"Welcome To Animal Corssing"

Animal Crossing: Wild World
A GK128 Review

I gleefully pre-ordered my copy of Animal Crossing (AC) for the DS a week before release. AC was a game that I had rented on the Gamecube, but never really got deep into. By the time I returned it I had deleted my game. Why? Well that is simple, the save took up a whole 59 Block memory card, and at the time that is all that was available from 1st party Nintendo. This is what obviously prevented my re-rental or purchase of the game. Screw restating after all my time spent. I was disappointed that I had no drive to any longer play, because I had enjoyed my experience. Flash forward to a few weeks to before the release of AC:WW and my excitement rose. Now I could play AC any time and anywhere. Not only that, but I no longer had to use a whole memory card to save!

My scores are based off a 1-5 point scale. I feel it is far more descriptive them a 10 point scale, because you know where it stands more clearly. 1/5 is terrible. 2/5 is bad. 3/5 is ok. 4/5 is good. Finally 5/5 is great.

Graphics: This is basically the standard for a review to start on for some crazy reason. So here it goes. The graphics are not as clear as those of the GC version. Since this is a portable game that is forgiven. What we do get is a nice looking game that looks somewhere between an N64 and GC game. There are notably rough textures, and some things are a bit small. The world appears to be curved as you walk it. Imagine walking on a ball. As it spins you can see the trees and houses appear to roll in from the background. This is just a mild annoyance that you eventually get used to. The characters models are all very cutesy. While this can be taken as a bad thing, I don't think it is. I like the character models very much. They really add charm to the game. The big complaint about the character models is that a bunch are reused for different characters. The only differences being a color distinction. A bit of a let down, but not a huge deal. The graphics in this game are all about charm. They are very charming, and a delight to look at. A few things described up top prevent it from getting a perfect score, but this game is far from looking bad.

4/5 - Good

Controls: Nintendo has graced us with two control types in this game. You have your traditional d-pad and button layout. This works well for almost everything and is my control preference. From walking to perfectly positioning yourself to do something the d-pad is where it's at. However this control type is not perfect for everything. For instance moving items in your pockets around is a hassle with the d-pad. Trying to sell items to Tom Nook is painful as is writing letters. Thankfully the touch screen is here to rescue us from those tasks the d-pad just can't do that great. Typing is a breeze with the stylus. It's just like using a keyboard. You just tap the letters on the screen. Selling items to Tom Nook goes from a pain to a simple drag and drop affair. Fishing is also made easier by taping the water to direct your cast. The down side to the touch screen movement is that control for walking and positioning yourself is weird and not as intuitive as using the d-pad. So basically both systems have their ups and downs. You'll find yourself switching between both pretty often. Together they work great, but it's a shame neither is the perfect solution.

4/5 – Good

Gameplay: The biggie. This game is an over all joy to play. There is usually always something to do. You can spend your time fishing, bug catching, treasure hunting, furnishing your home, talking to locals, gardening, doing errands for people, collecting fruit, looking for fossils, and a multitude of other things. It is really easy to get sucked in the game and play for hours on end. While all these activities sound like they would be boring they really are anything but. The fact that these activities we dislike doing in real life is fun in a game is pretty mind boggling. I mean you do these things, but you get no real reward for doing any of them. Sure you may earn some bells, the games currency, or that train set you always wanted, but beyond that all you get is a thank you from your animal friends. Speaking of witch all have their own personality and remember things you have done with and to them in the past. For instance I let a character visit my house when it was pretty dumpy. Since then I had revamped the place. He commented on how much nicer my place was then before. Pretty darn impressive if you ask me. So how can a game where the only real goal is living life be fun? It just is. The game keeps you playing even when you'd think you would be bored of it. There are always new things to do with holidays and special events throughout the year. You can also unlock things like a hair salon and a bigger store to shop in just by living your life. There is so much to see and do that anything less than a perfect score here would be a lie. The only problems with the gameplay one could have would be those hurt by controls, but why should I dock gameplay points when it's the controls fault it's hard to perfectly cast that fishing rod?

5/5 – Great

Wi-Fi Play: I have seen reviews with people knocking the online aspect of this game because it is basically the same thing in a friend's town. I totally disagree that the online is not that great. These people must lack the friends to visit. I frequent a gaming message board, and those of us with AC frequent each other's towns constantly helping each other achieve goals and joshing each other through text chat and postings on each others town bulletin boards. While it is true this is not a drastic addition in terms of gameplay it is a blast with friends. I have many types of fruit in my town thanks to this feature, and there are even Wi-Fi exclusive things that happen. For instance every once in a while a cat with a funny face will show up in town. She comes via the wi-fi. She asks you to draw her a new face. If you do it will be transmitted to another person's game where they can do the same just to pass the character on again. Also constellations drawn by other players will show up into your night sky. Another cool little touch. All you have to do to invite guests into your town or go to a friend's town is advance to your main gate and talk to a character named Copper. He'll take care of the rest. In order to visit and be visited you and your friends have to trade friend codes, but that is not a big deal. All in all the wi-fi play adds another dimension to the game, and adds more of a sense of a community that exists outside your town.

4/5 Good

Final thoughts: A great game that no DS should be without. A must have for any fan of the series. It's not without its flaws, but the total package out weighs them. If you are a fan of Nintendo in general or just looking for another great game to play on your DS go and buy Animal Crossing: Wild World now!

Scores:

4.25/5 or 4/5 Good
2.5/10 or 9/10 thanks to rounding.

So there you have it a 9/10. I got this score by adding 4+4+5+4 then dividing by 4. This game me the average of the total, a 4.25. Hence the 1-5 score. I then took the 4.25 and multiplied by 2 giving me the 8.5 which rounds up to a 9. So as you can see I didn't pull these numbers out of a hat. Based on my individual scores this is the total achieved.

Thank you for reading my review.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/14/05