to give up on Friday night at 11.30, having been bitten twice by scorpions and once by a tarantula (the two Arachnids basically play the same role). The sneaky critters are on the attack – my second encounter with a scorpion was a casual trip to the beach, where it was lurking and pounced on me before I even know of its presence in that place. As you can guess, after this time, I was formulating a plan. The scorpions (and tarantulas) like the offensive – therefore, I had two options: attack at senseless speed and hope to be the first, or sneak up and hope the creature doesn’t smell/see me. I’m not afraid of these in real life (okay, maybe tarantulas…), but in the game they bear a pretty menacing shuffle.
As I said, I was about to give up, when I heard some familiar rustling from the bridge near my position. A scorpion, rotating on the point as I walked up to it.
I walked back down the other way. In fact, I ran, happy to see that it didn’t follow. I tested the creature a couple more times, pushing myself as close as I could without it tracking me. Then, one of my neighbours starting walking about the night, causing the beast to shuffle horizontally.
But this could add to my plan… It worked to my advantage. I had little time, and, with a tired mind, I lunged, net waving, in the attack at senseless speed option.
But I threw my net down – and the white flag hit its target!
11pm… I don’t think I’ve been out in my town, Joyville, so late before. My audio memory tolled only faint bells about the hourly music, though it reminded me partly of Professor Layton cafe scene motifs. At that time, Nookington’s plays a lullabic version of God Save the King minutes before closing. It’s rather bizarre, to be honest.
It feels as if I have done so much since I re-started/continued playing. I caught two sharks (one great white, one hammerhead), discovered two fish that Alexa hadn’t previously, and saw a shooting star, though I was too slow to wish on it.
And a squirrel friend told me, “You ought to get stoked up about your writing, too.” Indeed!
I should be Alexa more often. Hehe, I love being a gamer. This is oddly fulfilling.
I found an awesome full list of the bugs (in order, too), including selling prices and peak catching times.
Alexandrina Brant 
Animal Crossing!! It was one of my favourite Wii games (I never had a DS). I made most of my money from shaking trees, I’m afraid, but catching fish was second. So many days spent lying in wait for a shark! Glad I’m not the only teenager who still loves such games – and I love how you use it as inspiration for a blog post.
Yay! Ah, I think shaking trees created my anxiety of loads of dots together – by that, I mean the gross pattern produced by bee stings across the character’s eye. However, I did actually have to fine the bees for Alexa to catch them, but I didn’t look at the screen after she was stung, unless she had her back to me.
Yes, sharks… Oh, the trouble we go to to catch rare fish/bugs…
Hehe, I thank you. Hence there is a ‘Sims and Gaming’ category on my blog. You should check out some of the other posts if you like seeing gaming as my inspiration. I was thinking of going on sims this afternoon, actually.
😦 Shame even games can lastingly harm us 😦
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquillity is the video game with which I have the most devoted history. I have an online guide in My Favourites well over a million bytes in size. The recompletion of that game got me through moving house last summer 😛
Ah, Sims…the King of virtual inspiration.
Indeed… 😦
Ah, I had the DS version of Harvest Moon for a while and I was happily doing well – but then a friend overwrited my game by saving hers in the wrong slot and I couldn’t bring myself to start over, so I sold the game. I do miss that game, though.
Guides are great. I still have the FreeTime guide and I still refer to it. I have been looking for the other expansive guides, but they are nowhere to be foud [in shops. If I could search the online…]
😀
Agh, such carelessness.
I like the fact there’s a story to follow with Harvest Moon, whereas my main motivation on Animal Crossing was collectables, and later simply the money.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ <This site has everything. Sims 2 starts on page 17 in the PC S section, I believe 😉
Collectables… Oh, yes, That’s the reason I’m still playing (as outlined in the post). THowever, money has come into it. Now I’ve printed a sheet of all the fish, I find myself catching too many for my pockets and swapping for those which would make a killing at Nook’s.
The only problem with storylines is that they end. I have quite a fun level game ‘Drawn to Life’, where the title is well reflecting of gameplay; eg. in one of the first levels, the unique character needs a surfboard and the user gets to design it in the parametres. But it’s stlil a level game, and I’ve sadly, exhausted all there is to conquer or design.
Hmph.
Yes, they do end! But then…then you can go back and play all over again!
Nah, it does rather spoil the mysterious/creative element if you know exactly how most efficiently to complete it. But I do like a game with a goal.
But do you…? (i don’t)
And, yeah, that.
I have that game! I share it with my kids. One of the kids actually got the 10% chance of growing coconuts to grow and all over the place too! I named my town Edo (the original name of Tokyo).
😀 I bet it’s great fun with your kids. I know if I had kids I’d encourage them to experience it. Edo is an awesome name.