Animal Crossing will last you a long time.
The story of Animal Crossing is very simple. You a boy/girl (player's choice) moved out of your home. While on the train, you meet a cat named Rover. He helps you get a house to live in by pulling strings with the landlord, Tom Nook. When you arrive in town, there are four house for you to choose, all basically the same. When it comes time to pay, however, you only have 1/19 of the total cost! Not a smart move. Tom gives you a job, working to pay off your house. This job doesn't last long before he cuts you loose. Now it's up to you to find money to pay him off.
After paying the initial payment off, Nook can expand your oh-so-tiny house. Eventually, you'll have a veritable mansion for all your stuff.
Animal Crossing has a lot of things for you to do. You can go fishing, go fossil hunting, catch bugs, play NES games that you can find, do chores for villagers, make your own clothes, go shopping at Nook's, or just sit around and listen to music on your complementary stereo.
There are many different villagers you can have, all of which are animals (and a robot). You can have 15 villagers. They each have their own personality, and if you harass them and neglect them, they might move out!
The graphics in this game are bad, to put it bluntly. They look like they came straight out of the N64... and they did. A little better updating could've been helpful. The art style fits the game perfectly, though.
Sound is nothing special, the standard footsteps and whatnot. The music changes every hour and is sorta catchy.
You have to keep your town tidy. If you leave, your town will get over-run with weeds. Your room has to be tidy, too. A big part of Animal Crossing is collecting furniture to decorate you room. Your house gets rated, and if you follow Fung-Shui, there might be a lot of bells (the form of currency) in your future...
Other:
-4 players can move into one town. I don't recommend this, because then it is a race for who plays first to get everything in the town.
-You can travel between your and your friend's towns via a train. Beware, though, one of your villagers might fancy a get-up-and-go...
-Using a GBA and a GCN-GBA link cable, you can visit Animal Island, with another special villager, and ANOTHER house to furnish. It also has coconuts available for harvest.
-You can trade items with another player. You give an item to Nook, and the other players name + town, and you give that person the code you get. Then, they tell Nook the code, and they get the item, and vice-versa.
-If you have an E-Reader, a GBA, a GCN-GBA link cable, and Animal Crossing cards, you can scan cards and get mini-games, presents, and special clothes prints.