Animal Crossing: City Folk Reviews

[Emabulator]

1UP has posted a review (http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3171329) of Nintendo's latest Wii simulation, Animal Crossing: City Folk. The gave it a C for its final grade.Ultimately, it comes down to this: Do you really wanna spend the time doing all of the things you already spent so much time on in Wild World? And do you want to do them in almost the exact same ways? City Folk just seems like a huge missed opportunity?either that, or a lazy cash-in on Nintendo's newfound casual audience. If it's the former, they ought to just call it Wii Mortgage Payments. For a second opinion you can head over to Digital Chumps where they gave Animal Crossing: City Folk an overall rating of 6.6 in this review (http://digitalchumps.com/game-reviews/36-wii/1776-Animal-Crossing-City-Folk.html).

Update: Eurogamer gave Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City a final score of 6/10 in this review (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=307152).

[modeps]

Doesnt really surprise me about how little they're innovating... its par for the course with Nintendo. While its true that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", I think they really need to stop rehashing every first party sequel... Both previous AC's have been essentially exactly the same...

[bone_matrix]

The good news is that a lot of the people getting it on the Wii will probably never have played the previous ones. I'd like to see how it would have been reviewed by someone who never played the previous ones.

[Darcydian]

Some debate over the context in which 1up reviewed this one because of how they're focusing on what ISN'T in the game as opposed to what is. I for one agree with him though my wife and I sank many an hour into the GC version and had a blast. I'll let her read the review before we get it as I'm of the opinion to pass on it.

[Blade]

That's the key issue with Animal Crossing.

The first time you play it, it's great. The first time, as in, the first 30-40 hours... spread out over a few weeks, a few months, or multiple years. If you play it sporadically over several years, you could log 50-100 hours and it would be somewhat fresh each time.

But after the initial freshness wears off, it is a tiring game. I played Wild World for about an hour before I realized it was Animal Crossing v1.5 and couldn't play it anymore. I'm not even gonna rent City Folk, because as the 1UP reviewer stated... they're simply not pushing this franchise into innovative or interesting territory. AC has so much potential, and they've barely evolved from the first game. Which was a glorified N64 port!

My quick solution? Make it a [cheap/free] MMOG, with weekly updates.

City Folk fulfills a tiny fraction of this wish. The internet has been big for over a decade, Nintendo. Get with the program.

[vherub]

speakerphone is loud and clear- this is what I key on.

[Opty]

I don't trust the traditional game media for a game like this because they've got sticks up their asses for games like this. They'll harp on the graphics, ignoring the conscious choice by the developers to not make them super-hardcore-awesome for the sake of art direction. They'll harp on the gameplay, ignoring the fact that the game's basically aimed at people who haven't played AC before with a few new additions to make the AC faithful happy. They're comparing the game against an imaginary perfect game rather than reviewing the game they have.

Here's my review: It's Animal Crossing. If you like Animal Crossing, rent it at the very least. If you've never played Animal Crossing before, rent it at the very least. If you don't like Animal Crossing or got bored playing a previous Animal Crossing, don't play this Animal Crossing. If you're interested in the Wii Speak, it works well but beware of reverb/echo problems if you speak too loudly. Simple, effective, and to the point.

[modeps]

Opty, honestly... I'm an Animal Crossing fan. I played the crap out of the original... but the lack of changes in the sequels is pitiful. The GBA one I figured would be great... Portable Animal Crossing? How can you go wrong? Oh, thats how... by not doing anything different with the game.

Its a continuing trend with Nintendo IP.

[bskeillor]

I guess you could call me a Nintendo Fanboy, but that has been slipping away very rapidly. I had AC on my must have list, but it looks like they're doing more of the same. Now I'm not going across the board saying that they do that with all of their properties, but some of them they are just cashing in. The guilty parties are Pokemon, AC, Wario, Mario Party, Mario Kart, and any of the Mario sports series. Most of these in the past for me have been instant purchases, but not anymore.

Things aren't all bad at the big N though. Zelda, Mario, and Metroid have been top notch. I'd love to see a new Pikmin game as well, but I am worried they are just gonna cash in on the Wii-make version of it. It's just strange going into a holiday without a Nintendo title to be excited about.

[CapnBob]

Now I'm not going across the board saying that they do that with all of their properties, but some of them they are just cashing in. The guilty parties are Pokemon, AC, Wario, Mario Party, Mario Kart, and any of the Mario sports series. Most of these in the past for me have been instant purchases, but not anymore

Mario Kart? Seriously? I'd put Twilight Princess on that list before the Wii or DS versions of Mario Kart, both of which made substantial changes and improvements over the previous iterations. AC and pokemon are definitely guilty, but I'm getting a free copy of AC that my girlfriend can play for the first time, so I have no complaints there.

That said, the only Nintendo title I'm looking forward to at the moment is Wii Sports Resort. The rest of my likely purchase list is mostly Sega-published games, which is a surprisingly substantial list for the first half of 09.

[modeps]

Mario Kart? Seriously? I'd put Twilight Princess on that list before the Wii or DS versions of Mario Kart, both of which made substantial changes and improvements over the previous iterations. AC and pokemon are definitely guilty, but I'm getting a free copy of AC that my girlfriend can play for the first time, so I have no complaints there.

That said, the only Nintendo title I'm looking forward to at the moment is Wii Sports Resort. The rest of my likely purchase list is mostly Sega-published games, which is a surprisingly substantial list for the first half of 09.

I'm not saying that Kart Wii was a bad game, it was certainly fun (it IS Kart after all), but it just felt lazily developed in general.

[bskeillor]

I hesitated putting MK on there, but really what has changed on it? The races and circuits are pretty much the same. Race your butt off to get the lead and hope the AI don't hit you with the rubber band. Zelda is at least pushing the technology and trying some stuff new. I think Pokemon is the most frustrating though. Who wouldn't love an open world sandbox game where you can catch all of the Pokemon. Imagine a MMORPG type game catching trading and battling Pokemon against everybody. Heck, even a proper Pokemon game on the Wii would be a start.

[Flatpicker]

I would think that AC would be perfect for a MMO on the Wii.
It's not my thing, but, I know people for whom it's a time sink.

[modeps]

I would think that AC would be perfect for a MMO on the Wii.
It's not my thing, but, I know people for whom it's a time sink.

That's basically what everyone hoped it would have been when the idea of WiiConnect 24/7 came about. Obviously, we were wrong.

[CapnBob]

I hesitated putting MK on there, but really what has changed on it? The races and circuits are pretty much the same. Race your butt off to get the lead and hope the AI don't hit you with the rubber band.

What rubber band? I occasionally get hit by a blue shell or lightning bolt, but the computer never gets very close to me. Are you sure you're not just bad at the game? The circuits are an improvement over the GC and DS versions with more and better-balanced shortcut options and an improved sliding mechanic that puts the emphasis back on cornering and defensive steering. The wheelie system also adds quite a bit. The graphics aren't mindblowing and the battle mode is still a pale imitation of its former self compared to the SNES and 64 versions, but otherwise I'd call it a very carefully-designed improvement to the series that fixes a lot of what was broken in each of the games since the original.