Animal Crossing: Wild World

"Once Upon a Game..."

This game has just been released in Europe (the writing date of this review is April 8th) so I've decided to give Europeans yet another view on this beautiful game. I would like to note that I do not have a Gamecube and have never played an Animal Crossing until March 31st. So now, onto the story...

Once upon a game, I was in a taxi, with someone I'd heard of but never met driving it. Kapp'n. He asked me where I was heading and my name. Then he said my name was cool. I said it was burly. He assumed I was a boy and indeed was correct. Clever Kapp'n. Then he asked me a load of rubbish questions. I came out at my town, and was immediatly lost. Luckily, the town hall was directly north of me so I headed there like Kapp'n told me to. After talking to a very polite bird named Pelly, I headed to my house using X to display the map.

My home was miniature. I knew instantly it would need enlarging. After I left, Tom Nook greeted me and asked me to go to his shop. He told me about the mortgage, and how I could work for him. I finished the work and the rest is history...Oh, and I lived happily ever after.

Gameplay 9/10
Many people call this game a chore. A description of this game that I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me on is a VERY, fun chore. And a rewarding one. The first thing I do when I go on the game is check the lost and found for items...ahem...'I' lost and check the recycling bin for any recycled PINBALL MACHINES and such alike. When one of my neighbours had 5 pinballs machines, I thought...how weird. When one of them dissappeared I was straight off to the lost and found (like you could LOSE a pinball machine). It turns out though, Anchovy had recycled the pinball machine. A weird thing, but finding things in the recycling bin is great, you never know what it might be. After that, I'll do a bit of fishing. Fishing takes up alot of my time as it is very fun and rewarding. The excitement of catching a red snapper or barred knifejaw is amazing. The puns are...bad. e.g When a red snapper is caught "Oh...snap!. When a barred knifejaw is caught "With a jaw like that, it should be barred". Don't ask me. Talking to your neighbours is great, they have a variety of things to say, and although you can have different neighbours saying exactly the same things sometimes, you find that overall, they have a different selection of things to say. There are many many many many many other things to do, but now, it is about time I left gameplay and went to...

Graphics 8/10
These are the graphics that were used on the Gamecube, and graphics wise, whats average on the Gamecube is fabulous on the DS. And the graphics do look great in all their 3D glory. It looks very simple from afar but there are parts of the graphics that are hard to appreciate and think are difficult but for the machine are very good. A great example would be the name of Nook's shop written on Nook's shop. That is a lot more difficult than it looks. What brings this score down a little are the lazy graphics of the fruit. It looks stupid to have 2D in a 3D world. When you talk to animals, whilst its nice to see you and the animal you're talking to, it is annoying when a tree magically dissappears and more annoying when it magically reappears. Nevertheless, 8 is great.

Sound 9/10
Many people give this a low score. I love the sound on this game and will make a special effort to keep the sound turned up no matter what. The tunes that play when you go around the town are fabufantastic. I like them anyway. The town tune that it starts off with is great and you can change it if you want. A town tune is something that plays every time you talk to an animal with a few exceptions. It is different for each one in the sense of the instrument it is played with. What puts the icing on the cake for this though is K.K. Slider. The genius who thought of this dog deserves a round of applause every Saturday night. He turns up at the coffee shop at the museum every Saturday from 7:30 although he only plays from 8:00. You request a song for him to play and he plays it. His songs are pure genius. The guys who thought up of those deserve a round of applause every Saturday night also. When the song plays the credits roll and a live version of the song is played. At the end, he gives you a tape of the song he just sang, but it is a weird version of it. It still gives something to listen to when you are at your house. K.K Slider is brilliant and genius.

Lifespan 100/10
I have given this 100 (yes, that is not a misprint) out of 10 because this game can last as long as you want it to. It doesn't get repetitive for me, and as this is my opinion of the game I guess that is what counts. There is something new every day, and what can really get you motivated is fear. That isn't a typo either. Fear of missing an item from Nook you've been waiting for for ages. Fear of neighbours that you like moving out, and you never ever seeing them again. Fear of your town going to pots and when you play the game next having to do a massive sort out. Fear of missing holidays and events (which are not as dull as many make them out to be). Fear of missing ANY action to be quite honest. So while we are on the topic of holidays or events, let's get a little bit in on them. Holidays are simple things such as the flea market, where you buy things from other houses and others buy things from you, yay day, where everybody compliments each other and things like that. People think they are dull, because they think that you can't think of anything but the current holiday. At the moment, it is the flower fest. I've heard people aren't playing because it is the flower fest. What they don't understand, is that while the flower fest is on, you don't just have to think of gardening. It just gives you something else to do. That is the beauty of the holidays, you can focus your entire week on the flower fest or you can pretend it is not going on. These holidays give you yet ANOTHER reason to come back to this game adding more lifespan to it. And as the lifespan of this game is unlimited, this game's lifespan must be about 10 times the lifespan of any other game I know deeming it to the reserved, 100.

Other Things to Note
I haven't talked about Tom Nook's shop much yet. Tom Nook starts off with a shop named Nook's Cranny, which is little and rubbish. But if you spend and sell a bit there, you can upgrade it, although to get Nookington's, you need someone else to buy something from your Nook's. This is annoying because I don't have anybody to sell to. Once it is at Nookway's, there is a lot there. You can buy various things from plants to beds. You can sell practically anything there either. Ever heard of a shopkeeper who buys flies. You've got it in Tom Nook. He also has a catalogue from which you can order anything you have ever had with a few exceptions from. Whatever you order will get sent to your house later. He also buys turnips from you, turnips, which I will tell you about now.

Joan comes to your town every Sunday selling white turnips and red turnips. White turnips are really easy money, you buy lots from Joan really cheap, wait for Nook to buy them expensively, sell them to Nook, make tasty profit. I haven't yet tried red turnips, but from what I have heard. You buy them, grow them, and sell them to Nook for a slightly tastier, but harder earned profit.

Another feature of the game is the museum. You have to catch bugs, fish fish, dig up fossils, buy paintings to fill it up. And there is the coffee shop where K.K. Slider turns up every week. There is also an observatory where you can create your own constellations that turn up on certain days of the year. Cool..huh.

One final feature is mailing things. You can write letters and send them to animals. They'll love them, albeit they'll only spell check them. Mailing villagers makes them happy, so I do it to each one every once in a while. You can also attach items to your mail. This isn't just a waste of items. If you get rid of something you don't want you might get back something that you DO want.

Overall 10/10
10 doesn't mean perfection. No game will ever be perfect. It simply means it is one of the best games around at the moment. It is a great game, which is begging me to stop writing this review and start playing on it. BYE!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/06