Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

When Nintendo announced that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp would be shutting down in November 2024, it meant the end of an era. The game had been running for seven years, bringing beloved franchise favorites to mobile devices and adding new content.

Fortunately, although the game was losing its live service element, Nintendo chose to keep it available to play for a one-time fee. Pocket Camp Complete would be a way for fans to keep playing the game without the microtransactions. There would no longer be new content added, but the title would include all the content, items, and events that it had amassed over seven years.

Now, nearly a year after the game made the switch, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is still very much worth playing—especially with no new franchise title on the horizon.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Still Feels Fresh Years Later

Its Innovations Should Be Carried On To Other AC Games

Now that I’ve been playing it for a year, I firmly believe that Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is one of the best Animal Crossing games. It includes so many elements that I wish the mainline games had, and I hope Nintendo carries on to future titles.

It’s a designer’s dream, with three main locations to decorate, each with multiple levels. I can save and pull out design templates, encouraging me to experiment and try new things with the knowledge that I can just revert to a previous design.

I can invite any of the 400+ villagers to my campsite and cabin after I unlock them (which is super easy to do), choose to let the game randomize them daily for a fresh batch of faces, or a mix of both. Pocket Camp even fixes my biggest pet peeve from New Horizons, by making many of the decorations and furniture items interactive—often in delightfully unexpected ways.

The result is a game that makes me smile every time I open it up, and feels remarkably fresh for a nearly eight-year-old game that’s technically no longer supported by its creator.

Making Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp A Paid Game Was The Right Call

I’m Glad I Got The Chance To Experience It

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp character standing next to eggbert in a bookstore themed cabin

At a time when online games keep shutting down and leaving fans without their money’s worth, Nintendo’s choice to keep AC: PC going as a paid title was a refreshing one.

News that Pocket Camp would be shutting down after seven long years was a bittersweet one, but it would have been much more devastating if players had to say goodbye to the campsites that they’d spent years building up.

I struggle to keep up with mobile games, especially when forgoing a month or two means falling behind or missing out on content. I briefly tried Pocket Camp when it first launched in 2017, but due to the need to check in every day, the game didn’t quite click with me.

That means I wouldn’t have gotten to experience the joys of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp if it had never switched to a paid app. I might be a relative newcomer to the title, playing it for under a year, but I’m glad I got a chance to take part in this delightful Animal Crossing gem, and I plan to continue playing for a long time.