Animal Crossing Wild World
This game has been underrated as being as a ditsy game. Many say that they did not like it because it had no actual violence. I'd say I am a hard core gamer, and that this game is not only for the freakish no-violence types.
You begin the game broke, moving out of town with nowhere to go. You tell Kapp'n where you're going, which will be the small town you will be taking care of during the duration of the game. You stop by the post office to talk to Pelly the pelican, who gives you a map of the town. Now you are probably thinking: Hey, a pelican? Yes, a Pelican. The characters are all animals, but you can not judge a game by it's cover.
Pelly tells you that there is a shop nearby that is called Nook's Cranny. It is owned by a money loving raccoon named Tom Nook who gladly gives you somewhere to live, but at a price. But you are completely broke. The first thing you have to do to pay off the loan is to do a series of errands for him that introduce the controls and animals who live in the village to you.
After doing your chores from Nook, you set out on your own. You have no money, so your first choice is to shake some trees. At first, there are not many tools in Nook's shops or trees, so you will have to live with what is supplied with you. The money starts slow. Each piece of fruit gives you 100 bells (the currency in this game). Eventually, you can get a net or furniture to decorate your house with, or even go next door to Ables' sisters to get some clothing.
Now, many people are thinking: What is the point of this game? This is the interesting thing about Animal Crossing: You make your own goals and you can take them at your own pace. You can try to raise money to expand your house. You can catch all the species of fish. You can make friends with all the animals in town. You can try to fill out your catalogue (which later you can order items you have seen with). You can try to decorate the perfect house. There are so many things that you can do with this game and so many directions you can go that you do not need a solid goal or plot to play the game happily.
All the actions work great. Fishing you do by flicking the rod in the direction you see silhouettes of fish. The fish bite on the bait (For many times, depending on the fish and chance itself) and eventually it bites. You have a certain time frame where you can press the button to reel in the fish. If you reel it in too early or too late, it gets away. Unlike real-life fishing, this is an fun and fast experience and a great way to earn you cash.
You catch bugs by simply walking around town. There may be some butterflies flying above your flowers or a grasshopper jumping across the field. If you shake a tree, maybe bees will come out. You press A once to swing the net. But if you are too quick or too close, the bugs may run away. Each bug is graphically different, so you can make sure you get the rare bugs that will give you the money you need.
By using your slingshot you can knock down presents from the sky. When you are walking around, there may be a present in the sky. You can equip your slingshot and shoot a rock up into the sky to shoot the balloon down and the item attached to it. Often you get a piece of furniture. (And it just makes me think how a balloon can carry a desk...)
Gardening and weed picking are as good as the rest. It is one way to get the villagers to like you and receive the golden watering can, which is a rare item that brings back dead flowers and makes black roses gold (which makes them unable to die from lack of water). You plant trees by digging a hole with your shovel and burying a piece of fruit. The sapling appears immediately. After a few days, it will grow and (depending on what kind of tree you buried) grow fruit. You can plant flowers to attract certain species of bugs and improve your town.
You can create patterns with the easy to use pattern maker. You can use these on umbrellas, hats, shirts, or even use them on the ground. The pallets are not limited and there are many of them so that you can use the colors you desire. They do not look good on the screen and are often distorted because of the low screen resolution. When they are placed on the ground, however, the textures look great and are good for making roadways and murals on the floor.
You can decorate your house however you like. However, you will earn points for certain sets of furniture you use. You are not limited to their guide and can shove whatever you like into your house. There are so many items that you can create a house that really reflects you and are great for having visitors. And it is so much fun being able to make your house using patterns and to show off rare items.
Villagers have unique personalities and have equally unique catchphrases (which sometimes drive me crazy). It's hard to get the same message twice, and when you do, it is hardly realizable. It is very tricky making friends with villagers. They even give you items depending on how much of a friend you are to them.
The letter sending to villagers to great. If you send them an item, they will send you items back. You can even send letters to people over WiFi if you are in their town. The AI is a little wonky, and sometimes they will get angry if you call them stupid. It really just depends on the words surrounding the word. And sometimes they say it was a lovely letter and that they will show it to their friends. Kind of odd.
The in game events let you have a lot of fun. Events such as the Fishing Tourney and the Bug Off have you searching for the biggest fish. On Saturday nights, the traveling dog K.K. Slider comes to your town and plays a song that you requested. He will give you the song he played to put in your house (You're house usually has no background music at all). The Flea Market allows you to sell items to villagers and buy items from their house at your own price (If they accept or decline, depending on your friendship with them). Most of the events are enjoyable and worth attending. (Except for La-Di-Day. Most worthless holiday ever.)
The WiFi capabilities are so-so. In a single town you can only have up to 4 people. Word censors are cheap and do not work well (due to accented characters as easy to use as they are). You talk by an onscreen keyboard that you use by touching the letters with the stylus. But once you get used to it you will easily be sliding your stylus from character to the next. Friend codes are a drag. You have to register each other before being able to enter their town. However, adding people who are in another town are a point of the stylus (or three). Hacked items that spawn building can make you unable to play your game or break it completely. This makes you have to be careful who you add.
Overall, this game is great and full of replay value. You can play it even after you have completely furnished your house to your likings, donated everything to Blathers the Museum manager, and have the biggest shop. It is hard to get bored with this game, and it might inspire you to do something yourself. Maybe. Well, never did to me... But this game is always in my DS and I play it constantly, even though I got it 3 years ago.
If you think you are interested in this game, try City Folk if you have the Wii. I have not tried it yet, but I would love to hear how much it compared to this review. And make sure to try Wild World if you do not have the Wii, because I think that everyone with the right personality for this kind of game should be able to experience it.
By the way, the most violent thing that ever happened to me in this game was being chased by bees. Yeah.
You begin the game broke, moving out of town with nowhere to go. You tell Kapp'n where you're going, which will be the small town you will be taking care of during the duration of the game. You stop by the post office to talk to Pelly the pelican, who gives you a map of the town. Now you are probably thinking: Hey, a pelican? Yes, a Pelican. The characters are all animals, but you can not judge a game by it's cover.
Pelly tells you that there is a shop nearby that is called Nook's Cranny. It is owned by a money loving raccoon named Tom Nook who gladly gives you somewhere to live, but at a price. But you are completely broke. The first thing you have to do to pay off the loan is to do a series of errands for him that introduce the controls and animals who live in the village to you.
After doing your chores from Nook, you set out on your own. You have no money, so your first choice is to shake some trees. At first, there are not many tools in Nook's shops or trees, so you will have to live with what is supplied with you. The money starts slow. Each piece of fruit gives you 100 bells (the currency in this game). Eventually, you can get a net or furniture to decorate your house with, or even go next door to Ables' sisters to get some clothing.
Now, many people are thinking: What is the point of this game? This is the interesting thing about Animal Crossing: You make your own goals and you can take them at your own pace. You can try to raise money to expand your house. You can catch all the species of fish. You can make friends with all the animals in town. You can try to fill out your catalogue (which later you can order items you have seen with). You can try to decorate the perfect house. There are so many things that you can do with this game and so many directions you can go that you do not need a solid goal or plot to play the game happily.
All the actions work great. Fishing you do by flicking the rod in the direction you see silhouettes of fish. The fish bite on the bait (For many times, depending on the fish and chance itself) and eventually it bites. You have a certain time frame where you can press the button to reel in the fish. If you reel it in too early or too late, it gets away. Unlike real-life fishing, this is an fun and fast experience and a great way to earn you cash.
You catch bugs by simply walking around town. There may be some butterflies flying above your flowers or a grasshopper jumping across the field. If you shake a tree, maybe bees will come out. You press A once to swing the net. But if you are too quick or too close, the bugs may run away. Each bug is graphically different, so you can make sure you get the rare bugs that will give you the money you need.
By using your slingshot you can knock down presents from the sky. When you are walking around, there may be a present in the sky. You can equip your slingshot and shoot a rock up into the sky to shoot the balloon down and the item attached to it. Often you get a piece of furniture. (And it just makes me think how a balloon can carry a desk...)
Gardening and weed picking are as good as the rest. It is one way to get the villagers to like you and receive the golden watering can, which is a rare item that brings back dead flowers and makes black roses gold (which makes them unable to die from lack of water). You plant trees by digging a hole with your shovel and burying a piece of fruit. The sapling appears immediately. After a few days, it will grow and (depending on what kind of tree you buried) grow fruit. You can plant flowers to attract certain species of bugs and improve your town.
You can create patterns with the easy to use pattern maker. You can use these on umbrellas, hats, shirts, or even use them on the ground. The pallets are not limited and there are many of them so that you can use the colors you desire. They do not look good on the screen and are often distorted because of the low screen resolution. When they are placed on the ground, however, the textures look great and are good for making roadways and murals on the floor.
You can decorate your house however you like. However, you will earn points for certain sets of furniture you use. You are not limited to their guide and can shove whatever you like into your house. There are so many items that you can create a house that really reflects you and are great for having visitors. And it is so much fun being able to make your house using patterns and to show off rare items.
Villagers have unique personalities and have equally unique catchphrases (which sometimes drive me crazy). It's hard to get the same message twice, and when you do, it is hardly realizable. It is very tricky making friends with villagers. They even give you items depending on how much of a friend you are to them.
The letter sending to villagers to great. If you send them an item, they will send you items back. You can even send letters to people over WiFi if you are in their town. The AI is a little wonky, and sometimes they will get angry if you call them stupid. It really just depends on the words surrounding the word. And sometimes they say it was a lovely letter and that they will show it to their friends. Kind of odd.
The in game events let you have a lot of fun. Events such as the Fishing Tourney and the Bug Off have you searching for the biggest fish. On Saturday nights, the traveling dog K.K. Slider comes to your town and plays a song that you requested. He will give you the song he played to put in your house (You're house usually has no background music at all). The Flea Market allows you to sell items to villagers and buy items from their house at your own price (If they accept or decline, depending on your friendship with them). Most of the events are enjoyable and worth attending. (Except for La-Di-Day. Most worthless holiday ever.)
The WiFi capabilities are so-so. In a single town you can only have up to 4 people. Word censors are cheap and do not work well (due to accented characters as easy to use as they are). You talk by an onscreen keyboard that you use by touching the letters with the stylus. But once you get used to it you will easily be sliding your stylus from character to the next. Friend codes are a drag. You have to register each other before being able to enter their town. However, adding people who are in another town are a point of the stylus (or three). Hacked items that spawn building can make you unable to play your game or break it completely. This makes you have to be careful who you add.
Overall, this game is great and full of replay value. You can play it even after you have completely furnished your house to your likings, donated everything to Blathers the Museum manager, and have the biggest shop. It is hard to get bored with this game, and it might inspire you to do something yourself. Maybe. Well, never did to me... But this game is always in my DS and I play it constantly, even though I got it 3 years ago.
If you think you are interested in this game, try City Folk if you have the Wii. I have not tried it yet, but I would love to hear how much it compared to this review. And make sure to try Wild World if you do not have the Wii, because I think that everyone with the right personality for this kind of game should be able to experience it.
By the way, the most violent thing that ever happened to me in this game was being chased by bees. Yeah.
