"Story of my life."

What is life to a mere mortal? In spite of countless theories and beliefs, questions still continue to persist. Is life anything more than a dizzying spiral downwards into the clutches of Hades? Who knows. People have searched their entire lives in a desperate attempt to discover the meaning of life. Yet I laugh at these fools who cannot see the blatant truth that life has no meaning whatsoever. Just death, taxes, and political correctness. Fortunately, Animal Crossing: Wild World, the sequel to the critically-acclaimed Gamecube hit, provides a refreshing alternative. While the horrors of real life may be plagued with hardships, hangovers, and the overall feeling of pointless existence, you are in nearly complete control of this second life. You can feel free to leave your junk all over your house, sabotage your neighbors' gardens, and repeatedly whack them with an axe without getting the law involved. Just remember to save. Oh, for the love of all that is sacred, please remember to save…

Before you begin your new life, you will be whisked off by cab alongside the retired pirate, Kapp'n. You know, the guy who sung eardrum-breaking shanties while rowing toward the seemingly pointless Animal Island? Yeah, him. After answering a series of intrusive questions that will determine your characters appearance, you will arrive in your randomly generated town where you will be trapped for the majority of the remainder of this new life. After locating your minuscule house, you will be greeted by Tom Nook, the local raccoon entrepreneur. As cheap and run-down as your new house is, your parents apparently still did not give you enough money after you gladly kissed their demanding asses goodbye once and for all! Nevertheless, as deceptively innocent and nonchalant as Tom Nook appears to be, he still is not going to let you off easy. (After all, he is an evil billionaire mastermind.) To compromise, Tom Nook will force you to work off a portion of the loan for him. While this may seem cruelly reminiscent of child labor, it will help you learn the basics of the game and memorize the layout of your town. Once you've told Nook to take this job and shove it, you're on your own.

From there on, Animal Crossing: Wild World lets you do things at whatever pace you feel. The game's internal clock will trigger and control certain events in your town. Certain bugs will only come out at night, Tom Nook's shop is only open between certain hours, and your neighbors have their own bedtimes. One of the things that make each player's town unique is that no two players will have an identical town. The game randomly generates a layout exclusive to your game, and the important buildings will vary in their locations. Tom Nook's shop will carry your basic necessities as tools and furniture. Continued patronage to his shop will result in shop expansions, which eventually will become one gargantuan department store! Next to Nook's resides the Able Sisters, the porcupine tailors that make their return from the previous installment. The duo sells clothing items that can be used to alter your character's fashion and appearance. Rare fossils, bugs, and fish you collect can be contributed to Blathers the owl's museum, now complete with its own cafe and observatory. Lastly, your town gate serves as a portal to other towns around the world.

As your town progresses, new villagers will build houses in certain areas. There are over 150 different villagers programmed into the game, many of which are returning from the Gamecube version, while others are exclusive to this installment. Spanning over twenty different breeds of animals, villager personalities are split into six different categories – three for each gender. Male villagers range between athletic, lazy and dimwitted, or grumpy and tired. Female villagers are either naive, excessively chatty, or downright snooty. While personality generally affects the dialogue, most villagers function similarly. Delivering and retrieving items for neighbors has much less of an emphasis in this game, as you will only be asked to perform such tasks on occasions. Rather, most neighbors would simply rather talk about random crap or challenge you to a fishing contest. The neighbor moving system is also handled better, as you will have the opportunity to prevent a specific villager from leaving if you earnestly plead, whereas no warning was given in the original. While villager abuse is always fun when it comes to the ones who drive you absolutely batty, you can reap some nice rewards for being good friends with them.

The collection guide remains the core of Animal Crossing: Wild World, however, and it's even more expansive than the first. Most of the furniture, flooring, and wallpaper items present in the original are also present here, with the addition of various new furniture series and themes. For those not in the know, nearly 600 furniture items can be obtained and displayed inside your house. While many of these items can be bought from Nook's cheap dump, other items are much less common and need to be obtained by other means – even trading with other players. There is something for everybody, with furniture series ranging from futuristic to screaming ugly pink to a boxing arena. Of course, not every item can fit in your house, especially not in the beginning when your residence is the size of a walk-in closet, so collecting certain series of furniture and arranging them accordingly can become an invigorating hobby. Those claustrophobic will want to expand their house by paying off various series of loans to Nook, which will eventually lead to a near-mansion-sized abode with five different rooms! Other important items in the collection guide include clothing, umbrellas, and accessories, all of which can be obtained via the Able Sisters. And of course, the Gyroids make a return, ready to spice up your home with obnoxious dances and jingles.

The shovel is the most basic tool available, used for digging up fossils or Gyroids that appear beneath cracks that spawn in your town each day. The fishing rod and net take some more practice, and are used for catching fish and bugs respectively. Certain fish and insects will only appear during certain times of day and specific months throughout the year. Animal Crossing: Wild World cleverly uses this trick to convince you to continually play throughout the year if you wish to complete your collection guide and museum. While fish are identified by different-sized shadows in the rivers and ocean, insects are trickier to locate. Some hide in trees and under rocks, while others deviously camouflage themselves with grass and flowers. Fishing and bug-catching competitions are also held throughout the year to show off your catching prowess. Some of the most elusive species can be traded in for high amounts of cash from Nook's endless supply of money. Such are two of the many ways to rake in wads of Bells, the game's currency. By selling unneeded items or fruit and shells found around your town, you will be able to obtain the necessary amount of cash to make your lifestyle a luxurious one.

As you might recall in the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing, Nintendo programmed several holidays and events exclusive to Western releases, such as Jingle on Christmas and Jack on Halloween. However, all releases of Wild World are designed to be the same worldwide, so no bizarre nonsensical holidays like Boxing Day appear in regional releases. Rather, Nintendo has made up a bunch of strange holidays of its own that occur throughout the year. A few of these are absolutely idiotic, like Yay Day, where you have to type in compliments whenever you talk to one of your neighbors, or La-Di-Day, where your villagers sing to you in their obscure animal language and you must approve or disapprove of their so-called “talent”. There are a few interesting ones, though, like the Acorn Festival that occurs in the fall. Special visitors still come on random days throughout the week, including Gracie the fashionable giraffe and Dr. Shrunk the salamander psychiatrist. Crazy Redd is far sleazier in this version, going as far as to sell you counterfeit items! Touch screen use is basically there to make menus much more convenient, as typing a letter takes a fraction of the time that it used to. It can also be used for pattern making, but since the squares are so small, touching is practically obsolete as opposed to using the control pad.

Animal Crossing: Wild World is also one of the first titles to utilize Nintendo's overprotective Wi-Fi system. Instead of using a code system this time around, trading items is done through visiting other people's towns through your local area network. Of course, you cannot simply visit anybody's town, as you must first obtain somebody's Friend Code and have them plug in your own. (Anyone who sees me elsewhere on the site knows how much I think the Friend Code system sucks ass.) You can have a maximum of three visitors in your town and one time and can communicate through the game's simple-to-use keyboard feature. Obviously, you are running the risk of guests vandalizing your town by chopping down trees and such, so careful conduct monitoring is required. Fortunately, if things get too out-of-hand, you can always disconnect each of your visitors while resetting everything to the way it was. The wretched Friend Code system makes the Wi-Fi more linear than it should be, and its potential outside of trading or selling rare items for incredibly jacked-up prices is a little limited, but it's still probably the best use of online play that Nintendo has created thus far. And hey, if nothing else, you and a friend can have fun hitting each other with axes to see who's breaks first.

As addictive and amazing as Animal Crossing on the Gamecube was, it was arguably the most graphically inferior game on the system. This setback was due to the fact that the game was a mere upgrade of a Japan-exclusive version on the Nintendo 64. However, considering how the DS is a far less powerful system, the nearly identical visuals can actually be considered quite strong. Everything looks clean, from the environment to the humanoid characters with heads twice the size of their bodies. Custom patterns which can be displayed everywhere from your clothing to the path you walk on appear with utmost clarity. The soundtrack is slightly less impressive, with none of the hourly themes being as catchy as they were in the original. However, all of K.K. Slider's songs have returned in this version, ready to play in your jukebox in your house, in addition to an entire line of new-recorded songs. Unfortunately, no live recordings are available. Maybe next time.

So I finally broke down and gave another game a perfect score. But I really feel as though Animal Crossing: Wild World deserves it. While the game is not for everybody, many gamers will find themselves immersed in a wonderful title that can easily last over a year of excessive play. The collection guide is even more expansive than in the original, and the many inconveniences found before, such as typing or selling items, can now be done in minimal amounts of time thanks to the game's compatibility with the touch screen. Wi-Fi opens up an entire new world of play and communication. And, if nothing else, the game serves as a delightful alternative to the real world, where the only law is DO NO RESET! While those who did not enjoy the Gamecube version will likely find nothing to change their minds here, fans of the original and newcomers to the series alike will no doubt want to check out this wonderfully remarkable title.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/08

Game Release: Animal Crossing: Wild World (US, 12/05/05)