'Animal Crossing: City Folk' is the latest instalment in the 'Animal Crossing' series. It is a whole virtual world simulation where you can explore and interact with the inhabitants.
Players are introduced to a village populated by animals and are given free-reign on what they are able to do, such as fishing, planting vegetation or discovering artefacts a la Indiana Jones style (okay, a bit less toned down from that).
The game allows players to use the Wiimote to intuitively control tools such as axes, fishing rods and bug catching nets. And this title brings in a new dimension with the introduction of the city, where players are allowed a whole new environment to explore.
First off, the age rating on this game is a little optimistic: 3+ is, in my opinion a little low. This is reflected on the 'Animal Crossing' website where I reckon the youngest reviewer is in high school (judging by the amount of reading involved and the language used).
For a game that is aimed at kids there is a lot of slang and chagrin used by the characters. I guess this adds a wider appeal for both young and old and makes it a suitable title for parents to play with young kids. This, however, is a small point. The game is easy to get into and once you know your way around there is are endless options available to the player.
In many ways it is a classic RPG. Although you won't be sent on a quest to kill a dragon, you will be asked to discover and dig up fossils, buy a house, plant a garden and much more.
When the game begins you arrive in the town that you've just named (Bobville for me) and are immediately confronted with the problem of where you're going to sleep. Fortunately, you find out that there are a lot of friendly people around, one of which offers to give you a loan ? the first action in a series events which will later result in the economic downfall of Bobville, the US and eventually the world!
So you take him up on the offer and soon you'll have a house and a loan to pay off. Thus, it's time to work off the debt by running errands and doing jobs for people. Or risk sleeping with the fishes.
Some of you are thinking why bother with sleeping in the first place. The idea behind it is that there is a calendar that runs in real-time so if it's night outside it will be night in the game. This also carries over into seasonal change. What this also means is that when you put your character to sleep and shut the game down, the next time you start it up the other characters in the game will have moved and there will be changes to the environment.
The other useful feature of a house, apart from sleep, is that you can store all the items that you accumulate. These items can be bought, but sometimes people will give you things for helping them.
Overall the game is fun to play and, whilst it does not have cutting edge graphics, it does have an addictiveness that makes you want to play on. And play on you will, because if you start to feel bored of your character's clothes you just change them ? of course, you have to get the money first.
That is probably the best aspect of the game in that there is no set direction in which to take. Once the town that you start out in has become a little too small, there is always the big city to check out.
There is also an option to connect the Wii to the web and, with the addition of the Wii Speak microphone, you can chat, send in-game pictures and interact with friends all over the world.
Buy this game: Wii
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