Review: Animal Crossing: Wild World - DS

Crossing around the Wi-Fi world

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

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Good: Endless replay, charm, dialogue, online community

Bad: Non-online play is very similar to the Cube version, no NES games

Don’t piss off: Mr. Resetti

For those familiar with Animal Crossing on the Gamecube, you know that it is the absolute epitome of a “love it or hate it” game. Many, many people love the game, but there are others out there that don’t necessarily “get” what’s fun about it. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, Animal Crossing is essentiallly a virtual town simulator inhabited by various animals. When you play for the first time, you’ll move into your home and start getting acquainted with all of them.

Like the GC version, you’ll start out by working for the local landlord/shop owner/raccoon Tom Nook to pay off your mortgage. You’ll perform tasks such as planting flowers and introducing yourself to your neighbors. Early on, your own abode is extremely bare, with only a candle, bed, and radio. Furniture, wallpaper, and various toys can be obtained in a large variety of ways, including shaking trees, buying them at Nook’s shop, or receiving them as presents from neighbors. You can also find items in the recycling bin, lost & found, and barter with other gamers online. Hundreds upon hundreds of items are available, ranging from miniature space rovers to “robo-tables” to pinball machines. Unfortunately, the NES games from the Cube version are absent on the DS. Part of the fun in Animal Crossing is putting together the coolest living quarters you can. While the concept of interior design in a videogame probably sounds extremely boring, it’s oddly addicting. All of your neighbors will have unique houses as well, and they’ll remodel from time to time. Paying off your debts to Nook will result in an expanded house.

The main “objective” (if you can call it that) in the game is collecting money by various means. You can fish, catch bugs, collect seashells, and sell fruit, among other things. Early on, money is primarily for paying off your house debts, but it can also be used to buy various tools and furniture from the store. The essential tools in the game are a shovel, axe, watering can, bug-catching net, and fishing pole. You can also go to the Able Sisters fabric store and create your very own designs. These designs can be placed on shirts, hats, umbrellas, or even the ground. Traveling online, I noticed that people have created some extremely elaborate designs, some involving Link, Metroid, and other Nintendo characters.

Wild World runs off the DS internal clock, so if you’re playing at midnight in December, it’s going to be dark and possibly snowy in your town. Late at night, many animals go to bed, and Nook’s shop closes. It’s annoying when the shop closes, because your pockets will fill quickly, and you can’t do anything but just throw it on the floor until the morning. Certain days will hold special celebrations, such as Flea Market day. On this day, animals from the town may visit your house and offer to buy items from your house (I loved severely overcharging a mouse for my crappy oil drum). If you happen to turn off your DS without saving, a cranky mole named Mr. Resetti will pop out of the ground next time you play, and he’ll give you an extremely long lecture about the importance of saving your game. The more you turn off without saving, the longer his speech gets. It’s actually a great deterrent, and will make you remember to save each and every time.

Almost everything I’ve typed so far about Wild World could be said about the Gamecube version as well. The difference here (besides the obvious portability) is the online community. While it was possible to bring your memory card to a friend’s Cube and visit each other’s towns that way, it was certainly annoying. Through Nintendo Wi-Fi, you can visit countless other AC players if you’ve exchanged Friend Codes. This is where the real fun of Wild World lies. The internet is an extremely helpful tool for finding other players to visit, as any Animal Crossing message board is filled with Friend Codes and tons of towns. I spent four straight hours one day just visiting other people from the message board, exchanging designs, checking out their houses, and trading items (I thought my wallpaper-for-Mario hat transaction was very fair). The flag of Link that flies at my town gate is courtesy of a friendly neighbor, as is my robotic chair. Each town grows one type of fruit on the trees, but you can take yours to neighboring towns. Whenever I visited a distant town, I planted them a pear tree in exchange for some of their native fruit. I planted several apple and peach trees in my town, and they sell for more than my pears. You can also put messages in bottles and release them into the ocean. If you do this, you can activate Tag Mode, which works in a similar fashion as Nintendogs’ Bark Mode. While in Tag Mode, you can close your DS, and various things will happen if you come within range of another owner of the game. Your notes will wash up on their shores, and some of the residents of your town may even move to theirs (or vice versa). It’s actually hard to see certain neighbors go, because almost all of them have distinct personalities and hilarious dialogue.

All of the dialogue is spoken in a language that the game calls “Animalese”. It’s just random gibberish and funny sounds, but it works, especially considering there’s no way they could record voices for every single conversation in the game. Music is similar to the pleasant jingles and tunes found in the Cube version, and the town theme can still be manually changed. Graphically, Animal Crossing is still nothing to write home about on the technical end of things, but it retains its simple charm. The only truly noticeable difference in the visuals is that the world now “rotates” as you walk instead of scrolling. While the graphics won’t particularly astound or impress you, they fit the pleasant, serene mood of the game.

If any of this sounds even remotely interesting to you, go buy Animal Crossing: Wild World immediately. It’s an absolutely fantastic title for the DS, and the online aspects make it far superior to the Gamecube version. If you’re more of a traditional gamer, and this just sounds bizarre to you (which is understandable), you might be better off staying away. For others, this title will potentially keep your interest for months or even years. It’s difficult to place a finger on why this game is so interesting and addicting, but it certainly is.

Graphics: B-

Sound: A-

First Play: B+

Last Play: A+

Gameplay: A-

Overall: 92% A-

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Review: Animal Crossing: Wild World - DS

Crossing around the Wi-Fi world

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