Animal Crossing: City Folk

A Slight Case of Deja Vu

Posted 4 years ago By - Zach R.

Welcome to Animal Crossing. Those of you new to the experience are in for a real treat. There’s work to be done, but there’s also fun to be had. Oh, what’s that? You’ve been here before? Well, you’ll still have fun, but not much has changed with the old town.

Yes, Animal Crossing City Folk has finally come to the Wii, and for all intents and purposes, it’s still a fun game. That said, the game pretty much relies on the content found in the two previous games. This means veterans of the series aren’t going to find much to really keep them involved for long.


Gameplay

So you’re all grown up and ready to move out on your own. Well, you’re going to need a few things before you set forth. On the bus ride to your destination, a fellow passenger will ask you a series of questions in order to determine your name, gender, and the name of the town you’re planning on settling down in. One thing Animal Crossing nails is the immersion. You never get the feeling that the game’s forcing you to fill out a questionnaire to get details from you. The conversations are the type that you could have with any friendly person on the bus, (minus the question regarding whether you’re a boy or girl).

Once your travelling companion bids you adieu, your dropped off in town, and soon meet up with Tom Nook. For newcomers, just to hip you to things, Tom’s pretty much the main man in your town. He owns the only shop in town, and also takes care of the local real estate. Tom will hook you up with your place to live shortly after introducing himself, and will graciously loan you the money to purchase your estate. Of course, now that you owe Tom a whole lot of cash, you’re going to have to find a job. Guess who has one for you? That’s right, old Tom. This more or less serves as a tutorial on how to interact in town. Nook will have you write a message to announce a sale at his shop on the town message board, introduce yourself to neighbours as well as deliver items to them.

After you finish that, you’re free to do whatever you feel like in the town. Want to make some cash to pay off that mortgage? Buy a fishing pole and try your hand at being a fisherman. Go to the beach and collect shells. There’s really no set guideline for you here. Your goal is essentially just to be a contributing member to the community. Donate items to the museum, plant new trees, or even design some constellations in the museums observatory. There’s plenty here to occupy you. The problem here isn’t actually in the amount that there is to do, it’s actually that there isn’t much here that hasn’t been done before.


So what, if anything is new? Well, the City is new. This is where you’ll go to take in a show, purchase expensive and rare items, update your look, or have your fortune told. Taking in a show can add emotion icons with which to use during conversations, which is cool, but an underdeveloped design mechanic. The AI won’t acknowledge the emotions when you talk to them, so really, it’s just for use in online play. Adding a little something extra to your interactions with the AI could have added quite a bit more value to the title, but I suppose that will have to wait for next time. Truth be told, the activities here aren’t very engaging, and aside from netting you a few neat items for your pad, you won’t be inclined to visit the city all that often, unless you absolutely have to.

Another new feature added to the Wii addition is online play. Yes, the DS version had it, so it’s not that new, but this is the first time it’s available on a console. This certainly makes things more interesting, as you can visit a friends town, or they can visit yours. Visiting a friends town is cool, simply because you can harvest their fruit, and assuming it’s not the native fruit of your own town, Tom Nook will pay through the nose for it. Something else that’s cool, is that if one of your neighbours decides to move, they can take the letters you wrote them with them, and share them throughout the cities they travel to. Communication can be done either with the standard text format, or the new Wii Speak microphone. Obviously Wii Speak is most preferred, as it’s a pain to type all the messages. This is probably the one big improvement for the game overall. It’s nice to be able to chat with friends whilst plucking treasures from their town.

The controls are a simple affair. The nunchuk controls your characters movement, and the Z button can be used for running. Pressing the C button will shake trees around town, which produces fruit and if your lucky, the games currency, Bells. The Wii-remote uses an IR feature that you can use to move your character instead of the nunchuk, which is nice, but doesn’t feel as natural as the nunchuk’s setup. There’s also an IR menu at the bottom of the screen which allows you to check your map, look at pictures you’ve taken, check your inventory and so on. It’s a simple system, and it works well.

Graphics & Sound

Animal Crossing is a fine looking game, but certainly doesn’t push the Wii to its limits, at all. The characters are cute, and the town has plenty of personality. The City does feel alive, but lacks a certain punch. There’s one particular area that this rings true for. In one area, you’ll hear characters refer to a shady section of the City...but aside from being located outside the main hub, there’s nothing gritty or dirty about it. Nothing to sell what the people are trying to convey about the area. Yes, I’m nitpicking, but it seems odd to have people talking about the shady part of town, when the only thing that separates the area from the rest of the city is a couple of boxes outside a building.

The music and Animal speak remain largely the same as previous versions. It’s nothing overly fantastic, but it does its job.

Value

The people who are going to get the most out of City Folk, are the ones who missed out on the Gamecube and DS versions. There’s plenty to do in AC, and even though it may sound tedious, performing tasks can be fun and rewarding. Veterans however, are left in the cold on this one. The addition of Wii Speak, and Wi-fi online play may be enough for some to give the game a second glance, but essentially this is just more of the same with a few control enhancements and the ability to chat. AC is still a fun game, though, so if it’s been a while since you played the original or DS versions, the updated features may be enough to bring you back one more time.


Conclusion

If you’ve played any version of Animal Crossing before, your love of the series will pretty much be the deciding factor on whether or not you’re going to pick this up. Online is a nice feature, but when the game is almost the exact same as the previous two versions, it’s time to try something new.

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