Dynamic & Interesting

You’re nothing more than a weary traveler setting forth into the world as you come of age. After arriving in the town, you’ll come to the sad realization that you have no funds to sustain yourself. Tom Nook, the local store owner and master craftsman, has built you a meager shack of a house to shelter you from the elements. Like any other hardworking capitalist, he expects to be paid handsomely for his work. You’re facing a bill that costs several thousands of dollars in hard currency, stranded in a town with complete strangers. With nowhere else to go, you must figure out a way to pay off your debts and survive on your own. Luckily for you, the realm of Animal Crossing: Wild World is laden with everything you need to become not only financially independent, but filthy rich as well. At first glance, the town looks boring, decorated with nothing but some houses, trees and a river. But when you take a closer look at your environment, you’ll find it filled to the brim with potential. Several of the trees will provide you with various fruits, each of them worth a certain price at the local shop. The river and the distant sea are filled with fish of all shapes and sizes, and the beach is littered with several shells. The plants and flowers attract a wide variety of bugs and insects, all of which can fetch for a hefty price. Last but not the least, your new neighbors will usually have some odd job for you to perform, usually rewarding you with some well-deserved cash. The trick is learning how to use all of these aspects in tandem, allowing you to amass a fortune of unparalleled proportions. It’s simply a matter of focusing on your overall goal.

Paying off your debts in Animal Crossing: Wild World is not a question of amount, but of time. The game makes use of the DS’s internal clock, keeping track of when and how long you play. Unlike other games, this game does not have an estimated completion time; existence in Animal Crossing does not stop. Every day can be played differently, each new dawn offering the potential for something new. Your neighbors will awaken and fall asleep at certain times, making you schedule your time if you want to build a relationship. Sales will only happen on certain days, offering excellent prices for all items. The surroundings and weather will change depending on the time of year, offering snow and rain in the winter and flourishing plants in the summer. The tides will change based on the hour. Certain animals will only appear at specific times and months. Should you be awake early enough, you can watch the sunrise, then watch the stars appears as dusk settles in the evening. It is truly a dynamic environment filled with the little details that you hardly ever notice your own life.However, the changes in the town aren’t determined only by the time. This game allows for an unprecedented amount of customization and personal style. You’ll be able to create a town specifically designed for your preferences. Flowers can be planted almost anywhere, fruit trees and be grown and harvested, the theme song, flag and your clothes can be tweaked and revamped. Your house, which started off as nothing but a mere shack, will eventually be remodeled into a four-room estate. You can fill your house with countless pieces of furniture, rugs, wallpaper, and other trinkets. This game comes with hundreds of collectible items, the ideal challenge for the obsessive gamer.

ANIMAL CROSSING Wild World for Nintendo DS; fun for all

Animal Crossing: Wild World

This is the Animal Crossing game from the Nintendo DS game system.

What is this game all about? Basically, you live in a small town…you work there, you play there and you live there. It's simple, it's non-violent, it's fun for all ages.

You start the game by naming the town. You arrive and you have a house, which you have a mortgage on (although you don’t HAVE to pay it off if you don’t want to). You do a few jobs for the local store to earn a little cash (and for practice in doing some of the games functions - such as mailing letters and using the map to find your way around).

In a way, it’s like a virtual-pet "thing"; you have a character that you name and you can do things with that character, such as go where you like, talk to people, mail letters, give and receive gifts, find items, buy and sell things (etc)…

Unlike a virtual-pet "thing", your character does not suffer if it doesn’t eat, sleep, have fun, or whatever. You can’t "die" in the game (ex. you can’t fall off a cliff or into the river - even getting stung by a horde of bees doesn’t hurt you (although your face does get swollen).

The game is simple, but it can also be addictive. You can set up “dates” with the other characters (to have them visit you) and attend town functions. The game plays in real-time, so certain things happen on certain days - if you miss it, you have to wait until the same time next week (or month or year). The dawn breaks in the morning, the sun is high at noon and the stars come out at night as a reflection of the actual time of day (according to the clock on your DS).

You can have up to 4 players (characters) in the game. They all live in the same house and they all can pool their resources to help pay off the mortgage (or, to pay towards renovating and expanding the home).

In the beginning, there are fewer characters in the town to meet (3) but as the game goes on, more creatures move in (up to 8). Certain characters you can interact with more than others. The ones who have homes you can do more with…talk to, visit them, have them visit you, send them letters or gifts, receive things from them (etc). Some of the other characters in the game…the ones who are always in certain places (ex. the museum curator, the town hall clerk, the store-keeper) you can only visit in their particular building.

Many aspects of the game allow for customization. Aside from naming the town and your character, you can choose your characters clothing and accessories, you can make up the towns anthem, design the town flag and decide how to decorate your house.

If you have a friend with a DS and this game, you can exchange “friend codes” and wirelessly go to visit their town, or have them come to visit yours. This can be a lot of fun, and there are other benefits to having "real" people playing with you in the game…they are more fun to be around than the computer characters.

The graphics are top-notch, very clean, very smooth and very detailed. The sounds are great too…well, the chit-chat of the characters can be annoying at times (although you can change this option), but the sounds of the seashore and the insects in the trees are very relaxing.

The controls are easy - you can use the buttons if you want to, or you can just use the stylus and touch-screen…or you can switch back and forth, depending on what you’re doing in the game (that’s what I usually do).
Now you know how to play...so go play!

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Animal Crossing: Wild World
A review by baohua2006

The orignal Animal Crossing was a fun game. You had lots of freedom and wasn't limited by gameplay time - you set your own pace. It had such a great replay value that it lasted years for some people.

Wild World is true to the original. All the concepts are intact, but it adds many more. The most signifigant is the excellent multiplayer features. Connecting to friends is very easy, simply a few taps of the stylus will allow you to visit a town on the other side of the world. You can now get together with a few friends and visit each other's towns through wireless LAN.

The gameplay is also very polished. There are more items to collect than in the original, and it feels like a whole new experience. The animal neighbors are extremely funny at times, although they aren't too smart. Multiplayer is where this game really shines. The real time play is great - you can hold fishing competitions, you can hold a scavenger hunt. You can even make up a game like tag - it plays flawlessly. A problem here is that only 4 people can be in one town at the same time, and only two people are allowed in a building at the same time. Also, be careful of who you give out your friend codes to. Vandals can come to your town and chop down all your trees.

Stylus driven gameplay makes this game really innovative. It's finally a game that you can play with just the stylus - no buttons needed. Some may find the buttons more comfortable, but for the rest of us, this is heaven. The on screen keyboards type very fast, and control is much better than what it was on the Gamecube.

The graphics are on par for a DS game. There aren't any special effects, but the graphics are just right for this type of game - the outdoor environments are excellent and the water looks great. The numerous items in the game are simply awesome inside your house. Your animal neighbors have the effect that the developers intended them to have. They're cartoonish and cute. The graphics look almost like what they did on the Gamecube. They're just limited by the small screen of the DS.

Animal Crossing Wild World has decent sound and music. The sound is just right - there's a sound effect for almost everything. You can even hear your own footsteps. The music gets repetitive, though - the same track repeats over and over again just like it did in the Gamecube version. But overall, the developers did a nice job.

Overall Breakdown:

Gameplay - 4.5/5
The single player is very similar to the original. Multiplayer is where this game shines. It's just so dang fun to chat with your friends and hold contests.

Control - 5/5
Stylus driven controls make for some smooth gameplay. Animal Crossing Wild World deserves a perfect score for controls.

Graphics - 4/5
The graphics aren't anything great, but they're pretty good for a DS game. Animal Crossing Wild World is okay graphically, but don't expect to be staring at the screen because of graphics.

Sound and Music - 4/5
The music is just a bit repetitive, but the sound is great. ACWW deserves a 4/5 in this field.

Lasting Appeal - 5/5
This game will last you months. You'll obsess over collecting items, expanding your house, and making your town perfect. Animal Crossing Wild World will be in your DS for a very long time.

Overall - 5/5

Good Clean Fun!

No violence. You get to own your own home, which you can decorate with custom furniture, wallpaper, and flooring. You get to make friends with the other animal villagers, each with their own personalities, and you can write them letters, and they write you back! Some villagers move away, and others move in to take their place, so you are always meeting new characters. You can fish for a variety of fish including sharks, barred knife-jaws, hammerhead sharks, salmon, and more! You can catch butterflies, such as the tiger butterfly, the emperor butterfly, ect. Fill your museum, and your house (fossils add to your house just like furniture) with life-like dinosaur fossil skeletons of T-rex, triceratops, stegosaurus, ect. Grow and sell turnips, flowers, and even weeds! Participate in bug catching contests! Collect paintings! Good clean "G" rated fun!

Animal Crossing, a little world in your DS

I bought this copy of Animal Crossing because I adore this game. It is actually the third copy of Animal Crossing: Wild World that I own, so I already knew that I would like it before I bought it. (for the record, I also own and play the versions for Game Cube and for Wii) I would highly recommend this game to almost anyone, simply because of the laid back play style and the "choose your own destiny" feel. For anyone unfamiliar with this franchise the premise is this: You move to a little town with a river and an ocean and a bunch of trees, a little country store and a tailors shop. You're out on your own for the first time and its time to fend for yourself! Except, well, all of your neighbors? And the shop proprietors? And even that guy who taxied you to town? They're all animals... But they all have different personalities, likes, dislikes, friends, enemies etc. So you make friends, you sell stuff, you turn the town into someplace uniquely you. There are no official goals in the game, time moves by a day at a time, following the real life calendar. Seasons change, there are different events, you play only as much or as little as you want to. Your goals are only what you set for yourself, from collecting all of the fruit that isn't native to your town, saving a million bells in your bank account, getting the biggest possible house, catching every fish or bug, collecting all of a certain kind of furniture, becoming friendly enough with your neighbors for them to give you their portraits, there are all sorts of things you can do in this game, and unlike the Wii version (City Folk or Let's Go To The City) you can have more than one town on one DS system, AND you can take it with you wherever you go! The wifi feature is a fun way to see other places and visit with friends or to show off your hard work. Basically this game is BURSTING with charm, even though the premise looks a bit dull to the untrained eye. The only way to find out how much it has to offer is to buy one for yourself and see.