 Review By: Siou Choy |
Developer: | Nintendo |
| Publisher: | Nintendo | |
| Genre: | Simulation | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1-4 | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Wii Speak, Nunchuk, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (online play) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Like the thing or not, the original Animal Crossing broke new ground when it was released for the GameCube way back in 2002. For one thing, it represented a true anomaly among its peers in that it was a game with no real set goals. All you had to do was live life in an essentially peaceful virtual community populated by wobbly-headed cartoon animals. About the biggest task you had to accomplish was finding and playing telephone with the various insanely gabbling residents of the nauseatingly brightly colored village you “lived” in, the bulk of your virtual day being spent in such strenuous activities as catching fish, chasing bugs, designing clothes, digging up fossils, or shaking down trees for fruits to pay off a set of never-ending home renovations with the local loan shark/sole controller of commodities, Tom Crook. Despite the seeming inanity of the whole enterprise, it was astonishing to note how addictive the proceedings could become – kind of like staring at a fish tank or into a fireplace for hours at a time, there was something hypnotically relaxing about the sheer banality of the whole thing. Sadly, despite a distance of more than 6 years and a few failed imitations (i.e. what the Harvest Moon series degenerated into, particularly in its lawsuit-tempting A Wonderful Life period, where it became a virtual clone), the world of Animal Crossing has not changed a great deal. In fact, it’s almost exactly the same.
You know it’s sad when the best new feature Animal Crossing: City Folks has to offer over its progenitor is the ability to put on a mask of your Mii. Seriously, that’s the big “upgrade”. So the same little Weeble avatar that’s supposed to represent you in unrelated Wii games such as Wii Sports or Wii Fit can now wander around the insanely gabbling New Zoo Revue style denizens of your Animal Crossing residence. Uh…it took 6 years for that?
OK, so we’ve pretty much established that there have been no changes whatsoever, and you’re paying for the privilege to direct port the 2002 release to the system du jour. So let’s get down to what few cosmetic changes were made to polish this colossal turd, shall we?
Let’s start with the title. If you’ve gotten this far and haven’t given up in disgust (I can’t believe they just ported the original!), you might be wondering where the “City Folk” part of the title comes from. Simply enough, it relates to the fact that you get to take a bus from your village into the unnamed “city”. Sadly, the most exciting part of this whole endeavor is the bus ride itself, since this is the only time you get to see the Kapp’n. Veterans of the original release should remember the Kapp’n as the babbling frog who ferried you from your village to the island (but only if you had a Game Boy Advance – I dealt with that usurious marketing tie-in in my review of the original, back in 2002 or thereabouts). The experience of “the city” itself is much like any suburbanite’s initial ventures into Manhattan. On the first trip, you explore everything and perhaps find a few interesting spots to pique your interest in a return visit. On the next few trips, the focus narrows, and exploration becomes more limited to a choice hotspot here and there. After that you end up going to one or two (insert stores, bars or clubs here, depending on personal preference) and nothing else. That said, this appears to be a pre-Guiliani fascist makeover/gentrification Manhattan, since you can still find a shoeshine boy, balloon vendor, perhaps even a street performer, punk, bum, or one of those guys who wash your windshield with a dirty rag at traffic lights. Having personally seen several of these types hounded and harassed out of residence by our fine stormtroopers in blue, I can tell you with some assurance that like the sleazy pre-Disneyfied Times Square of old, this just ain’t the case any more…
Another minor, if unwelcome change: the Gyroid that used to welcome you home and save your game has been removed. Instead, in a bit of cross-contamination, they’ve stolen the Harvest Moon save paradigm, where you save upon going to sleep (in your dingy little attic cell of a bedroom). There’s also a quick save at the top right corner of the screen, in case you plan on dropping in and out of your game all day (or just find it bizarre to be taking a nap during the day).
Nothing different about the startup, though – as you might expect by now, you start your game in almost exactly the same fashion as you did on the GameCube. You open in the middle of a bus ride, answering a series of questions from a nosy neighbor (once again, played by the cat named Rover…yeah, that makes loads of sense) which will determine how you look once you depart the bus (male, female, personality type, et al). On arrival, you’re given a real estate tour of four dumpy little homes by Tom Crook, who serves as the town’s local Don – no business is transacted in town, unless it goes through him, capisce? Now kiss da ring, or da boys’ll have ta teach ya some respect...in the end, you’re forced to buy one of them (and boy, is he pushy about it – I’ve dealt with car salesmen and realtors who gave less of a hard sell).
Posted: 2009-04-03 06:07:37 PST