How to Play Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Gamecube

Animal Crossing is definitely a fun game. But, when I first started playing Animal Crossing, I didn't know what to do. I had to look up guides and videos to figure out how to play. It took many hours trying to figure out the extent to what I can do. I have taken all the information I learned and put them into one spot for ease of access. This game is definitely worth the reading and is very addicting.

When you first open Animal Crossing, you'll want to create a new game if you haven't already. To do so, click the 'Start' button and follow the prompts to make a new game. When you first start, you will start on a bus and a cat named Rover will talk to you. He'll ask your name, gender, and the name of the town you are heading to. Of course, he won't just plain ask you these. He'll strike up a conversation with you. The name and city are straight forward, but when you are asked about your gender, if you say 'cute' you will become a girl and if you say 'cool' you will become a boy.

Rover will ask if you have a place to stay and after figuring out that you do not, he will tell you that he will talk to his friend that owns a store. When you get to the city you created, go to the store he was talking about and his friend, Tom Nook, will give you a house to live in.

Learn more about selling items in Animal Crossing here.

In order to live in the house that Tom Nook gave you, you must repay the debt you have to him. To do this, you need Bells (the currency of Animal Crossing). At first, Tom Nook will have you do a couple jobs for him to earn some Bells. After though, you'll need to get creative with the ways you earn Bells.

• To get Bells, collect everything you can and sell it to Tom Nook.
• Find the money rock.
• Do odd jobs for your neighbors.
• Turnips!

When you are collecting things, make sure to find the dump and collect the things that people have thrown away. Anything you don't want sell. You can also catch bugs, dig, fish, and collect apples from the trees.

The money rock is a rock, that when hit with a shovel, gives you Bells depending on how many times you hit it in a set time. There is a strategy to getting the maximum number of Bells with the money rock that I won't cover in this article. Instead, look at the video provided to see how to use the money rock.

Neighbors are lazy in Animal Crossing. They'll usually always have a job for you to do for them. If you complete it, they'll usually give you a gift or money as a thank you gift. If you get an item you don't want, sell it for Bells!

Lastly, turnips. Turnips can be a risky thing to invest in. Every Sunday, a turnip salesperson will come to your city and sell turnips. After Sunday, you can go to Tom Nook's store and sell them to him for a great price. This is usually beneficial only if you can buy turnips in bulk. Be careful though, sometimes the prices aren't great and you'll end up losing money. Turnips also expire after a week.

Paying off your debt to Tom Nook is important. As you pay off your debt, you can get bigger houses and the store gets bigger. Bigger stores mean more inventory. As your house expands, you'll have more room to place your items in and you can get an even better house score.

Buying items in Animal Crossing is also important. You can buy axes to cut down trees, shovels to dig, nets to catch bugs, fishing poles, and so on. You can also buy furniture for your house to get a better house score along with stationary to write neighbors with.

Something you can do with the bugs, fish, and fossils you find is to donate them to the museum in your city. You don't get anything special for donating to the museum or completing all the collections but it is something fun to work towards.

When I play Animal Crossing, I usually donate all my firsts to the museum and then sell the rest to Tom Nook's store.

Decorating your house is very beneficial while playing Animal Crossing. The HRA (Happy Room Academy) grades your house based on how it looks. Decorate your house and make sure there are no cockroaches! There are many things you can do to boost the rating they give. The grading system goes as followed:

• 10,000 - Slob Alert
• 20,000 - A Bit Stylish
• 70,000 - Hip and Hot! (You also get a house model)
• 100,000 - Master Design! (You also get a manor model)

Doing Fung-Shui also helps during your gameplay in Animal Crossing. Each wall has a different color associated with it. If you put furniture with their wall, you can gain benefits!

• North is orange.
• East is red.
• South is green.
• West is yellow.

Just like the real world, your city in Animal Crossing has special events too. Look on the noticeboard next to the post office to see the upcoming events. They have special events on Holidays and other random days also.

Another thing you can do (which I didn't even know about until recently) is you can get married to one of your neighbors! It takes time and effort but it's pretty cool. In order to get married to a neighbor, pick a neighbor and send them love letters everyday along with a small gift. Talk to them often and visit them. Eventually, you'll get the option to marry them.

The great thing about Animal Crossing is that there are multiple ways to play the game. Because there is no real objective to the game, you can do whatever you want in it. The possibilities are endless which makes for amazing gameplay. Good luck and I hope you have fun playing Animal Crossing.