Topic: Animal Crossing New Leaf: Retail or eShop Download?

First of all, my name is Chris and I am new to the Nintendo Life Forums, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Second, I have a Wii U and my NNID is Dj64Mk7, chat with me on Miiverse, send me a friend request, it's all cool.

On to the topic...

Hello fellow NLife readers, I have a dilemma that I am asking for your help with. I know many of you, much the same as me, are very greatly anticipating the newest entry in the excellent Animal Crossing series, destined to hit Nintendo 3DS on June 9th (14th June for you Europeans). I, however have a very big problem that I need help with solving: Do I buy it from retail or download it from the eShop?

Welcome to NL Chris!

Um, I know I'll be buying the retail version, buying a video game almost doesn't feel complete without getting a nice box with it. Plus, if it turns out that I don't like the game, I can sell it or give it away. I learned that lesson the hard way when I downloaded New Super Mario Bros 2. >_>

@piki What would say, me being a young teen? I lose things pretty easily, by the way. Though being able to resell it is a good thing. Plus, Gamestop has it on pre-order for $34.99 (though only a saving of $2.91 after tax).

For me personally, I don't even have to think about it - I'll be downloading it. The convenience of having it right there on the system is going to pretty much guarantee I'll play it on a regular basis for years to come.

Of course, if you download it, you can't resell it, but let's say for example that you play it pretty regularly for three or four years - that's an awful lot of enjoyment, so does it necessarily matter that you can't then resell it?

It's entirely up to you, and as you say the prices aren't too dissimilar - it'll be $39.99 on Nintendo eShop and at retail - but for me personally, for a series like Animal Crossing, the convenience of regular play is a bigger factor than in any other game series.

Does anyone know how many blocks (mb's) of space this takes on an SD card? That's one of the factors in my decision.

Hi Chris
I'm going for the download version. I played Wild World every day for a year and a half. Every. Single. Day! It's a game you'll be diving into every day, if only for ten minutes before playing something else. You don't want to be swapping cartridges all the time, especially if you're travelling and/or you're prone to losing things

It also depends how attached you're going to get to it. I've still got my Wild World cart and there's no way I'd ever sell it. I may as well have New Leaf on the system and free up the cart slot for something else.

Edit. Prof. Google says 5655 blocks.

I have enough blocks for Animal Crossing, so I'm downloading.

I'm definitely downloading, which would also make it my first download retail game. With a game like Animal Crossing, I would want to be able to play it anytime, anywhere, and if it was on cartridge, i wouldn't be able to do that. I'm actually thinking of downloading Mario Kart 7 for the same reason.

I'm still stuck, as I don't have the SD card space to fit this game, and besides an SD card technically makes this game about $52.

i really want to download cause i want to be able to play it without swapping the cardridge.
but download versions here in germany are 5€ more expensive than retail. i always buy games retail to be able to sell them later, because after playing through a game i sell it almost everytime. exceptions are games you can play frequently like racing games.

i hope the download prices will go down till AC new leaf comes out :/

I'm buying the physical version, just as I always have done and will continue to do.

Retail for me, if many hours and bells are spent, I don't want to loose it so it would be safer to me to get a physical copy.

@undead_terror
That's what I thought, but I realised that if I lost the console or it was stolen, AC would be in the cart slot anyway! And having no cart is a 100% certain way to not lose the cart. Cart.

I actually came onto this thread to say retail, as I love being able to sell games I no longer want and I like having a physical, tangible copy. However, all these posts about how handy it is to have a game like Animal Crossing on hand all the time has got me rethinking my stance for this game. I played the GC original quite a bit when it first came out, and remember that sometimes I would just throw it in and play for 10-15 mins, pull some weeds, catch a fish and then turn it off. Maybe it would be handy to download it so I can play it anytime? Hmmmm....

Retail, but mostly because I like having physical copies of things.

I guess it, and Pokemon titles, are two games that would benefit from being on one's person at all times. After the initial push, the game really defines the portable experience. Boot it up for 15 minutes while waiting a friend then close it and go.

@AbeVigoda That is exactly where I was before AC came into the picture, where I always buy retail for full-price games, but AC could be an exception...

I always buy retail. I love the new game smell when opening the box.

Hello Chris!
I'm going the retail route, as I usually have in the past.
For a couple of reasons:
1: I love having the Box x3.
2: Resell value!
I have downloaded some retail games, I've gotten bored with and now I can't do anything but let them sit on my 3DS.

I hope you have an easy time deciding, I know there are a lot of mixed opinions here x3.

Well, my 3DS card case doesn't have room for too many more games, and my SD card has around 77,000 blocks available, so I definitely have room. I wasn't considering it before, but I might consider the digital option here.

My problem is that, due to things like online discounts and a lack of tax payments, I can get the physical game from Amazon for about $4 - $5 cheaper on Amazon than I can on the eshop. Paying the same for a digital release is hard enough, but paying MORE for digital? That's... rough.

The one game I've never even been tempted to buy a physical copy of is Brain Age: Concentration Training. I would be using that every day, and it isn't really the sort of game I'd loan out to people.

I preordered the game like a year or two ago and I don't plan to cancel that preorder, so I'll go retail.