Animal Crossing: Wild World - Second Play

While I’ve enjoyed my single-player time with Animal Crossing: Wild World, I’ve found that the WiFi mode is really pretty integral to the game; at the very least, it definitely ups the fun factor by a bunch. After breaking my wireless internet in an attempt to get the DS WiFi up and running, I found the Nintendo-end of the setup to be really easy, though there have been a few bumps along the way once I was up and running. Having guests over to my town and getting to visit other people’s towns has been really fun, and it’s certainly enhanced my single-player game time, as well. There is a DS to DS mode, but since I borrowed my boyfriend’s DS to play Animal Crossing, I don’t have anyone else in range to play with - so I’m going to focus exclusively on the WiFi aspects.

You’ll notice that every town has a gate, and it’s the gate that allows others to come to your town or you to go out. After the first little bit of the game, where Nook has you run errands and get acquainted with your now home, you’ll be able to access your friend code - people need this to visit your town, and you’ll need codes to travel elsewhere. If you choose the option to “Invite Guest,” your gates will be thrown open and anyone with your friend code and a WiFi connection will be able to come visit. Conversely, you can choose to “Go Out,” and visit anyone on your friends list with an open gate.

I’ve been really impressed with how unique every town is. I know rationally that the map, the layout, the type of fruit, and the animals living in your town are randomly generated at the beginning, but I have yet to come across animal inhabitants like mine, nor have I come across any town that resembles mine in any substantial sense. It’s been fun chattng with the animal residents of other towns (the ones that really like you will often send a letter and gift to your mailbox) and seeing the different types of decorating the human players have done with their houses. The people I’ve been traveling to see have been kind in sharing fruit and other gifts with me - this comes in handy for money-making purposes, as any fruit other than the kind your town started with will sell for 500 Bells a piece, as compared to the 100 Bells the “indiginous” fruit brings. While wandering around foreign towns, you can give gifts, visit the stores, check out the museum … in short, do anything you’d do at home. I’ve been surprised at how exciting it can be when the “There’s a visitor” box pops up on my screen if I’ve left my gates open - while I’ve never been a great talker when it comes to relative strangers, it’s been fun to throw open the gates of Suzhou to visitors. The chat feature to is easy to utilize, though it only allows you to type a limited amount of characters which tends to lead to choppy sentences and creative abbreviations.

I’ve found that the WiFi mode really enhances your single-player game time. It’s been easier to spruce up my town with a variety of fruit trees, and one of my first visits to another town landed me some tools that my store hadn’t yet offered. At the very least, it makes the early game a bit easier: you can reap the benefits of visiting people who have been up and running longer than you, and thus have larger stores, or get some exotic fruit that makes it easier to make some quick money. It’s certainly not necessary for an enjoyable experience in Animal Crossing, but I’ve been having a really great time expanding my little AC world.

I have noticed some glitches, though I’m not sure if they’re exclusive to Animal Crossing or Nintendo WiFi as a whole. One day, the Nintendo network was down - but instead of just saying “network down” or something to that effect, the game would “connect” and then crash. I lost some data due to that, and it happened several times. I’ve also noticed that the security settings have been very persnickity. My wireless router has some very loose security settings, hardly enough to be considered a “firewall,” but it was enough to prevent me from connecting - after a week of working perfectly with the same settings.

I’ve really enjoyed my experience with Animal Crossing: Wild World thus far. I am thrilled that I am finally proud owner of my own DS, so I don’t have to worry about returning my boyfriend’s DS (and Animal Crossing!) when I complete my Progressive Review with the third installment. In my next and final rating, I’m going to cover my overall impressions of my AC experience - if my experience to this point holds steady, Animal Crossing should just get better and better.