Review: Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete – The culmination of years of content

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp has been around for a really long time at this point. I’ve been playing, off and on, since it came out in 2017 when it was released. But, all good things must come to an end, right? Well, that’s only partially true here, as Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete is out now and taking over for the long-running mobile game as it sunsets.

So, what is Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete and how does it differ from its predecessor? Simply, Complete is a stand-alone, offline version of the long-running title. I’ll go into more detail about how Nintendo was able to adapt this to become something they don’t need constant support anymore for and still make it a really great title in its own right.

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp vs Pocket Camp Complete

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete is hard to explain in just a few words, as it really has a lot of features, functionality, and minigames across the entire game. But, anyone who is familiar with the Animal Crossing series is likely going to understand. 

Where the mainline games focus on design, terraforming, and farming, Pocket Camp Complete puts more emphasis on item and clothing crafting, leveling up, and the gacha fortune cookies. The original Pocket Camp was, to be fair, a monetized mobile game for over 7 years. 

But, Pocket Camp Complete removes all monetization in lieu of a single purchase. They removed any of the subscription passes and paid currencies and replaced them with the new Leaf Tokens and earned in-game currencies and tickets.

Leaf Tokens replaced a few things, but mostly they replaced the old Leaf Tickets, which had various functions in the old game. But, Leaf Tokens are such an amazing, necessary resource that it’s great that you can earn them from leveling up, seasonal events, goal completion, and purchasing up to 100 per month using classic bells. 

If you have already played Pocket Camp in the past, it’s important to log into the original game at least once before June 1st, 2024 so that the system can understand that it needs to move everything into the new game if you opt to get it. You don’t want to lose your progression, especially if you took part in any limited crossover events.

For instance, back in 2018, there was a Pokémon crossover event called the Pokéball Scavenger Hunt, where you could earn Pokémon-themed items. That event was never repeated. However, the items from it carry over into Pocket Camp Complete. This goes the same way for the Super Mario, Splatoon 2, and Sanrio events over the years. 

If I’m honest, the biggest real difference is the speed of progression between Pocket Camp and Pocket Camp Complete. I originally started playing Pocket Camp when it was new, in 2017, obtaining around level 25 and with a good load of items and clothing without ever spending money and playing super casually. But, in the week since I started playing Complete, I’m already over level 50 and have easily quadrupled my items and clothing.

In the past, Pocket Camp felt smothered by the need to spend money to get anywhere or do more than just a few minutes of activities per day. In Pocket Camp Complete, I’ve never felt that once.

What all can you do in Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete?

In Pocket Camp (and Pocket Camp Complete), you’re given three places that you can customize: the campground, your camper van, and your cabin. 

The campground is the main area with a large section and a smaller section to the south of it. The camper goes with you wherever you decide to travel, giving you a home away from home, which can be customized pretty heavily at OK Motors. Finally, the cabin is its own indoor home, which gets a second floor automatically at level 50. Each one is entirely customizable in different ways, such as wallpaper, flooring, and items you’ve collected or crafted. 

A lot of the original Pocket Camp minigames and events have also been brought into the standalone version. For instance, the gardening minigame events can help you earn special items and progress your seasonal goals. The Happy Home minigame on the map is to help you craft item sets you’re missing from your catalog and earn prizes while you do it.

One of the more important minigames is Gulliver’s cargo ship, which can be found on the Map. By offering him cargo from various items and resources you don’t mind sacrificing, he can potentially bring back some awesome trinkets. One of those types of items is Treasure Trekker maps, which allow you to unlock even more villagers that you can invite to your camp. 

From there, you take their “map” to Blathers (also on the main Map), which you can “auto-trek” if you have the Leaf Tokens to automatically unlock that villager (or play a board game-like minigame if you really want to). This feature is especially important if you’re looking for specific villagers, as there are several hundred. While on the hunt for my favorite, Ruby, I stumbled on a bunch of my usual mainstays that I promptly added to my camp, such as Coco, Shino, Zucker, and Raymond. I also did get Ruby after only a couple of days worth of trying.

There’s honestly so much more I could go into about this game, such as the Amiibo-looking Camper Cards, setting a Camp Caretaker, Complete Tickets, and the feast of fortune cookies that work like gacha and give you special items centered about whatever the cookie is themed to be. 

Final Verdict, li’l ears.

While Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete is, as the title suggests, the ultimate version of the game, it isn’t perfect. Menus can occasionally be hard to navigate and fat fingers (like mine) can make it hard to click things with precision across the entire game, for instance.

But, all in all, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete set out to make sure that those who want to continue playing forever can do exactly that. I’ve played more Pocket Camp Complete in the past week than I had in the past 2 years combined and I likely am not stopping anytime soon.

Aside from the insane amounts of content that the game has had over the past nearly 7 years being included, they’re also going to give another full year of new events to keep the ball rolling, in addition to seasonal events like Toy Day and Halloween.

The one real downside to it being a single purchase is that the base price is $19.99, which is basically unheard of for a mobile game. However, until February 2nd, 2025, the price is down to only $9.99 for early adopters. So, if you’re looking to get the game, now is the best time to do it.

The tl;dr here is that I highly recommend Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete and it’s been well worth every penny I spent to get it, as a huge Animal Crossing New Horizons fan.

If you’re looking to get Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete, it’s available on Android and iOS. If you like mobile games and Pokémon, I highly recommend checking out my review on Pokémon TCG Pocket. That’s another one of my current time sinks and it’s free to play.