Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete review: Happy-ish camper

Animal Crossing is one of those series that means so much to a whole lot of people. It’s always been there with its simple premise, adorable creatures, soothing tunes, and Zen-like gameplay. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was the first time the series appeared on mobile and now, some seven years after its release, it’s available with a premium price point and a new “Complete” tag. If you didn’t play the original version, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete manages to be exactly the sort of mobile experience you need. For those that sunk countless hours into it already, this is essentially the same game that was released back in 2017, for better and for worse.

Pack your bags, it’s camping time

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete puts players in control of their own avatar and charges them with the management and decoration of their own campsite, camper van, and a cabin instead of a town. You’ll befriend animal characters that visit the neighbouring locations and complete requests for them by delivering locally sourced materials from said areas. There is, of course, plenty of fishing, catching bugs, collecting fruit, and crafting items for your campsite with all the materials you find and receive as rewards.

Much of the game is exactly the same as it was seven years ago, back when I was feverishly playing it every single night. But one of the standout differences is the incorporation of the subscription content into this version. Gone are the microtransactions! It’s great news, especially if you managed to hold out on spending money on the game, because with one payment you can access it all.

And what exactly is “it all”? Well, you can enjoy the Happy Helper Plan, the Furniture and Fashion Plan, and the Merry Memories Plan. All of these added something unique to the game, but it came at the cost of an ongoing subscription. Now, you can enjoy your own campsite helper, design and save layouts, get extra storage space, and even access your own journal, all without the monthly outlay.

It was definitely a bit confusing back in the day trying to work out what you needed. It was also pretty expensive! It’s great that we now get to access all of these features through one single payment.

However, many of these subscription offerings feel undercooked. You get a journal, but you can’t write in it. You can buy stickers to stamp in it, but the stickers are single-use. It comes close to being something really neat but doesn’t quite get the tent pegs all the way into the ground.

Checking out the new hotspots

While the main appeal of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete is the inclusion of the previously subscription-based content, it has a couple of new additions to add a social element in an attempt to replace the ones that were removed. These are in the form of the Camper Cards and Whistle Pass.

Camper Cards are a customizable profile card featuring your avatar striking a pose and your selected campsite helper. On the flipside is a QR code. Anyone that scans the code will have your avatar appear in the new location, Whistle Pass. This mountainous area is where you’ll find K.K. Slider performing each night with your friends standing around ready to chat or bring you items.

Unfortunately, it’s not actually your friends playing with you, it’s just their avatar standing there. It’s not exactly a robust multiplayer experience. However, it’s at least nice to be able to run through the area and say hello to anyone you’ve added.

This is a step back from how the game originally functioned. Players could visit each other’s campsites, buy from their market box, and gift them things. This functionality is now gone.

This camper is ready to go home

I played Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp when it first came out. I played for years. Diligently doing daily quests for my villagers. Instead of doom scrolling in bed back then, late nights were for Pocket Camp dailies.

As the years went on, Pocket Camp’s real-world currency content ramped up to the extremes. I persevered through event after event that had all the best content locked behind paid-for Fortune Cookies, a sort of loot box that had a high risk of landing duplicate items. ‘Tis the nature of gacha content.

I dipped soon after the subscription plans were introduced. Too much pressure for this camper. Veteran Pocket Camp players have often reminisced over the simplicity of the earlier days of the game, where your late-night mobile game of choice wasn’t trying to squeeze dollarydoos out of you at every turn.

And now I have Pocket Camp Complete, which is a sweet relief for those of us who wanted a simpler mobile game again. However, it sits in this odd spot. It feels like a return to how the game felt back in 2017, which can be a nice trip down memory lane, but it’s also basically the same experience.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete does a great job at taking the freemium version of the 2017 game and offering a more complete package, albeit at a premium price. For those that never had the joy of setting up camp when it first came out, this could very well be your next mobile game addiction. But for me, there just isn’t enough here to warrant diving back in with the same fervor I did seven years ago. While this collector goblin is glad she’s got all her digital knicknacks stored in-game, it’s time for this tired camper to find a new place to rest.

This Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete review is based on a code provided by the publisher. The game is now available on iOS and Android devices for an introductory price of $9.99 USD. On January 30, 2025, the price will increase to $19.99 USD.

Loren Chandler

Contributing Editor

Loren Chandler comes from a land down under. She’s a lover of all things video games, tea, cats, reading, and craft related. If you checked in on what she’s playing at any given time, it’ll either be a survival-crafting game or one of the cute and cozy varieties.