The Handheld Wars: Seeking the Right Priorities First
When Sony chose to challenge Nintendo, the reigning king of portable gaming, in a battle for handheld supremacy, Microsoft wisely chose to stay out of the fight at that time. […]
Rare: The Open Doors We May Not be Meant to Walk Through
Microsoft has made studio acquisitions one of their top priorities from the very beginning, and one of their first major purchases was “Rare”, a team known for creating hits for […]
KK Slider’s Weekly Jam: Exclusivity vs. Accessibility
KK Slider’s weekly appearances are one of my favorite parts of Animal Crossing, and because his performances are so fun to experience it is disappointing that they are held so […]
Dealing With a Disappointing Season in Animal Crossing (and in Life)
As the seasons come and go, games that exist in real time like Animal Crossing can carry both joy and regret… despite our best efforts, the hopes and expectations we […]
Animal Crossing: The Best Gifts of All
The citizens that populate the world of Animal Crossing truly love giving gifts, and many times the only way to acquire some of these rare and thoughtful one-of-a-kind items is […]
Crafting the Rarest Items in Animal Crossing: Turning the Ordinary into the Extraordinary
Crafting items in games like Animal Crossing typically involves the combination of some rare, hard-to-find items with other fairly normal and ordinary materials. For example, crafting a golden shovel involves […]
Animal Crossing: Being a “Good Neighbor” to the “Uneighborly”
Our “neighbors” in Animal Crossing add to the experience in more ways than one… some are kind, others are prickly, and all of them will come to us needing our […]
Nintendo’s Family of Games: Understanding how the Same God Gives Different Answers to Prayer
There is just something about a game created by Nintendo that makes each title feel like they come from the exact same family of games, even though they couldn’t be […]
“Cozy Gaming” in Animal Crossing and Finding Peace in our Storm
One of the reasons the Animal Crossing series has remained so popular after all these years is that it skillfully blends small daily surprises with a warm feeling of comfort […]
Animal Crossing and A “Seasonal” Opportunity
While crafting new items is a core part of the Animal Crossing experience throughout the year, the unique crafting recipes and resources that can ONLY be obtained during specific seasonal […]
Finding God in Video Games 