Animal Crossing: Wild World - First Play
I was excited to get my hands on Animal Crossing: Wild World, though I had no experience with the original for the GameCube. You see, I’m mad for a few types of games: RPGs, samurai hack-n-slashes, and “life simulators.” Oh yes – when I need a break from medieval Japan or complex plots, I’m more than happy to farm or collect capsule toys to my heart’s content. I have a pretty severe addiction to games like Harvest Moon, and I know first hand how quickly those types of games suck you in, and how difficult they are to explain to the uninitiated. “Well, you like, farm and stuff. And raise animals. And there isn’t really a point. But it’s really fun!” Animal Crossing falls into the same general category as Harvest Moon: open-ended, no real “point” or plot to the game, but loads of fun. I haven’t found myself addicted in the sense of can’t-put-it-down, but I do play for bursts every day & if it’s been a few hours, I find myself wanting to check in with my town. I’ve had Animal Crossing for a few days, and I’ve probably played for a total of 10 hours thus far: I continue to find this game almost infinitely charming, quirky, and fun.
When you first start up the game, you will be able to name yourself and the town. You are then dropped of in a fairly small, pastoral little village that’s more than a little sleepy. Your village has fruit trees (these vary from town to town), a handful of buildings, a river, an ocean, bugs and fish to catch, and some interesting animal inhabitants. The first you’ll meet is Nook, the raccoon who runs the town store and also holds the mortgage on your new house. Nook will immediately put you to work running some errands so you can start paying down the mortgage. Nook can upgrade your house to make it bigger, but you won’t be able to get started on that until your first house (initially a little cramped) is paid off. You can also purchase all sorts of items at Nook’s store, ranging from a shovel to dig up fossils and other artifacts, to a fishing rod or a bug net, along with a whole host of items to spruce up your house and your town (we’ll get to that in a little bit). You can sell fish, fruit, and a lot of other items to Nook to make some quick cash.
Nook will have you go and introduce yourself to your new neighbors. I have some residents that are more than a little cranky in my town, but Animal Crossing allows you to write and send letters to your new friends, along with presents: a surefire way to make sure your mailbox will be full, make new friends, and gain some neat items along the way. The animals will occasionally ask you to run errands, but so far, I’ve found they’re more interested in chatting than anything else.
One of the most fun and charming parts of Animal Crossing is the almost endless customization you can do with your character, house, and town. Head down to the tailor to create your own designs, which can be applied to wallpaper, clothing, the town flag … just about anything, really. Not digging your original outfit or the bland walls of your house? Make your own! Your house really is endlessly customizable, and you’ll occasionally be judged on your interior decorating skills by the “Happy Room Academy.” Initially, things will be pretty bare, but you can buy, find, or receive as gifts a bunch of different types of wallpapers, flooring, tables, chairs, and accessories. You can also spruce up the environment of your town: plant flowers and trees, water drooping plants, pull weeds, and residents will be very pleased. Improving your museum by donating fossils, fish, bugs, and art means you’ll find more residents moving in. Go upstairs in the museum, and you can draw and log constellations that you’ll see in the upper DS screen at night while you walk around.
I’m relatively new to the DS, and while I can’t say that I’ve played a ton of games, I’ve got to say that I’ve been really impressed with how smooth and intuitive the touch screen and stylus work for a wide variety of games, and Animal Crossing is no exception. Instead of having to learn a billion different combinations of directional pad and buttons like you see in a game such as Harvest Moon for the GBA, everything is so easy with the stylus – in the menu screen, drag tools or clothing from your inventory to the little avatar of you to equip them. Out in the world, tap a door to open it, or a tree to shake it; move your stylus way ahead of your character to run, or keep it just a bit in front to walk. It’s so easy to click through menus, write letters, and perform tasks, and that ease has really been adding to my enjoyment of the game. The graphics and sound are pretty good for the type of game AC is: everything is very anime like and cute, and the sound is more than decent, but the emphasis definitely is on game play, not jaw-droppingly beautiful scenery and the like. However, with all the stuff to see and do, I haven’t really noticed the sound that much; the graphics just add to the overall sense of, well, cuteness that pervades Animal Crossing.
I haven’t run into any actual problems yet, though I have had a few moments of extreme irritation and frustration (I think those were just due to being an Animal Crossing newbie). The pace of Animal Crossing does seem to be a little slow, which is no surprise since you play in real time. However, it has limited how much I’ve been playing – sometimes I hit a wall and literally can’t find anything else to do in my little town. But the big new feature in Wild World is the WiFi connectivity, which allows you to travel to other towns or have friends come over to yours. This feature really does lend itself to allowing you to log more play time. Nook’s store in your town closed for upgrades? Go visit a friend, bring some presents, and do some shopping in a new town. I haven’t been able to spend more than half an hour or so playing online, so I’m holding off on giving my impressions of the WiFi features until my next play rating (I can say that from what I’ve seen, the implementation is clever and very fun).
I’m looking forward to logging more time with Animal Crossing: Wild World, and I’m especially looking forward to putting in more time on the WiFi mode. So far, my friends list is pretty skimpy, so if any readers out there would like to swap friend codes, leave a comment.
none
19. December 2005 at 17:40
my name is mike my town is hyurle and my number is 317888936803
20. December 2005 at 16:00
Might as well through mine up here too
Name: Aiki
Town: Brooklyn
Code: 1933-3396-8531
20. December 2005 at 21:21
Trying to explain games like this to friends is a blast. Shortly after my baby moved us cross-country so she could go to business school, forcing me to get a new job, I got this for a gift. She asked me what the game was like, and I explained, “Well, you move to a new town and then you have to find a job and make new friends, and…”
She was laughing so hard she could barely even get out, “Boy, that must be quite an escape for you.”
1. January 2006 at 20:55
Name: Shannen
Town: Florida
Code: 0859-6147-1170
8. January 2006 at 15:56
please put me on your list!!!
4810-9928-6458
AC Town: Gothem
8. January 2006 at 16:09
Name: michael
Town: Hyrule (sorry about spelling)
Code: 4424-3564-4633
Must have regal series!!!!
9. January 2006 at 15:20
I’m in the process of adding everyone to my list - here’s mine:
Name - Ming Ma
Town - Suzhou
Code - 3994-9494-2833
9. January 2006 at 18:45
im looking to get some friends on mine as well, my code is - 3694-3029-6650
9. January 2006 at 18:47
name- Daniel
Town - Salem
im looking to get some friends on mine as well, my code is - 3694-3029-6650
i forgot to put name and town so there they are
9. January 2006 at 22:36
name- Sharpe
Town- rockcity
friendcode- 3951- 9955- 8138
Its pretty sweet, its kinda a stoner town so don’t judge me, I’ll prolly be on around like 3:00 sometimes.
15. January 2006 at 10:35
The wonder of the “sound” part of the game isn’t immediately obvious right away, I suppose–but before your next play/review, note a few of these things–you might find you step that score up a little.
1. There isn’t a single song soundtrack, rather the soundtrack changes hourly — there is a distinct song for each hour of the day — early morning and late night are more ambient and subtle while the songs during the day time are more upbeat and happy. After you play for a while, you’ll know what hour of the day it is by the music ;)
2. You can obtain songs to put in one of many players to place in your house — fill your playlist up over time (You can get a song Saturday nights when K.K. Slider is playing) — there are a -lot- of different songs you can get your hands on to add to your playlist–which you can use as background music in your house — as you expand your house, you’ll be able to have different background tracks in each room of your house.
3. You can make your own town tune (check in town hall, left desk), which you’ll hear as the bell tolling each hour and each time you enter/leave a building and each time you initiate a conversation with an animal. Furthermore, you’ll find that each character in the game has a unique “voice”, changing the sound of your tune depending on who you’re talking to.
While the individual songs/sounds aren’t necessarily terribly memorable, when taken in as a whole–the vast, dynamic, variable nature of the AC:WW sound bank is rather awe inspiring. At least, I find it to be so.
Finally, just some notes on finding things to do in AC–
* Experiment with different flower arrangements–it’s hinted at in the manual, you can breed flowers resulting in new “hybrids” — can make a few bucks with the right combos, but more importantly it gives you something to toil over–and a town with hybrid flowers always looks impressive. “Hey, where’d you get that black flower?!”
* Shake trees — even non-fruit bearing trees might hold surprises for you: from furniture to bells to bugs, somehow junk finds its way topside!
* Write letters (looks like you’re doing this already, eh?) — send a nice, long letter to townsfolk with a present and you’re liable to get something good in return.
* You can make a killing fishing, and there are lots of unique fish to find.
* Chat with the animals — while their dialog can be a bit redundant and shallow . . . but every now and again, pays off. Get in good with them by talking a lot, answering kindly, and meeting their needs and you might just end up best friends. Yay?
* Replace all those native fruit trees with non-native fruit trees; you can make some serious bells once you have more expensive fruit growing.
* Try to get your town environment perfect — that ought to keep you busy for a while. ;)
15. January 2006 at 19:21
Well, for me, really memorable songs are what bumps that part of the rubric up. However, I’ve been really impressed with the depth and breadth of AC (in toto) - it’s not something I play for hours on end, but it’s something I *want* to play every day, at least for a bit. I’ve just found the visuals/sound to be ancillary to my experience, though well thought out & produced.
It’s really a wonderfully thought out game - I’ve enjoyed all the little details and touches. It’s fun to think that this is a game that is very dynamic & constantly changing - I love having games around that are open-ended and I can come back to again and again. Gaming comfort food, if you will. I’ve been flipping back and forth between AC & one of the Harvest Moon games for GBA. I do love my “life simulators” so! :)
28. January 2006 at 22:24
add my ac ww character
code : 292121869401
name : Mitch
town : knoxvill
4. February 2006 at 14:25
hey my player name is Shae
my player town is maine and
my code is 476803364703 please reply
5. February 2006 at 01:54
1632-7203-1589
5. February 2006 at 01:58
srry u need mi town lol its still: my world mi code1632-7203-1589 add me asap please
5. February 2006 at 16:02
my code is 1933-3819-5512
my town is FnkyTown
my player name is shellton
7. February 2006 at 19:35
my code is 3780-2202-1386
my name is david(no caps)
my town is houston (no caps)
plz add me so we can talk and visit eachothers worlds
im on almost all the time
9. February 2006 at 18:37
code:111734206924
name tyler
town:golden
11. February 2006 at 15:16
code:120322618566
name: Joseph
town: New Joe
16. February 2006 at 19:44
code:0258-3528-3047
name:Shelby
town:My Town
17. February 2006 at 22:47
Code:3608-4225-9906
Name:Kai
Town:Asgard
if u got aim my email is Delta killa 7125 im me if u wanna play my gate is open most of the day
19. February 2006 at 13:27
my gate is open usually too. AIM IM me at cleasure1138 and i’ll be sure to add your code.
Code:193338195512
name: Shellton
town: FnkyTown
21. February 2006 at 15:32
somebody please visit me The first person to visit me gets 1ooo bells my name is ty my town is alpena my friend code is 5283-4677-2540 email me at raven0064@aol.com and give me your code and name and town name also WILL PEOPLE START OPENING THEIR GATES
26. March 2006 at 20:48
Someone come to my town. Anyone who wrote on this website write down my name, because I have yours. So just write mine down and open your gates.
Friend Code: 111736966234
My Name: Cody
My Town: Lalaland
So once again if you wrote something on hear…write mine down because i have yours. Thank You =-]
26. March 2006 at 20:53
This is just me again. We can chat about our info on Animal Crossin if you email me at RatchetClank633@aol.com. So email me if u saw my letter.
31. March 2006 at 19:11
hi to all just got Animal Crossing DS.
My friend code is 270651096899
add my msn hida_boi@hotmail.com to arrange a time to trade codes
31. March 2006 at 19:15
me again…forgot to add my town name “moosu”
1. April 2006 at 04:08
add me a need friends
Name: Joe
Town: Hyrule
Code: 0301-3297-8277
1. April 2006 at 07:16
add me everyone that wants to but replie to this messege telling me that u added me ok?
Name:Noah
Town:New York
Code:519753216696
1. April 2006 at 07:47
every1 i added all of u open your gates or come to my town to have a party i added all of u so add me and then i will have a party at my town! thx
2. April 2006 at 06:49
my friend code is
541234165545
jimmy at wertob my gates are ALLWAYS open
i have cherrys peaches apples fish and i look like mario
PLEASE ADD ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. April 2006 at 06:57
ok jimmy i added u i hope your gates r open because i’m coming there
2. April 2006 at 07:03
jimmy your friend code doesn’t work try again
2. April 2006 at 11:04
Friend code—4037-9513-50591
name—- callamcj
add me and i will be ur best mate lmao dnt fink so my best mate is michale xD
2. April 2006 at 15:02
my name is maddy my town is texas my friend code is 3780-2544-6296
4. April 2006 at 21:52
my name is Kody
my town is Atlanta
My friend code is 4768-0981-9441
4. April 2006 at 21:56
I added maddy and noah
5. April 2006 at 18:27
Name : shawn
town: Berwick
Code: 335075895377
6. April 2006 at 06:26
M town is Mordor and my name is Jake. My friend code is 1546-8733-8446
My town fruit is the cherry if you come to my town you can take all you can get.
Butplease don’t leave anything rude on the msg board (some people have)
Thanks
6. April 2006 at 13:03
i dont know how to find my code to give out!!!! ahh!
please e-mail me to tell me how!
Name-sammie
fruit=orange
town-cloud~sCODE=????
6. April 2006 at 16:24
if anyone wants to come to my town or if anyone wants me to go to thees e-mail me.
7. April 2006 at 19:03
Name=Ben
Town=Doogle
Code=2448-8173-6771
8. April 2006 at 10:30
NAME = FUDGE
TOWN = LAYCEYN
CODE = 1890-4720-0944
9. April 2006 at 20:08
name = Reign town = chaos t cobe = 2792-4160-1647
10. April 2006 at 19:59
E-mail me and we’ll exchange codes or somethin’. ;)
11. April 2006 at 12:01
Code: 4854-0010-9893
Name: Powder
Town: Egypt
Please add me! I’ve added everyone on this list! :-)
12. April 2006 at 07:52
name:joshua
Ac town:Arco
Friend Code:2835-3565-3932
Ps my gate is open now! =P
12. April 2006 at 08:13
[…] For more information on gameplay mechanics, please see The Game Chair’s Animal Crossing: Wild World progressive review. […]
14. April 2006 at 11:16
i added ben jashua fudge beth my name is jesse town capetown code 214817104538
14. April 2006 at 11:18
please add me
17. April 2006 at 18:48
my gates always open
Name Angelo
town Howell
FC 0086*5684*9363
20. April 2006 at 08:48
Name: Knightey
Town: Jekland
Code: 1804-5795-6541
My gate will be open at 4:00! On Holidays it’s 2:00
20. April 2006 at 09:32
someone please add me ive never been on before
frriend code:0000-6936-4804
town:london( no caps)
im opening my gate now
23. April 2006 at 13:16
Name: Todd
Town: Delfino
Friend code: 1976 3787 6630
go on invite guest every day at 19:00
23. April 2006 at 17:26
Name: Hannah
Town: Hibben
Code:369435825729
AIM: Tr0piical St0rm
ADD ME AND I’LL ADD YOU
4. May 2006 at 13:12
David in Paradise
034429697895
ive added everyone on the page so add me back ok.
13. May 2006 at 19:26
Hi my characters name name is Mark. Helooks alot like Luigi. I have cherrys,peaches, and apples. I have the store Nooking tons!! First to come gets 5,000bells!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13. May 2006 at 19:34
hey nintenboy i’ll have my gates open at 19:00 p.m. My name is Mark, town Olyimpia, code is: 24058886145.
13. May 2006 at 19:36
my code is 240588861458, name mark, town olyimpia. remember free 5,000 bells for first person who comes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13. May 2006 at 19:44
I’ve added Mike Aiki Shennen Jake Ming ma Sharpe Mitch david Tyler Kai Jimmy David Todd and Angelo! add me too!! I am Mark, town Olyimpia, and my code is 24058886145
13. May 2006 at 19:49
I added Knightey!!! add me!!to. code:240588861458
13. May 2006 at 19:50
To knightey. name:mark town:olyimpia! thanks
13. May 2006 at 19:54
Oyimpia news update! if you want a free Tyrolean hat come here. code,name,and town above!
13. May 2006 at 20:05
i added noah and joe!
13. May 2006 at 20:06
another olyimpia update: ifyou want coconut trees come to olyimpia today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
16. May 2006 at 17:57
if you have msn uses the email addrest above
my name is Emerald
my town is called Everwood
my friend code is 060194045941
16. May 2006 at 17:58
emerald232006@hotmail.com
i forgot to add it sorry
20. May 2006 at 05:33
hi emerald i added you in animal crossing plz add me to
my name :shakil
my town:mosdeep
my friend code:0945-5955-3761
for all people that want to add me e-mail me my port
is always open on 6:00 to 23:30
cya is animal crossing
21. May 2006 at 02:41
shakilpierkhan@12move.nl
i forgot to add to sorry
26. May 2006 at 11:38
yo i’m totally fun to hang with i promise you’ll have fun if u come to my town maybe i can go to yours too.my friend code is 146099037418 not sure when i’ll be on but i’ll be on sooner or later
30. May 2006 at 15:16
Mah code: 038726299281
my town: pudding
haha
My characters name: chipmunk
no caps in both of them,
Please add me ? ^^;;
i have 0 friends
1. June 2006 at 07:39
Name=Chris
Town=Neaddown
friendcode=0473-1638-1002
1. June 2006 at 07:44
i have added the following people
tay
fudge
joe
hidaboi
plz add me :)
2. June 2006 at 05:04
add me too! Name:top dog Town :cooltown FC: 223409887933
im always looking for towns to go to so add me please
2. June 2006 at 05:11
ive added Chris Nick and Jimmy
2. June 2006 at 09:20
hi my names Jonny.
my town is Foxfield
my email is big_fat_bags_of_cash@hotmail.com
email me and i will give you my friend code… plz email me i have no friends
2. June 2006 at 09:52
hay you guys add me on msn plz monkey_boy_chris@hotmail.co.uk
ill add all who talk 2 me
3. June 2006 at 09:00
hello i dont have alot of people and my code is 390909704442. Name Sora and town Pimpland
3. June 2006 at 09:01
i dont have alot of people and my code is 390909704442. Name Sora and town Pimpland
3. June 2006 at 09:01
im going to always be on so lets play
3. June 2006 at 14:36
is anybody on so i can visit or u can visit?
3. June 2006 at 21:35
Though we had asked for friend tags in the comment area, this review has turned into a bulletin board for friend tag hook ups. Though I think it is great that people are visiting The Game Chair and are connecting to visit each others towns, I wish there was also some commentary about the game which is really what The Game Chair is about. As a result I am closing comments on this post. Hope you will continue to visit us and leave your thoughts about the games we are writing about. Thanks.