10 Worst Video Games Of 2017

3. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

With Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes and now Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, you really have to wonder whether Nintendo are deliberately releasing watered down, less playable and fundamentally "lesser" versions of their flagship franchises to encourage a transition onto "the proper version"*.

I can't think of any other rationale, as ridiculous as that is, because Animal Crossing's debut on handheld is essentially Fetch Quest: The Game.

All the charm, characterful writing and immersion of finding your place amongst this town full of anthropomorphised animals is replaced with literally just a series of "Find this, bring it back" mission design. The overarching idea is that you're building the ultimate campsite for all your guests, yet that boils down to asking for a list of items a given person wants to see, and then crafting them.

You acquire crafting components by shaking trees and catching fish, then you're forced to wait while things are assembled. Or, of course, you can purchase "Leaf Tickets" to speed everything along.

There's nothing inherently, fundamentally offensively bad about Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, but considering its potential and the sheer lifelessness prevalent throughout, there are a lot of immediate negatives that drag it far down the list.

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* Remember, Pokémon GO was Niantic, and a fluke the company had essentially forgot they licensed in the first place.