Rocket. You either hate her or you don’t even know who she is. Well, Rocket is a sisterly gorilla villager, one of the very few sisterly villagers in the Animal Crossing series. She’s got to be my favourite villager ever, but why do I love her so much?
Well, back in 2020 I was playing a lot of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on my phone. I loved watching videos of people playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but I didn’t own a Nintendo Switch or a copy of the game, so I had to play the next best thing.
If you don’t know, there’s a system in Pocket Camp where you load Gulliver’s boat up with goods to ship to… somewhere. I’m really not sure. But in return, you get to pick something from one of 3 nearby islands. These things can be seasonal items, presents to give to friends, or treasure maps, and treasure maps can get you some bells or leaf tickets, materials, or even villagers to bring to your campsite or cabin.
The first time I saw Rocket was when I received one of these villager treasure maps, and I’m not going to lie… I thought that Rocket was a male villager at first. I don’t know, Rocket’s face doesn’t look very cutesy or feminine like other female gorilla villagers. I thought, “Oh cool, a male villager wearing a pink superhero costume. That’s actually awesome.”. So I invited Rocket over, and it turns out she was a girl. Yeah.
I still think that Rocket’s cool, though. She loves sports, she has a super funny catchphrase (‘Vroom’), and I like that she’s portrayed as being strong and tough, and still wears a pink costume.
In June of 2020, a few months after it’s initial release, my parents finally bought me Animal Crossing: New Horizons as well as a Nintendo Switch. I already had my heart set on inviting Rocket to my island, no matter how long it took. However, I only ever got her after I had started my second island on another switch, and that was from Nookazon. I still feel like it was a huge achievement, because it’s rare for Rocket to ever be listed on the website, since people think that she’s probably worthless (ouch), seeing as there’s a high chance for her to be a starting villager. She’s also considered pretty ugly by a lot of people, so there was also that standing in my way.
Rocket’s house is located right next to mine in ACNH and I smile every time I see her out and about. She’s interesting and cool, and even though she isn’t a popular villager, I still think Rocket’s awesome.
