Animal Crossing City Folk

Format Nintendo Wii

Developer Nintendo

Publisher Nintendo

Genre Role Playing, Sim / Strategy

9 Comments

There's nothing quite like Animal Crossing's chilled-out, surprisingly addictive and potentially endless non-game gameplay. Having felt compelled to play the DS version, Wild World, almost every single day for the best part of three years, we can confirm that the only surefire way to break a chronic Animal Crossing habit is to take the cartridge on holiday and lose it.

There are also very few games that sell quite like Animal Crossing, with Wild World's steady sales clock ticking ever closer to the 10 million mark, on top of slightly more modest, but still multi-million-unit, sales for the earlier GameCube and N64 editions.

Welcome back
Given that very little has actually changed, in terms of core game content, from the N64 original to the DS hit, it's no shock to discover that the eagerly anticipated Wii edition is more of the same.

City Folk looks exactly like a sharper, smoother version of Wild World, which is the least we would have expected. The curvy horizon effect, which makes the playing area seem like it's wrapped around a cylinder, has been retained from the DS game, and looks rather nice in high-res widescreen-o-vision. Textures have been tidied up to remove the chunkiness that characterised the N64 and DS versions, and it runs at a noticeably higher resolution than the GameCube game.

Apart from that, the character models, the plain, bold art style, the buildings, trees and floors are all barely distinguishable from the original Japanese version that puzzled and intrigued us more than eight years ago.

The most obvious addition to Animal Crossing: City Folk is a separate town square area away from the main village (the titular city, we presume), where you'll find a small selection of attractions. Some, such as the hair salon, are relocated versions of existing places from Wild World. Others, including Gracie's high-end fashion store, an auction house for sourcing rare goods, and a theatre where KK Slider will perform on a bigger stage, are new to the series.

Some of the calendar-based events, most notably Halloween, which were removed from the DS version, have been reinstated, and a reindeer called Jingle will visit at Christmas - or 'starry night winter holiday' or whatever non-denominational name they're giving it. At Easter/Eggfest, a rabbit will hide eggs for you to find. There's also a small carnival that visits at certain times of the year.

Customise your town
Designing your own patterns remains a big part of the game. Previous versions limited you to a square design that could be plastered somewhat clumsily on T-shirts, umbrellas and wallpaper. In City Folk you'll be able to design specific shapes, allowing shirts to be created with different designs on the front, back and sleeves.

Naturally, you can trade these items with other players via friend codes. You won't have to invite players to visit in order to do this, as gifts can be sent via the Wii's message board. Interestingly, you'll also be able to attach pictures to your messages, giving a snapshot of village life to friends who don't own the game. Messages can also be sent to mobile phones and email addresses.

When other players do come to visit online, the game works in the same way as Wild World. Once you've traded friend codes, you can host up to three visitors. As in Wild World, there's the potential for a lot of progress to be lost if one of your visitors disconnects or your internet connection goes flaky, prompting a lengthy ticking off from the abominable Mr Resetti. Not entirely satisfactory but not unexpected, either.

Four-way
On a more positive note, there are more multiplayer activities than the limited selection available in Wild World. As well as the usual fishing contests, scavenger hunts and whatever else you can think of using the game's built-in stopwatch, it's possible to go to town as a group and enjoy a bit of shopping, designing or even a KK Slider concert with your friends.

The Connect24 service, which always seemed like it was made for an Animal Crossing game, will be used to deliver new content - genuinely new, rather than simply unlocked from the disc. It's most likely to be for small gifts such as furniture and patterns, but if City Folk does allow for add-on modular content then there's the intriguing (if remote) possibility of new characters being introduced.

DS link-up
If you don't have Wi-Fi at home, you might not necessarily miss out on all this. The Japanese version will link up with the DS, so players can download the exclusive Connect24 content from the free Nintendo hotspots found in shops and cafes. They're 'hoping' to introduce a similar feature in America at some point, and with any luck Europe won't be too far behind.

Finally there's the voice chat option, which takes a typically Nintendo-ish approach to the problem of parental control during online gaming by miking up the entire room rather than offering a private headset (see the 'Wii Speak' box on the right). Although they haven't revealed the price of the accessory, Nintendo did suggest that a bundle containing Animal Crossing: City Folk and a Wii Speak microphone could be released alongside the standalone game.

Single-handed
There are two control options available - a nunchuk plus remote combo that replicates the traditional buttons and joystick control of vintage Animal Crossing, plus a remote-only version that's more like the stylus control of the DS version.

Having spent so long playing Wild World without ever touching the DS buttons, we'll go for the one-handed option every time, but it's nice to have an alternative. GameCube pads and the classic controller won't be supported.

As an added bonus, you can hook up your DS copy of Wild World and migrate some of your data into City Folk. Your character will arrive intact, but the items you've bought and the bells you've earned will be left behind. And what's the point in that? As far as we can tell, it's simply to populate Tom Nook's catalogue of goods with all the things you've splashed out on in the past.

So once you've generated some dosh in your new home, you'll be able to re-order your favourite stuff without having to discover it all over again. Could be useful if you had some rare bits and pieces that you'd spent ages trading up for, such as special gifts from wandering characters, or complete sets of furniture that you had to haggle for with your mates.

Otherwise, you start from scratch in City Folk, with a humble apartment, no possessions, a massive debt to Tom Nook and a bunch of animal neighbours who don't know you from Adam. The way it should be.

Here's where we shake our fists
The game's success seems assured - we'll be amazed if it doesn't shift a million or two in its first six months, then continue to rake in sales for a couple of years afterwards. In those terms, it's a job well done for Nintendo.

However, we can't help but feel disappointed for the countless Animal Crossing fans - us included - who've spent so long dreaming of a proper sequel with high production values and exciting new features on Wii. While we knew that a 'World of Animalcraft' massively multiplayer effort was about as likely as Mario woo-hooing his way into the E3 Sony conference, reusing the stilted Wild World online mode - complete with its irritating disconnection/reset quirk - smacks of lazy overconfidence.

We also knew that the free NES games included in the N64 and GameCube versions wouldn't be thrown into the Wii edition, because they're selling them separately on Virtual Console. That's completely undertandable, but why not have City Folk as some kind of cool hub for launching our VC collections?

There were plenty of opportunities to do something new with this game. Or if not something new, then just something to say thanks to everyone who has bought, played and adored multiple versions of Animal Crossing over the years.

First timers
Regardless of the potentially limited appeal it's going to have among hardcore fans, there's no denying Animal Crossing remains a quality game. Millions of Wii owners have never seen it before, and they're going to love this version, particularly if they're hooked up to Connect24. See you online...

NGamer Staff