Animal Crossing: Wild World

"My New Life - Review/Story"

Animal Crossing DS has finally come out. Took long enough eh?
After running out to the store, frantically searching around for the Animal Crossing DS box, only to find that they has JUST received the shipment and that it was lying on their front table, I came back home and pushed the tiny cartridge into it's slot. The game loaded up, and I heard that nostalgic "Nintendo" in the first few seconds. But then... NO! What happened here? What happened to the amazing Animal Crossing theme?
Guess what guys, it's no longer there. Yeap that's right, the amazing opening theme is just not there anymore. That was a huge bummer. On to the story.

My New Life

I climbed into a taxi headed to my new town, Montreal. I was in a long boring conversation with Kapp'n my taxi driver. I knew I recognized him from somewhere. He used to row me out to my private island when I lived all the way over in Rayder. Instead of rowing his boat away from my old town, he is now driving a taxi to my new town. We shortly after arrived at my destination, and I gave Kapp'n his money. As I climbed out of the taxi, I saw my new town, my new home. Within a moment I was thrust into a whole new life of bug catching, fishing and so many other things that it would take a long time to list them all.

I was shown to a beautiful pelican of the name Pelly. She was sitting behind a counter in the Town Hall. I chatted her up a bit here and there, but generally answered her questions. Ah yes, how well designed she looks. I thought that the developers put a lot of time into character modeling. I was glad they did; I knew I'd be back in the Town Hall a few more times. She told me how to use the map, and where my house is. I thought that she may be flirting a bit with me and so as I left the Town Hall, I turned quickly and winked. She smiled.

I walked towards my house, the beautiful music sounding in my ears. "I've never heard this song" I thought to myself. They must have written new ones. I liked the new ones but I definitely missed the catchy old ones. As I walked along, I spotted some fish in the river. It looked as though there were many new fish in this town, and I knew that I had a long time's worth of fishing ahead of me. After I crossed the bridge, I arrived at my house and opened the door slowly. As I walked in, I could smell the scent of pine wood and fresh paint. It smelled pretty good to me, but the house was tiny! I knew that I would have to expand it. I walked upstairs and saw a single bed in front of me, along with a telephone across from me, which lay beneath the window. Looked cozy to me.

The second I walked outside my new house, a character I had known for years greeted me as if he didn't know me. He started to tell me that I would need to pay off my loan for this house and that I should go to the Town Hall to do this. I was surprised that he didn't remember me. At times I felt like interrupting and saying, "Tom Nook, don't you remember me? It's Ray Khol!" I thought that that would be a bit rude, so I stayed quiet. I nodded along with him as he spoke, and as he was finishing he asked me, no, told me to come and work for him. I didn't want to work for him again! I had already done that! Why would I want to work for him again!? But I had been beaten, and obviously I must follow what the landlord says. I take the job.

Nook's errands are pretty similar to before. Take this package to said person. It was getting to be quite a chore. My life in this new town was becoming very boring. Yes, very boring. But then, all of a sudden, as I wrote a message on the Town Message Board, he finally freed me of my job! My life could now truly begin. Everything around me looked so beautiful again. The grass was perfect, the trees looked great. Even the sky on the second screen looked fantastic to me. I thought that I should start fishing, so I sold the seashells that I had on me and bought my new fishing rod.

I ran down to the sea to start my new fishing experience. It was a little different to the old way, as now that bobber drifted away from shore, but nothing was going to stop me! As I cast my bobber into the ocean, I waited for a few seconds. And then out of the blue, a bite! I reeled with all force, and after a minute's worth of a fight, I saw that I caught an Olive Flounder. The joy! It looked so great! The developers really tried to make everything look great.

So I was done fishing for the day and I headed over to the museum to donate my Olive Flounder. Blathers was asleep as usual, so I headed on over to wake him up. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I said that I wanted to donate my new fish. He started to babble about how great and wonderful I am (and of course I enjoyed the ego boost) and finally after five minutes worth of babble, he accepted my fish and kindly placed in one of the three humongous fish tanks. I like aquarium very much. It is much bigger than my last town's. Not to mention the Ancient Animals section. Two huge rooms! I have much work ahead of me. After visiting the spectator's parts of the museum, I decide to walk downstairs. Oh will you look at that! A coffee shop. I was very happy to see one of my favorite drinks, coffee. In my old town I had to buy a coffee maker to make my coffee, and since it was Chinese I had to buy a new one almost every week. Now I could save some money. I wasn't exactly in the mood for coffee right then, so I left the shop. This time I took the stairs up into a whole new room. It was the Observatory. I talked to Celeste, the worker there, and she asked me if I'd like to draw my own constellation. I was happy to oblige. I drew a small circle, and called it Nothing. She fell in love with the name (another worker who's flirting with me?) and started to say how perfect it was. I wasn't attracted to her, so I left the room while she was speaking. No regrets.

I walked back outside into my town, and saw a couple of bugs flying around here and there. The sky was bright blue and the music was fantastic. If anything, my life was moving a little slowly because of how slowly the other characters speak to me. It was kind of irritating, but I'm used to it now. I had no problem with walking at all and I felt like I was being controlled very well. I could respond to all my commands very easily, and I was happy because otherwise I may have run over a flower or two.

I walked to the town gate and my two friends Copper and Booker were standing in front of it. I talked to Booker first and he also pretended like he didn't know me. He asked me what I wanted from him. I told him I wanted to see the lost and found. He showed it to me, there was nothing interesting. I then talked to Copper (who ALSO pretended that he didn't know me) and he asked me if I wanted to visit another town, or be visited by other people. I told him I want visitors. He then interrupted me rudely and told me that before I can have visitors I needed to have a "Friend Code" of some sort. I had no idea what this was, and since these two were being very very rude, I walked away and went back to fish for a while.
The End.

Game play – Truly amazing. Doing all the things this game ahs to offer will take hours. Not to mention that it won't be time “wasted”. You'll feel that you spent your time on something truly constructive (which is weird for a game). Expect everything you would from the original and even more. And for the new comers, if you are a GAME lover of any sort or type, this is the game for you. Yes even if you like shooters, this game is still for you. Well, maybe not to that extent, but you should rent this game at the minimum.

Sound – Sound is great in the game. The songs are really cool and the sounds are amazing. Can't really say anything about music, it sounds great.

Controls – Controls are pretty perfect and there's not much to say. You just have to get used to them.

Graphics – Unbelievable character modeling. Everything just looks so good. EVERYTHING. From flowers, to fossils, to fish, everything looks amazing.

Replay Value – Are you kidding? Probably the highest for any game that's every been created.

In conclusion, this game is amazing and is an absolute buy for any DS owner. Get it now, before it's sold out.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/06/05