Animal Crossing for < 7 year olds

Before Christmas I asked here about Animal Crossing - what it was all about and whether or not my 6 1/2 and 5 year old boys would be able to play it (given the limited reading skills). Well, just wanted to say thanks to everybody who recommended getting the game for them. They didn't have any idea what it was when they opened it, but my 6 year old in particular has really ended up liking the game. It does, however, require a lot of reading, and so I've had to do a lot of reading out loud for him, which gets tiring, especially at the beginning. Of course I get him to read some of it too (with help on the big words), but it's a lot of reading for a 1st grader. I started my own character in the same town, initially just to spruce things up for him, but I'm finding that I enjoy the game too, though I'm not exactly sure why. There's something addicting about it.

So far we've both paid off our initial loans and gotten our first addition to our houses (helped by getting 10,000 bells from "Mom" for the New Year.) But, wow, the new loan is something like 160,000 bells! We've both got nets, but neither of us have fishing rods. Neither of us have caught any bugs yet. In fact, I've never even seen one, although he has. Fossils are plentiful and Tom Nook pays a pretty penny for them, but you also want to have them on display at the Museum. Hmm... what to do....

Wait until the last payment, that one is huge.

And when they ask if you want a bigger floor or a basement, pick the basement first, it's real useful to just throw crap down there.

And why don't you have a fishing pole? There should be a different tool everyday at the store. Fishing is what you need because I think there are only a few bugs on the mainland in the winter.

Do you have a GBA to get to the island?

My wife loved the game.

fishing rod is a must have, that alone let me pay off my loan in a few days, just sit by the bottom of the sea and get red snappers, coelacanths and those something jaw fish, snappers go for 3k, coelacanths for 10k and jaw fish for 5k have fun, toss anything else

Some of the game's content is seasonal. That's probably the reason you haven't seen too many bugs, as we're in the middle of winter. Come summertime, you'll see bugs everywhere!

Is there a way to get a fishing rod other than just waiting for Tom Nook to sell them?

[quote name='crunchewy']Is there a way to get a fishing rod other than just waiting for Tom Nook to sell them?[/quote]

Give me the name of your town and your character and I'll give you a code for one.

[quote name='crunchewy']Is there a way to get a fishing rod other than just waiting for Tom Nook to sell them?[/quote]

I think GameFAQs has a list of universal codes you can use at Nook's to get items sent to you as if you traded for it.

My advise though is to just wait until you see it at Nook's. That's what makes the game exciting. You'll get the Fishing Rod soon enough, but day after day hoping for that cabana lamp to complete your set is really cool. It cheapens the experience to just pop in the code to get it.

They don't have the code there, but I'm sure there is a UC for it.

And if she didn't get it in the last two weeks then the game is just a bore without it. I was lucky to get all the tools very quickly.

My son, when he created the town, didn't appear to give it a name. There could be spaces in there that I can't see, but I doubt it. Probably it's just no name at all. His name in the game is "max", all lowercase. A code would be great! I promise I'll hold off for a while yet, but if that dang fishing rod doesn't show up soon, we're going to have to use "any means necessary".

Never mind. Coincidentally enough, Nook finally had the fishing rod in when I played last night. Yeah! And just in time too, as Wendell is supposed to be visiting today, and I can only presume that what he wants is fish. We tried giving him a peach the last time he visited and of course he hated it.

Yeah I was going to go do the code, but I don' remember where I moved my Gamecube games. I recently ran out of shelf space for my DVDs and games.

And he likes "rare" fishes more I think, but he will give you a normal wall paper for any fish.

And don't forget now that you have the fishing pole you can order another one at any time from the store in case your son needs one.

PS Don't forget to give a fish of each type you catch to the museum! I usually gave him the first example of a particular species, so I wouldn't forget. It helps to keep on top of this otherwise later on you will have caught many fish but not turned in many to the museum and it will be hard to sync up which ones you need to catch and which ones you already gave. By being very up-to-date about it the list of fish caught in your inventory matches what is in the museum so you always know.

Same goes for bugs.

I finally caught up on my AC game recently after being a couple months behind. It's a great game that has incredible lasting power.

Ruahrc