"It's A Whole New World!"

Now if you'll excuse my blatant use of an Aladdin song, I'll get onto the review. I played Animal Crossing back in 2003 (didn't own a Gamecube until then), and found it strangely addictive. It was an original and fun life sim game, but it did have it's flaws. After awhile I stopped playing it, and I thought I was done with Animal Crossing. Not so. About a week ago, I finally gave through to all the hype for Animal Crossing: Wild World and ended up buying it instead of Lost Magic (I'll buy that game eventually...). Well, I drove home, put into my DS, and a week later I'm here writing a review and listening to Lemon Demon songs. So let's get on with the review, shall we?

When you get into Animal Crossing: Wild World for the first time, you'll be in a cab with Kapp'n, a frog-pirate person from the last game. He'll ask you a few questions, and depending on how you answer, you're character will look differently. You'll get your new house, although it is a rather small one, and start working a few various tasks for Tom Nook, the local shopkeeper here in your new town. After your done with those, you're free to explore the true reasons you own this game.

There's so much to cover, but I'll start with the basics. You're a young human in a world full of animals that talk to you. The script is rather big, which means they have a nice assortment of stuff to tell you, but you'll recognize it after awhile. There's a bunch of different animals that can live in your town, from penguins to cats, but there are only a couple different personalities. These animals will be chosen at random to move in to your town, and eventually, move out, and they provide a nice feeling of community to your game. Each animal has their own personalized house reflecting their personalities, and you should enjoy seeing their decoration styles.

And if you like them, why not start decorating your own house like that? Over three hundred items are available, not to mention wallpapers, floors, clothes, accessories, fossils, umbrellas, and more. But where do you get all these? Easy. In your town, you have two shops. The main one is run by Tom Nook. Although he has four different versions of his shop (by that I mean he can upgrade to a bigger store three times), they are just the same with more items, and the last upgrade also features a mini barber shop. Anyways, inside the store you buy tons of different items from space station replicas to fire hydrants, all to decorate your home. There are tons of different styles you can use, or you can mix and match, or even just take everything and throw it into some strange scheme that fits whatever you feel like having. Of course, the Happy Room Academy won't have that.

The Happy Room Academy is something that judges your room depending on how your fung shui, or however you spell that, and your items are. If you have a retro TV and a retro refrigerator, the Happy Room Academy will like it, but if you have a brown bed and a lovely vanity complete with an ancient wall, then they'll cry for having to go and look at your house, and do the professional thing and mail you a letter saying that they resorted to drastic measures and gave you a low score.

Which reminds me about the mailing system. You can buy letter paper from Tom Nook's shop, each with their own nice little colors, and write letters to your neighbors which they delight in receiving. You'll also get letters from other people, sometimes with gifts. How thoughtful! Of course, the letters are pre-written, so you can tell that their genericism is a little disappointing, but you'll get used to it. Of course, if you receive one letter that you just love and can't part with, then you can store it in the post office and come by every week just to stare and giggle and the piece of paper.

Also in Animal Crossing: Wild World is a nice little museum. Of course, typically, the museum just sits there in your town with nothing at all in their exhibits, and they expect you to just waste your entire life slaving away to get stuff to put in their little rooms and have tourists drool at. There are four categories of things you can get for the museum. Buy a bugcatching net and catch bugs for the bug section, which now includes invincible bugs, for those of you annoyed by the killable bugs in the original Animal Crossing. You can also buy paintings and then donate them to the museum as long as their not forged (yes, I'm looking at you Redd). Also donateable to the museum are fossils. Obtaining these fossils requires to arm yourself with a shovel and patrol your town until you see a strange marking on the ground. Then you dig and alas! You have uncovered a fossil! Now you run to the museum screaming like a little girl (it's because your so happy, right?) and have the owl at the museum examine it. After you find out what it is, you can donate it. sell it, or put in your house so you can start your own museum that doesn't require people to do all the work for you! And of course, my favorite: fishing. Buy a fishing pole and head to the river or ocean, each with their own set of fish. Some fish only appear in certain months while others are around all year. Once a fish is caught, you can go to the store and sell it for cash or donate it to the museum. Just remember: Gotta catch 'em all!

Also in the museum, you can make constellations in the observatory upstairs or just do some stargazing. And in the bottom is a coffee shop which some characters frequent, such as a young independent musician who wants to play you some tunes, ranging from K.K. Ska to K.K. Metal to K.K. Lament.

But you take so much from the ground in this game you might enjoy to give something back. How about pretty little flowers? I like flowers. You can plant flowers, and use a watering can to water the flowers that don't look so good. And remember, if you run over your flowers, they can die after being run over enough times. You can also plant trees and fruit trees. Or, you can re-enact Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. "The roots grow deep m'lord." Saruman thinks, before replying wittily, "Cut them down." Now it's your turn to turn the hit movie to a mass tree murder! Take an ax and cut them down! CUT THEM ALL DOWN! Mwahahahahaha! Err, ahem, anyways...

This all may be fun, but what about your tiny house? Are you claustrophobic? Have no worries! Just pay off your debt to Tom Nook and instantly receive yourself a better, bigger house. That not good enough? Just keep paying off your debt and get a bigger house until you're maxed out. Of course, a major downfall in this game is that you and anyone else you let touch your game are roommates, meaning you share the entire house. That means it's time to team-up against the debt! Take this! And that! And a little more money here! Err, am I still making sense to you guys?

There's so much more to do though. There are holidays enjoyed throughout the year, although some of them are rather bland such as "Yay Day". These holidays happen at least once a month and jazz up what would be just another routine day. Unfortunately, alot of the real world holidays from the original game were scrapped for Wild World. Still, it's enjoyable to sit back one lazy August saturday and look up at the sky and see some fireworks while setting off a Roman Candle that the mayor, Tortimer, gave you. Other holidays include tournaments where you and the other villagers all attempt to show your mastery at something you all are terrible at. Admit it, you're not the leet master of the universe. That's He-Man's job.

Don't forget the special visitors! A nice cast of travelling animals can come to your village. Be it a pirate or a mailman that you felt like shooting out of the sky, each break up the normality of the game. Some, like Redd, offer some rare items, while others are unique like Joan who allows you to take a part in the "Stalk Market". This Stalk Market allows you to buy turnips at a price, then sell them to Tom Nook for a different price. Each day the turnip rate differs, so you can either sell and make money or wait for a higher price so you won't loose money. But don't let your greed take advantage of you, because all turnips die after one week, meaning that your money is now down the gutter. These special visitors appear at random during the weekdays, while a few appear at a scheduled time on the weekends, such as the aforementioned Joan.

You can also make your own designs in the tailor shop (for a price of course). These designs you can later add to your clothes or put on the town flag.

Of course, when you get a good item or something, you'll want to head into the Wifi feature of this game. Link up with friends or total strangers or celebrities-in-disguise and trade items, explore each other's town, talk to each other, buy items at each other's stores that you can't find in your own, and more. Just be aware of the crooks and cons that plague all online adventures. Do not agree to put your entire life savings on the line for an item you've never heard of! What kind of world is this anyways? A Wild World?

The sound in this game is also nice. The sound-effects are okay, the music is nice as well. All special music aside, there's a great twenty-four hour song system, where each hour has it's own personalized song. From the upbeat songs in the afternoon to the slower songs late at night, you'll definitely want to hear them all, but it's not my fault when you're up to four at a morning listening to your DS when your neighbor calls the police.

A feature in this game that is very well renowned is it's real-time system. If it's 1:55 PM in the real world, it's 1:55 PM in Animal Crossing: Wild World. And it won't be 1:56 any faster than it will be in real life. This allows for some unique features, but it does get on my nerves a lot. It gives off the feeling off "If you don't play me in a month Armageddon or something will happen and the entire town will be screwed up." If you buy this game, expect to feel obligated to play this game at least once a week. Otherwise you'll dread having to return to find out some crazed ax-murderer has ravaged your town and the most valuable item in the game made a one-time only appearance while you were gone.

All in all, it's a fun game for about a twenty-minute bout every day and has some nice replay value. Just don't let it send you crazy. And now that I've reviewed the game, it's time for me to form a completely biased opinion and attempt to force it upon you.

--Final Analysis--

Gameplay: 8/10
Fun, but a little routine.

Sound/Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are stylized but a little undetailed sometimes. Sound is great.

Story: N/A
Story! Oh! Hahahaha! You make me laugh.

Concept: 6/10
Life sims are starting to become a little cliche.

Replay Value: 10/10
This is where the game really shines. Come back again and again until your dragged to that annoying little Animal Crossing Players Anonymous.

Multiplayer: 8/10
Wi-Fi is alright, look out for those annoying rapscallions that attempt to con you.

Final Report: 8/10
Addictive. Play now. Game is calling me. Cannot resist urges. Must end review and play. Goodbye.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/06