Of all the animal crossing spin-offs, Pocket Camp is by far the most robust in features. Somehow, Pocket Camp isn't even the most controversial spin-off despite launching as a mobile game complete with microtransactions and the many predatory mobile gaming money-grab tactics that gamers have come to loathe.

I played Pocket Camp at launch, and it was novel at first. But the paywalling of cute items and greedy pricing drove me away from the game after a few months. In addition to the anti-consumer payment model, the gameplay loop just got boring without cute items to decorate with.

—And as a personal skill issue, I was way too impatient for the long download times on my phone.

Occassionally, I would return to the game for short bursts, playing for a few days to weeks at a time before dropping it for years. I originally published this shrine back in 2024 with Pocket Camp omitted along with the other spin-offs. It wasn't until Pocket Camp: Complete released at the end of 2024 that I picked the game up again.

If you had a similar experience with the original Pocket Camp, I implore you to try Pocket Camp: Complete if you're an Animal Crossing fan. It has most of the features from Pocket Camp without the microtransactions and most predatory dark patterns that plague the mobile gaming scene. Playing Pocket Camp: Complete has solidified my belief that a monetization system can make or break a game, regardless of its mechanics or core gameplay loop.

I've had a great experience playing Pocket Camp: Complete since launch. While time traveling is next to impossible making the 'timed events' truly timed, I have put the game down for several weeks in a row only to pick it back up again with little-to-no punishment aside from FOMO. This is a far cry from the mainline AC games punishments such as weeds overrunning the town and facing the villagers' wrath.

The main appeal of Pocket Camp is decoration and dress up. While there are other Animal Crossing-y things to do such a fetch quests, decoration puzzles, fishing, bug-catching, and more — the gameplay loop revolves around collection clothes and items to decorate with. In the original version of Pocket Camp, I felt paywalled out of the cutest items original to Pocket Camp. In Pocket Camp Complete, I feel like I am never short on tokens to get my favorite items. Of course, there is strategy to it, and I do have to play the game to earn the currencies in the game to craft, but I feel little-to-no pressure to play every day in fear of missing out.

And the items in this game...? They are some of the best in the series, even compared to New Horizons! (There, I said it... ).

My favorite part about most of the items is that the animals interact with them in a cute way, often giving the appearance that the villagers are spending time together. I would love to see this amount of interaction in a mainline AC game!

The clothing in this game is probably my favorite part. I love making outfits with all the unique items in this game. In New Leaf, I loved collecting handheld items like the ice creams, balloons, bubble wands, and more... Pocket Camp takes this to a new level! My character can hold books, animals, stuffies, swords, and so much more. The creativity of each item is delightful, and I look forward to collecting each month's selection.

Because Pocket Camp focuses its gameplay around decorating before anything else, there are naturally several places to customize including a campsite, a cabin, and a camper RV. Animals will visit your cabin and your campsite, though the RV is just for you.

Here are some photos of my RV, with various designs. Always pink, of course.

The cabin is my favorite place to decorate just because I'm partial to inside furniture. I haven't found a layout that I'm perfectly satisfied with yet, though. I adore items that let my villagers take a nap, in particular. Maybe it's because I play so late at night.

Finally, here are some photos from my campsite. I haven't figured out the best way to set it up because I tend to over-clutter the map because there are so many cool items I've collected. I should really just make several layouts to cycle through whenever I get bored. I don't like decorating my campsite as much because I play at night, and it's difficult to see the items.

One of my favorite improvements in Pocket Camp Complete is how easy and 'affordable' it is to get special character items. I recall back in 2017, it cost an equivalent of about $20USD for one special character. I felt like it was such a scam that I never wanted to put any money into the game. It's almost hilarious that they're so easy to collect now, with just 100 tokens or a single complete ticket.

My biggest complaint about the game is lack of time traveling. Namely, just shifting the clock forward. I only tolerate real-time mechanics out of love for the series, but I do not like them on principle. As mentioned multiple times, I tend to play Animal Crossing late at night, well after the sun sets. With the mainline games, I just set my console clock back so that I can enjoy the daytime at 11PM. As a mobile game, I cannot easily do this as I need my phone time to be correct! I picked a campsite theme that read well & is brightly lit at night to deal with this annoyance. At least the stores don't close in this game! There is less of an emphasis on the map changing throughout the day than the mainline games, making it only a small QOL issue for me with my nightowl gaming habits.

In conclusion, Pocket Camp completely changed from a frustrating game to a fun one simply by changing its monetization model. I would recommend it to any Animal Crossing fan! I'm certainly having a ton of fun with it.

Here is my camper card if you would like to invite Tabby and I to your campsite!