Posted By: Ryan Murtha Posted On: 07/30/08 (Viewed 1239 times)
Animal Crossing: City Folk
Published By: Nintendo Developed By: Nintendo Release Date: Holiday 2008 Genre: Simulation Players: 1-2 ESRB Rating: RP - Rating Pending more product info »
With so many violent games on the market, sometimes it’s nice to see a series where you aren’t shooting hundreds of guys in the face. Nintendo’s Animal Crossing is one such series. You won’t find any guns or grenades in AC; there aren’t even any enemies to thwart. The only “weapon” in this series is an axe, and it’s not for butchering people. So what’s the point then?
The point is whatever you want it to be. You can spend your days fishing, and selling your catches (along with fruits, seashells, bugs, and whatever else you can find) to Tom Nook, the raccoon business mogul in town. You can run around digging up fossils and donating them to your local museum. Or maybe you just want to express yourself by creating clothing patterns to show off and trade with friends via Nintendo Wi-Fi play. Ever since the series’ inception in 2002 on the Gamecube, Animal Crossing has always been about doing whatever you want at a leisurely pace. It might sound boring and pointless on paper, but once you’ve had a taste, you’ll understand why Nintendo fans love it.
Now with the third installment – dubbed “City Folk” – on its way to the Wii, Nintendo is pretty much keeping the series’ gameplay intact, while adding a drastically different locale, the aforementioned city, and several other new features. The city is where you’ll most likely be spending most of your time; there are many different stores and services there like a clothing store run by series fashion designer, Gracie, a theater, a barber shop, even a shoe-shining station that changes the color of your footwear. There’s an auction house where you can buy items from the people on your friends list (yep, more friend codes…), and let’s not forget about the HRA, and organization of home décor-rating spies. In past games, you could sign up for their ultimately pointless service in which they assign you points based on the layout of your home. These points weren’t good for anything really, but now you can visit the HRA headquarters in the city and sneak a peek at the top rated homes of other players, which we suppose is a much more interesting function.
At this year’s E3 – aside from spilling details about the game – Nintendo also announced the WiiSpeak microphone peripheral that attaches to the Wii-mote sensor bar. It allows everyone in the room you’re in to speak to whomever it is you’re playing with online, and good news, City Folk makes full use of this peripheral. Plus, instead of introducing your friends to another avatar, you’ll be able to use a “mask” of your Mii’s face. It’s not as creepy as it sounds; it’s more like a skin, an entirely new face. It blinks and emotes just as your default face would.
Aside from these new changes/evolutions to the series, the biggest one is obviously the controls. To move around, you’ll point your Wii-mote in the desired direction and press A (plus B if you want to run). Switching between your items, like your shovel, fishing rod, etc, is much simpler and quicker this time around. Instead of going into your inventory menu, you’ll be able to cycle through them using the D-pad. You can access more of your menu options through a pop-up bar located at the bottom of the screen; simply move your cursor down to the bottom and it’ll appear. It’s this kind of ease of use that made the Wii ultra-popular amongst the ordinarily-non-gaming populace, so try not to get angry with your mom if she’s hogging the system…
Animal Crossing: City Folk’s release is not too far off now, as it is scheduled to hit stores this holiday season. It should be a very happy holiday for Nintendo fans, indeed.
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