Let me say this - if I was in America, I would be at Electronics Boutique buying as many packets of these damn cards as I could. I nearly bought a giant terrifying stuffed Mr. Resetti soft toy on eBay once because he's the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. I've been hunting eBay for the NES Link promo card which I couldn't get because Nintendo Power doesn't come to Australia. I love Animal Crossing. Having a turtle who tells you to stop rocking the boat because "the sea's in me heart, I don't want it in me pants" is pure genius.

However, the problem with most games is that they eventually become old and outdated. Even a game like Animal Crossing, which has no ending, is going to get boring once people discover everything. This is where the Animal Crossing-e cards come into play. They can add new things to a game where everything has already been found. Series 1 has already come and now Series 2 has arrived, with 71 new cards for you to collect. But what's so different about Series 2? Good question. First of all, there are two new card types. There are Sibling Cards, which feature two characters who are related on the same card, such as Mr. Resetti and his brother Dan. There are also Game Cards, which allow you to play a mini-game on your Game Boy Advance when you scan the cards. You'll usually be awarded a password for a prize. Depending on how well you perform in the mini-game, the better the prize you'll get.

But that doesn't mean that the Character, Town Tune and Design cards have gone - oh, no. New cards have been produced for each of these card types. Have all your clothes been turned to rags because of Halloween? Well then perhaps you'd like to wear Samus's Suit instead! If you're tired of your wallpaper, you can spruce it up with a Pikmin pattern. There are four new Town Tune cards which allow you to transfer town tunes based on K.K. Slider's songs, and nearly 60 new Character cards, including favourites such as Jingle, Tom Nook (He'll send the raccoon goons after you! Ho ho ho!) and Redd. The Character cards give you a gift and also contain profiles on the animal that is displayed on the front. If you scan the Character cards through the e-Reader, you'll get a short message from the animal.

Upon purchasing a packet of cards and eagerly tearing them open, you'll notice that they contain five cards and a set of instructions. The instructions tell you how to use the various types of cards in Animal Crossing and how to use the passwords. They also have a bit of information on what Animal Crossing-e Cards are. Upon checking out the cards themselves, you'll notice that they're very good quality. They're very crisp and bright, and a nice size. They're not indestructible, though, so if you're planning on storing the cards, it's probably good to invest in a few card holders that can fit in a binder to prevent ruining the dot code strips. The back of the cards use the long e-Reader strips - none of the cards I've seen make use of the short strips. While most of the cards use only one strip, some cards, such as the Sibling and Game cards use two.

Having only gotten the Boy (1) Game card, I can only tell you about Animal Relay. Basically, you scan the two strips on the card, and then choose your difficulty. Choose easy, medium, hard or friend (you'll probably need two Game Boy Advances, two e-Readers and a Link Cable for this). Once you've done that, the relay will prompt you to scan in three character cards. They don't need to all be different; in fact, you can have a relay with three Jingles. Different characters have different speeds, so you will need to choose your characters carefully. Once you've scanned them in, it's simply a matter of firing up your Mario Party skills and hammering the A Button as fast as you can to make your characters run. The third character needs to run the longest, so you'll need to use strategy and save your fastest character for last. If you win, you'll earn a password, which can be sent off for a prize.

Obviously the cards are no fun on their own, but if you own Animal Crossing and an e-Reader, you can earn gifts from animals, play mini-games, put patterns on clothes and alter your town's tune. There's a lot more fun to be had due to the interactivity of the cards. So, while you can certainly buy the cards without owning Animal Crossing, it’s not recommended.