"Perfecting an already amazing game"

The first Animal Crossing could possibly have been the one game that influenced my life the most--aside from maybe Sonic the Hedgehog. The original consumed me and got me through a very hard time of my life. I abandoned family, friends (well, if I had any at that time to abandon!) all to play a simulation of life with cutesy animals. Crazy, isn't it?

And now, 3 years later, Nintendo delivers an excellent sequel to Animal Crossing, this time for the Nintendo DS. The game plays much like the original did--You are moving to a new town on your own. You name your character and town whatever you like. You have no money to begin with. Luckily, Mr. Tom Nook, a kindly raccoon, the local shopkeeper and the real estate...guy in your town, is a nice guy and lets you pay off your debt gradually. Your goal is to pay every little bit of debt off by making money (called bells, don't ask me why) from selling him things and doing menial tasks for the neighbors.

For those who have played the original, this probably seems not much of a change. Indeed, most of the original features stay in place. You can catch bugs and fish and either sell them for a profit or give to Blathers, the museum manager, to display. The Able Sisters are hedgehogs who own a fashion shop, where you can design your own t-shirts to wear in the game--these patterns can be used for many other things as well, though, including town flags and billboards. (Homsar of the Homestar Runner fame flies proudly by my town gates)

However, there are many substantial changes now. Gone is Porter the monkey and his train station--Copper and Booker, the policemen of the original game, now guard the main gates out of your town. Booker runs the Lost and Found as he did in the last game, and tells you when people pass through your gates, and serves the same role Copper did in the last game. Copper, however, is your gateway to the world. He will open the gates to let in your friends from across the globe who own the game using Nintendo's newly realized Wifi Connection--This being the second Nintendo-made game to use the connection. You will need to have each other's friend code, town name and character name before you can enter their town or have them come to yours--this may seem limiting, but this is a measure to keep potential "Animal Crossing criminals" from coming in and ruining your town with phallic flag patterns and chopping down your trees, and overall a wise move. I'll go more in depth with the internet later, but there are other changes to be explained.

Also missing is the Post Office--But Pelly and Phyllis have found a job at Town Hall, where Mayor Tortimer can always be seen in the back room. The post office's functions still remain, as do all other important town features, such as your town song and comments villagers have left about your environment, serving as a replacement for the Wishing Well. Also, in a hilarious speech, Pelly explains that your town now supports donations to the poor town of Boondox, where they have no choice but to eat dirt for lunch--Without ketchup! Donating a certain amount of money over time earns you rewards. The dump of the original Animal Crossing is replaced here with a recycling bin you may dig through.

Lastly, Blathers's museum now hosts a cafe, where you may buy coffee from Brewster, a silent bird fellow. With every cup you buy, the cafe becomes more popular. K.K. Slider now plays here on Saturdays, same time as before. Also in the Museum now is an observatory, used by Blathers's younger sister, Celeste. She adores constellations and invites you to fill out her empty star chart with new ones, which will then be displayed on your upper screen late at night. Like real constellations, these have peak viewing times and everything. Another change to the museum is that Blathers himself identifies any fossils you dig up--rather than going through the tedious identification process of the predecessor.

As in the original, many travellers visit your town occasionally. Katrina, a fortune teller, will either make or break your luck with her predictions--You can get lucky, or start tripping everywhere. Wendell the walrus offers you wallpaper for fish--he's a starving artist! Saharah the camel will trade you rare carpets for a certain amount of money and another carpet. Crazy Redd is a crooked salesman who will either sell normal things for inflated prices, or rare, exclusive items. Unlike the original, Redd is even more riskier to buy from--The paintings from the museum you have to buy from him will occasionally be counterfeit when Blathers identifies them and be worth very little. However, you have no way of telling if they're the real deal or not, so you always have to take the risk. Gracie the giraffe will no longer have you wash her car--she now rates your fashion sense and awards you appropriately. In the original, Blanca the cat only showed up on train rides. Now she randomly visits you. She has a completely blank expression-literally, and you draw a face on her, as well as see another online player's face. Nintendo will judge the best faces. For mothers afraid Blanca will show up with a phallic symbol on her face, do not fret--She can be denied entry.

New to the game is the travelling therapist and comedian, Dr. Shrunk. He will teach you how to release your inner emotions and give you little emotion buttons to use for internet play. Also new is Pascal, a traveller who gives you pirate swag.

Another improvement over the original, and one of my favorites, is the villagers themselves. The interactivity with them has improved much. They will come to your house now and judge your furniture, gossip about the other animals' romance, and now they only give you tasks randomly rather than you asking for it. Depending on your previous performances in things, they will request more. They now also contact you with things rather than it always being YOU engaging in contact. Also, in addition to their changeable catchphrase, they even give you nicknames, too. These all spread to other villagers--Much to my dismay, both Robin AND Cube call me "Petite E".

Anyhow, the juicy bits you've been waiting for--Online. It flows VERY well. As said, codes are needed for other to enter your town. Up to three people can play with you (making 4 people total) in your town. You can go to your friends's town, as well. This is the first Wifi game with actual communication ingame--Mario Kart DS didn't have any, and neither did Tony Hawk's American Sk8land, as far as I know. Timers can be purchased for footraces ingame, as well as hide and seek games, and even fishing and bug catching competitions--It measures how many fish and bugs you catch. You can exchange shirts, buy from each other's town, and play in each other's museum. It's all good.

A helpful feature of having a friend in your town is the fact that you can save and continue immediately, rather than having to save and quit all the time. I' m a paranoid saver, but at least you have less to worry about here--Rather than worrying of power outages as in the original, the game will warn you when your DS is low on power and you can save from there. Be warned if you quit without saving, though--A mole named Mr. Resetti will appear and become very angered at you for doing such a thing.

All in all, the game is a heavy improvement over the original and has surpassed it in terms of favor. If you liked the original, try this out. If you've never played Animal Crossing and would like to try it, this is your big chance. Although your town is somewhat smaller in this game, the online play makes your game much bigger--After all, it's a Wild World.

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