Animal Crossing: City Folk

"Animal Crossing's Wii debut."

Animal Crossing: City Folk, the long awaited Wii edition of one of Nintendo's beloved franchises, has finally arrived, but was the wait worth it? Actually, what wait? The game was officially announced this year at E3, we really didn't have to wait that long to get it, either, which brings me to one question: was it rushed?

When you're a fan of a particular series, it's hard to say that a game in the series is bad. No, I'm not saying that City Folk is a bad game, because in my opinion it isn't. However, I will say that it could be better...much better. Nintendo had the potential to create a truly remarkable game, but unfortunately, City Folk is a mix between the original GameCube game and Wild World.

First, let me talk about the audio. From what I've heard, nearly all of the sound effects and music used in City Folk have been stolen from right under Wild World's nose. The hour background music, your house's attic, the town gate. Basically the only different music is the City, and maybe some of K.K. Slider's tracks. The "speech" however, meaning Animalbebese or whatever it's called, has changed, and I'm sure if you've played the previous two titles, you'll know that Wild World's speech was different than the GCN version, eliminating the actual spoken words which the GCN version provided us with. I'm here to announce that City Folk does not reintroduce you to that again, which is what I was hoping for.

And then there's the graphics. I've seen many people complain about the graphics for Animal Crossing, and not just City Folk, which is really unfortunate that you cannot explain to them that realistic graphics in an Animal Crossing game would look pretty creepy. I have no complaints about the graphics to be quite honest, the water has been updated and looks a little more realistic, as well as the shadows which define the fish (and garbage) in the water, you can actually make out eyes (or what seem to be eyes) in some of the larger shadows. But, anti-aliasing is no where to be found, which is really unfortunate in some cases.

The gameplay is the same as the previous titles, you start out on a bus and are asked some questions by a cat named Rover, such as naming your town and yourself, your gender and whatnot (I didn't go through the naming of the character as I transferred my Wild World character over to City Folk, which is another great feature that Nintendo implemented nicely), and then it's off to the Town Hall, and then off to buy a house. And after all of this, - if you're a fan of the series you already know what's ahead - you take on a part-time job at Nook's Cranny to help pay off some of your house payment.

Basically, nothing has changed in City Folk from the previous titles, except throw in a city, a some new items, downloadable content, a couple of other things and a bird and you've got yourself an Animal Crossing: City Folk.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/08

Game Release: Animal Crossing: City Folk (US, 11/16/08)