Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo DS)

When I got my Nintendo DS last year, one game I really wanted to try was Animal Crossing. This is a life simulation type game, which I quite like, it's not that life like though as you move into a village populated by talking animals....

The DS system with its portability, dual screen and stylus works well with this game (previously on the GameCube and now on the Wii too) as it is the sort of game that you can dip in and out of at any time. In fact that it one of its highlights for me - the fact I can put it down! This may sound a bit of an odd quality in a game, but I just don't have time to play an "un-put-downable" game for 6 hours at a stretch; for the most part I can nip into AC for half an hour or an hour and leave again. The game is entertaining and addictive enough for me to pick up, but its gentle, less than action packed nature means I don't feel the need to play it for hours and hours, so in actual fact I play it more, as I only need a little bit of spare time to play.

The game starts as you drive into town and the questions you are asked by the cabbie ascertain the features you have in the game, such as gender and facial expressions. You then meet Tom Nook, the local businessman and he provides you with a modest house for 19,800 Bells (AC currency), which you pay off as you go through the game. When it is paid off you can expand to a better house, which Nook also loans you the money for. Nook will give you a job which gets you interacting with the other villagers and you learn how to earn money by collecting fruit and shells and selling the to Nook. You can also fish, collect bugs or dig for fossils which you donate to the museum or sell to Nook. Interacting with other characters can lead to helping them out and receiving gifts. In addition to your day to day collecting and interacting with neighbours, other events happen, such as holidays and fishing tournaments scheduled regularly and dictated by the console's internal clock (this can be changed if you are not around to participate in an event) you could also meet visiting characters such as the musical dog that plays in the coffee shop on Saturday night, the persuasive insurance selling seal, the black market trading fox and others. The game is seasonal, so in January there is snow on the ground, come the spring this clears and you get more flowers growing.

You can also play with real life friends and invite them to your village or visit theirs if you have a wi-fi connection (worth noting that if you have high security on your broadband then Nintendo won't be able to access it, but there are USB thingies that you can use on the PC that work the same way). Each village is different from the others and have different characters living in them, so if you visit somewhere else their neighbours will be different (but things like Tom Nook and his shop and the museum are always the same - just in a different place or a different size depending on how far along in the game your friend is).

To give you an idea of what is involved I have kept a 'diary' for a few days:

Day One
A late start, its dark when I leave the house and collect my mail. I have a number of interesting gifts from my neighbours in return for some of mine: A pear, a concrete wall design for my house and a shirt to wear. I decide to wear the snazzy Vertigo shirt and put my current one away in my chest of drawers. My house, although newly expanded, is rather cramped due to the table tennis table, grand piano and replica Sphinx I have in my home. I hope to get a good price for some of it at next month's regular flea market, if not, I shall sell some to Tom Nook for his shop. I have planted some fruit trees and the orange one has borne fruit, I give it a shake and pick the produce of the ground to sell to Nook later. After a wander about and a chat to some neighbours I pop by Nook's and he gives me 2,420 bells for the fruit, some shells I collected and some unwanted gifts. Whilst I am there I purchase some medicine for Mallery, the duck, who has been sick the last few days. I also buy a net to catch bugs with. I went to the shore and collected more shells and did some fishing, it was a slow day but I did catch a horse mackeral and a tuna with a bit of perseverance. After dropping the medicine into a grateful Mallery I wander up to the museum as I know, the curator, Blathers (an owl) hasn't got a tuna in the aquarium, so I donate mine. He was very appreciative so I stopped off for a coffee at the cafe there. Brewster, the barista pigeon, serves me a cup, he doesn't say much but makes good coffee. I decide to catch up with my correspondence and send some fruit to my neighbours in the hope they will send a good gift in return! Pelly, the pelican, runs the post office during the day and takes my letters. While I am there I also check out the recycling bin in case there is anything good I can take to use or sell on, but not this time.

Day Two
Seeing a strange mark on the ground near the house of Elmer the horse, I dig it up. It is a fossil and I take it to Blathers for evaluation. Apparently it is an apato dinosaur skull, but I had already dug up one and donated it to the museum, so Blathers gives it back to me, and I can then take it to Tom Nook's to sell. I stopped at the coffee shop again and Phyllis the night clerk at the town hall/post office was there, I tried to engage her in conversation but she is always grumpy. When I popped into Tom Nook's shop (I always find him to be so polite for a racoon) I sold my skull and purchased some more writing paper, he stocks a variety of pretty designs with which to write any short messages to my animal friends (or complete nonsense - they don't seem to mind, but like you better if you correspond more). After this I went to the Post Office (fortunately Pelly was there instead of grumpy Phyllis) and handed in my letters to mail, she also saved the letters I wanted to keep. Whilst I was there I made a deposit on my mortgage and put some bells into my savings account for a rainy day. My friend Chief the lion had given me some carpet to recycle for him but I decided to keep it to sell to Nook.

Day Three
It was raining today, but fortunately I had previously bought a paw print umbrella from the Able sisters' shop. Mabel and Sable run a clothes shop where you make your own designs and sell them through the shop. Mine are a bit rubbish but the other residents do wear them so they must like them! I have also bought sunglasses and a fake moustache there, they stock a variety of fun accessories. Whilst out and about I bumped into Sahara the camel. She is an occasional visitor to the town and had lost her map, so asked me to help deliver some things for her, once I had done that she gave me an exclusive wallpaper design for my home. Back indoors a tap of the stylus replaces my existing wallpaper with Sahara's 'Ringside seating' wallpaper (if only it was this easy in real life!) which looks like lots of people are sitting round the outer edges of my room. Its quite unusual and clashes with my carpet a bit, but never mind.

As you will see the game is quite quirky, it is not action packed but I like the little details, in the fancy writing paper styles, the weird letters the animals send you and the funny little accessories or outfits that you can get. There is also an observatory run by another owl called Celeste, where you can design and name the constellations for your town, and once a week (after prior arrangement with the insurance selling otterl) Crazy Redd comes to town with his black market goods, as well as a few other characters that make an appearance, and may give you gifts for helping them. I would recommend the game to players of the DS who like the Sims or Harvest Moon type games. It isn't really a game that would appeal to puzzle or action/shoot-em-up game fans. It is a gentle, fun game that I have played almost daily since I have got it. The game is classified as a 3+ but there is reading involved in the letters and communications, so think this would actually be better suited to an older child. I have had the game a year now, and I still play it most days.

Also on other sites.