The most important thing to remember is that you are under no obligation to take any action. It's also possible to simply leave Animal Crossing running in the background, potentially reaping the kinds of pleasures that Brian Eno had in mind when he created Ambient 1: Music for Airports, which he intended to be as ignorable as it is interesting. As New Leaf art director Ryuji Kobayashi hoped, you'll be able to take in the changing colors of the sky throughout the course of the day.

As a result, we arrive at the truly inspired innovation that lies at the heart of much of Animal Crossing's poetry and magic: the way the game syncs with your gaming console's calendar and clock (which is displayed in the game). During the day—and Animal Crossing bell does feel like a game that you can visit, similar to your local Zen garden—you'll find that the villagers are out enjoying the sunshine. It's a nice touch that when you check in late at night, the game appears to channel some of the sensations of the world outside your window. This includes information about the actual phase of the moon, which is a nice touch. Seasons and holidays change in the virtual world just as they do in the real world; just this past Wednesday morning, cherry blossoms bloomed everywhere in the virtual world of New Horizons players' personal paradises, just as they do in the real world.

After considering incorporating real-world weather conditions into the game, the Animal Crossing bell development team quickly realized that no player who lives in an area where it rains all of the time would want to play a game where it rains all of the time. So they decided to abandon that idea. It is still possible to feel connected to other worlds, even in the absence of shared weather systems, even when there are no shared weather systems. The profound impression of a place that exists beyond the looking glass of your television screen even after your console has been turned off is created by Animal Crossing NMT, in contrast to other video games. The lingering effect works both ways: "I would like something from the game to remain in them after they have finished playing," Nogami said in an interview with Nintendo of Europe. "I would like something from the game to remain in them after they have finished playing."

It's true that, at a time when video games were attempting to torture the thumbs of increasingly skilled players, creator and codirector Katsuya Eguchi (who made his name designing levels for Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World) wished for everyone to pick up a controller and give it their all. Compared to those games, the game that first hit the shelves in 2002, as well as the subsequent installments, had more in common with the serene centerlessness of Monet's Water Lilies. You were invited, in hushed tones, to devote a small portion of your day on a daily basis to it, as if it were more of a thing with which you could commune than something with which you could beat.