Animal Crossing: City Folk

12 Dec 2008 at 13:37:23 by
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Nintendo has never been one to kill off its cash cows and, given that Animal Crossing: Wild World has shifted nearly 10 million copies worldwide, it's no surprise to see the franchise land on the Wii. However, despite a few new features, City Folk fails to add anything new to the formula and the result feels more like a remake than a sequel.

For those of you not familiar with Animal Crossing a brief description may help.  You’ve decided to leave wherever you were to go live in the suburbs of a city.  There is no backstory, and you’ve not run away.  Let’s just assume that you’re going to find some new friends and make a name for yourself for no particular reason.  The town has many, many wonderful people and your job is, after settling down, to help be a part of that thriving community.

If you’ve had the pleasure of playing the game on the DS then the transition, provided you have a Wii and a copy of the game, is pretty simple.  Rather than starting right from the beginning, there is an option to import all of your details from the DS to the Wii.  Beware though, as this won’t transfer all of your furniture or museum collection, nor will it plop your old house in the new town.  Instead you’ll migrate the local store catalogue, as well as your character.

I opted to start a-fresh in the hope of finding something new and different which I thought I’d miss if I were to just import my stats from the DS.  Unfortunately I was disappointed to find that the new additions really didn’t warrant starting again, however  my catalogue really wasn’t that great and, if we’re being honest, it was probably best to start again.

So, after jumping on the bus and naming your new town, you arrive with no money, no home, nothing.  Visit the town hall and you’re asked to go see some houses and to talk to Tom Nook, the local loan-shark in racoon’s clothing.  Tom will hook you up with a house, and won’t even ask for payment upfront, but during the course of the game you’ll have to pay him back whatever you can afford through the local cash-points that can be found both in your home-town and in the city.

And Nook, being that pillar of support, will even give you a part time job to start with and offer to buy any items you collect, whether it’s insects, fruit, fish or mushrooms.  Nook, having paid off your loan, will insist you get a bigger house,,lining his pockets quite nicely.  This again, will all cost money, and you’ll find yourself either visiting Nook every ten minutes (because you can’t carry any more items in your inventory, an issue which should have been addressed) or running errands for your neighbours who will pay you in some form or another for your troubles.

The neighbours haven’t changed.  They’re all quirky and have their own personality and agenda.  And if you get bored with your neighbours you can always drop them and head out to the city where you’d expect all the real fun to happen.  A place that’s bustling with activity, a capitalist haven.  This is where I thought the game would see its biggest makeover, but instead I was disappointed to find seven or eight boutiques, most of which I recognised from the previous game.  Not only that, but prices are extortionate and some of the charm of the city has disappeared with certain travelling sales-people taking a more permanent residence within the city.  Katrina the fortune-teller specifically.  But you can go and get a head-job.  Yes, a head-job.  The salon, Harriet at Shampoodle, will sort you out with a hairstyle and colouring of your choice, or you can even choose to sport your own Wii head, which makes a great change to the generic fe/male look you may otherwise be stuck with. 

It’s not until you’ve done pretty much all there is to do in the city, which is very limited, that you realise that there isn’t much benefit in returning there, which is a shame as the title of the game suggests that the city is THE place to be.  If this were real life, I think I’d want to go to the city more often.

It’s not real life however, but a simulation.  It’s not really, but it’s the best way of describing it.  And because it’s a simulation, it’s based on real-time.  So when you’re running around doing errands, or if you’ve got to go to the city to pick something up, then you have to remember that certain things open at certain times, and sometimes the things you are after aren’t in season.  This creates the crux of the game’s success, or it’s downfall, depending on how you view it. For those who are waiting for specific bugs, flowers, fish or mushrooms, then you could be waiting up to a year because of the real-time aspect mentioned.  Seasonal changes bring new things to the town and it’s here you may find most frustration. 

And the frustration continues because the more time you spend in the Animal Crossing world, the more you realise that this isn’t a new game.  It was never meant to be a new game.  Instead it’s a successful game which has been ported to a new console.  Keep that in mind and you’ll find the game a lot more enjoyable.

For example, the revamped interface and the ease of control work very well on the Wii.  The Wiimote allows you to move your character easily and quickly across the game world and even tasks such as digging, watering, fishing and netting are a lot easier than I expected. 

Yes the game is pretty, and yes the addition of your Mii is great, although you can’t wear any accessories or see when the bees have attacked you, but I can’t help feeling that there isn’t really anything that makes this different from previous versions on different platforms.  It’s obvious the game works and it’s obvious it works well, but is it worth the hassle when there isn’t going to be anything different or exciting about the new game? We know that it’s a great title, but surely if you’re going to create something for the Wii, you’d have more features than a Wiimote which can be used as a net or a fishing rod.

If you’re new to Animal Crossing, then you will enjoy this and you’ll no doubt sink many hours into the exploration of characters, collectibles and the like.

If you’ve played the game before, then I’d suggest you put your money elsewhere instead of investingtime, money and effort into something which seems all too familiar.  

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