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How different is Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp to the console and handheld editions?

Weighing up the differences

How different is Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp to the console and handheld editions?

There's always a concern when big franchises get a mobile version that everything fans love about a series will be thrown out so the experience can fit the smaller screen.

With Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, that doesn't seem to be true – it's a very faithful version of the life simulation series that you know and love.

To highlight this further, we decided to point out the many ways Pocket Camp is just like its bigger brothers, along with some ways it differs.

Exploration

Pocket Camp still gives you the freedom to run around an area, chatting to your animal friends, and picking up the many fruits of the world.

There's a little less freedom than usual, however. You can only fish or catch bugs in specific parts of the map, and from what we've seen so far, chopping down trees is totally out.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

You also can't roam freely from one area to another. Instead, each section is accessed by a map screen, and if you try to walk out of an area, you simply get taken to the map.

It captures the essence of a main Animal Crossing entry in its smaller screens, but it does feel slightly limited in terms of scope.

Item gathering

Don't worry, you still need to shake trees to grab fruit and other random items, and you still need to fish in the right spots to get fish.

As far as fruit goes, there's now only a handful of trees in the game's world that bear each type of fruit, and once you've retrieved the goods you'll have to wait in real-time for it to refresh before you can shake it again.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

This isn't unlike the console editions of the game – in fact, you only have to wait three hours for some more fruit to grow, compared to a full day or more in other titles.

And you can always speed this process up using fertiliser, or any of the other single-use items that gift you a bunch of items in one fell swoop, though you'll need Leaf Tickets to buy these.

Hanging out

In terms of spending time with your animal chums, Pocket Camp takes inspiration from both the main series of games and spin-off Happy Home Designer.

You're still encouraged to wander about, meet people at their homes, run errands for them, and chat about various things, as you would in a main entry.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

But you also need to make sure your campsite is up to their standards, with each new friend coming equipped with a list of requirements before they'll come hang out.

Get the right furniture in place and you'll even get a cutscene of them testing it out when they first show up – just like Happy Home Designer.

But this is a mobile game, so it also ties into the metagame. Make friends and level up these friendships, and you too will level up, unlocking rewards and new items to craft.

Ric Cowley
Ric Cowley
Ric was somehow the Editor of Pocket Gamer, having started out as an intern in 2015. He hopes to take over the world the same way.