Danger: Animal Crossing!
Or: The reason why I want my DS surgically implanted onto my hand.
by Wootini
Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Game Cube was an incredibly addictive gaming experience, moving into a little town populated by animals, making friends and living in real time. Every day I would come home and play, even if I only had a few minutes, just to see what was going on from day day. What was on sale at Tom Nooks, if anyone had moved out, or a special guest was traveling through town. So news that Nintendo was preparing a portable version for the DS filled me with equal parts joy and fear. Joy because it was a new reason to revisit the game, but fear because now I would be able to mess around whenever the mood struck.
Animal Crossing: Wild World, is pretty much the same game, just portable. Some of the gameplay has been refined, but other things have changed for the worse. The only really noticeable omission is the loss of the NES games you could play in your house. The other nitpicky things aren't really enough to ruin just how much fun this game really is. You choose to be a boy or a girl, move into your house and begin your indentured servitude to local store owner Tom Nook, who continues to expand your house for ever-increasing sums of money. Up to seven villagers can reside in your town at any given time, and they are all different animals with different personaities. Some are annoying, and you can't wait for them to move out, but others can be strangely endearing.
The graphics are pretty much the same as the GC original, just on the tiny little DS screens. The world is now slightly curved, so you can see off into the horizon a bit, which is helpful for looking around. You can use the stylus for control, but it's actually easier to just use the D-pad and buttons, whipping out the stylus only when you have to drag a bunch of inventory items around at once or type a letter on the on-screen keyboard. The animals still speak in the gibbering nonsense speak as the original game, and inoffensive music plays as you go about your business. Most fun is the return of K.K. Slider, the dog who plays music at the local coffee shop every Saturday night, and will give you bootlegs of his tunes to play on your radio back home. The music is all bleeps and bloops, but still oddly catchy sometimes!
The major difference between Wild World and Original Flavor is the addition of online play. Now, in keeping with Nintendo's family-oriented attitude, it's not just a free-for-all. Which is good. You have your own personal "friend code," which you can share with other people. Once you and another person have exchanged codes, you can visit each others' town. This is good, because it keeps unwanted jerks from wandering into your town and wreaking havoc by chopping down all your trees and throwing garbage all around. Using the touch screen keyboard, you can chat with your visitors, and exchange items and whatnot. It's great fun, and a terrific addition to the game.
It's really just more of the same, which is a shame, because if you've played the original Animal Crossing, you're not going to find much new in Wild World. However, because the very concept of the game is so fun and addictive, the idea of having a portable Animal Crossing that you can play at home, on the train, bus or wherever (at McDonalds, you even can use their WiFi connection to go online!) is irresistible. If you were obsessed with the original, now you can be obsessed anywhere you go!
