2024 has been an astounding year for wholesome and cozy game fans. Cozy Grove 2 came to mobile, Infold recently released Infinity Nikki, and we also got Animal Crossing Pocket Camp: Complete. Though it kind of came out of nowhere, it seems to have refreshed the game’s community, but is it worth it? Let’s find out.
I wasn’t massively sure that a complete version of this game needed to happen, but it’s sucked me right back in and now I’ve got a newly revamped camp and home – and decked all my campers out with fancy clothes. Granted, I have played the game off and on, usually around Halloween every year since its release, but this offline and non-paid edition has revitalized my need to play.
Nintendo announced Pocket Camp Complete in October, followed by a shutdown of the original on November 28. The refreshed game was released a whole day earlier than the planned December 3, popping up early in the morning on December 2. It currently costs $9.99, rising to $19.99 at the end of January. I’d be lying if I said playing the last couple of hours before the game went offline wasn’t a little sad, with Isabelle’s goodbye and taking a cute photo with my favorite villagers. But then in a couple of days, I was back in action as campground manager.
Opening the game starts you in a room with friends you added in the online version, and then KK Slider and Isabelle come to greet you. Heading to a new snowy mountaintop area called Whistle Pass, KK sets up a little stage where your friends can hang out. You can then ask these other users to help you out in the quarry, and sometimes they’ll give you presents.
Now, you can’t add people by visiting them online anymore, but you can scan QR codes on each camper’s individual cards. This is super easy to set up, and you get what resembles your very own Animal Crossing amiibo card, complete with your chosen campsite helper villager if you want.
After greeting your now offline friends, you can then get on with your usual tasks of gifting what villagers ask for, fishing, collecting fruit, catching bugs, or decorating. You can also go on a shopping spree, now that Leaf Tickets are gone. What? How? Surely I won’t have any currency, you say. Oh, sweet child, quite the opposite.
The microtransaction-filled Leaf Ticket store is no more, and you can’t spend any money in this version of the game. Instead, there are Leaf Tokens, a currency you can readily earn without too much effort, and from what I’ve seen so far, they are way more abundant than Leaf Tickets ever were. The best thing is that previous collections of event-specific items are back, and you can simply buy them. It’s amazing. I’ve already got so many new clothing items and fun furniture pieces that I don’t know what theme to go with for my camp.
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of furniture and clothing items to get your hands on, but you don’t just have to use Leaf Tokens for it. You can also access every single cookie ever implemented into the game and trade them for Complete Tickets, instead of a silly amount of Leaf Tickets. These Complete Tickets aren’t even that rare, so you can fill up on everything from Cranston’s temple gazebo to Pancetti’s beauty store counter cookies.
While this is all great, we recommend you actually spend your Complete Tickets in the crafting menu. You’ll see an orange curtain with ‘complete item catalog’ on it – here, there’s a trove of exclusive and previously unattainable items if you didn’t get them during an event. This includes 54 items with NPCs from the series to place in your camp! Redd’s mask stall? One ticket. Blathers’ work desk? Also one ticket. Even a placeable fortune stand complete with Katrina costs only one ticket.
Along with a revamped economy, there are some other changes. The game has had some visual upgrades as everything from the menu screen to the item catalog looks smoother. We’re also promised four new themes of cookies spread out across the next year, to keep us fed before the inevitable rerun of every cookie ever released.
The biggest change, though, is the integration of QR code usage in the game so you can transfer any custom patterns you made in Animal Crossing New Horizons over to Pocket Camp Complete. That’s right, all the cursed island flags and cutesy dress designs are now available to deck your camper out with.
I’m glad that Pocket Camp has renewed my Animal Crossing playtime a little especially since, you know, there were barely any real ACNH updates outside of things that really should have been in the game at launch. It makes me long for what could have been in the Switch title. Why is it that there are hundreds of items modeled and ready to go, that never got brought over? Even some items from New Leaf on the DS never made it back, and I’ll never know why.
While I don’t want a live-service part in the Switch game, adding even a fraction of the outfits and hairstyles would have been a huge upgrade. Imagine if the almost endless furniture options were available in the Happy Home Paradise design section – I’d be there for weeks making a single house for any villager.
I can only hope that the next Animal Crossing mainline game gets some of the love that went into Pocket Camp. I mean, the mobile game even has different varieties of shells never seen in the console games. Have you ever heard of a guildfordia yoka? I hadn’t, but I found it on the beach in Pocket Camp and I’m sure Blathers would love to know about it.
Essentially, Pocket Camp Complete takes it back to the beginning where you didn’t feel forced to spend money and could earn enough currency to get what you want. With the upgrades to visuals, too, it’s just a much better experience and feels more Animal Crossing-y and wholesome once again.