Oooh Baby, Baby, It's Wild World
I picked up Animal Crossing Wild World when it was released for the DS a couple of weeks ago but due to my day job and the craziness of the holiday season, I haven't been able to play it all that much - maybe 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there, stealing some time during a lunch break, waiting in line for a movie, before an audition, etc. All these moments I've spent with it however, have added up enough so that I'm confident I can give you a decent review.Just like Nintendogs, this is a game that stretches the boundaries of what videogames are all about. There is no shooting, exploding, killing or destroying in this game and there's no real "end" - you play the game because you enjoy interacting with it. Sure, there are goals but you could play this game indefinitely, really, depending on how much OCD you have. If you've played the Gamecube version you'll know what I'm talking about as this is basically the same addictive game, only in portable form. That isn't a slam against the game at all; the Gamecube version is one of the best reasons to own that console and has a kind of cult following among gamers who devote many a website to uncovering its secrets.
Wild World starts off with your character moving to a new town
inhabited by walking, talking animals. You are given a small house to live in by a raccoon named Tom Nook, with a hefty mortgage to pay off and no money. Your first goal is to figure out how you're going to do that – I became a worker at Tom Nook's shop, running errands and delivering furniture and items to his customers around town. When he finally ran out of things for me to do and fired me, I began collecting shells and fruit to sell to him. When I eventually got enough money, I paid off some of the loan for my house and bought a fishing pole. After getting more money from the fish I caught, plus more fruit and shells, I bought a shovel to dig up fossils and treasures. In addition to running around town, looking for stuff to sell, you must interact with your neighbors by talking to them, writing them letters and giving them gifts. Sometimes they'll have an errand for you to run, usually they want something delivered to another townsperson, and they'll generally give you something in return, like, say, a new shirt or piece of furniture for your house. Writing letters in the Gamecube version was a huge chore due to having to select letters using the analog stick but in Wild World it's much easier using the DS's stylus. The stylus also makes managing your inventory and designing patterns for fabrics a much more pleasant, intuitive process. You can pretty much run the whole game with just the stylus but I find using a combination of the stylus and crosspad/buttons more ideal.
Like Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing Wild World supports Nintendo's new Wi-Fi service, something I was really hyped about initially, but have since found it as a pretty limited feature. I envisioned the online component as something that would let you visit towns, send letters and trade items in a worldwide community. In Mario Kart, you just log on and the service will match you up to race others online. Not so in Animal Crossing. To find a friend to match up with, you must have already exchanged DS-specific "friend codes" and then schedule a time where you and possibly three other friends (for a maximum of four), log on at the same time to visit their town. Not very convenient and easy, especially as I have very few hardcore gamer friends anymore (Nintendo Wi-Fi was supposed to alleviate this problem for me! Ah, well.). There are a couple of websites that help with this problem, giving friend codes and times to meet, but there's no way to stop them from coming in and raiding all your fruit, chopping down your trees and otherwise wreaking havoc on your village, so don't give your friend code to just anybody.I've barely scratched the surface of what Animal Crossing Wild World has to offer since there's just so much you can do – bug collecting, pattern designing, feng shui, music composing, gardening, holidays, astronomy, the list goes on and on. My favorite things to do at the moment are fishing and fossil collecting; once you catch a fish or dig up a fossil you can donate it to the museum where they will display it if they don't already have that particular item. Sitting by the river or on the beach, casting my line and hoping for a new type of fish to reel in occupies most of my game time, and hoping to find a new fossil that will complete my Ankylosaurus and Seismosaurus skeletons when I'm digging up holes around my village occupies the rest. Mundane, simple tasks to be sure but there's a primal satisfaction to discovering new things and having them displayed.
At the moment I've just paid off my house, and that damn
Tom Nook has offered to build me a bigger place. Of course I said yes - the more space to display the Christmas Tree and Watermelon Table I just purchased, but I'll be indebted to him again, for sure. Oh yeah, and a coconut has just washed ashore which I've planted in my peaches-only town. Tom Nook is sure to give me more than the 100 bells (Animal Crossing's currency) he gives me for the peaches, when my coconut tree grows and bears fruit. Ah, sweet bliss.If you couldn't tell by now, I love Wild World. Due to its casual gameplay and simple tasks, it's perfectly tailored to portable gaming but has so much depth that it will have you playing for at least a year (due to seasonal and holiday-specific changes in the game world). I wish the online aspect were more robust, but really, there's so much to do in the single player game, that it doesn't detract from the game too much. If you have a Nintendo DS pick up Animal Crossing Wild World immediately.
If any readers want to swap friend codes for either Animal Crossing Wild World or Mario Kart DS, do not hesitate to email me here.
3 Comments:
Jeff,
I want to play it! Make it work for me...please.
I'm still your hardcore gamer friend Jeff...although I would most likely be one of the havoc wreakers
if you guys had DS's we could all be playing over the wi-fi right now, even with both of you over on the east coast at the moment.
ask santa for one immediately.
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