My video game review on Animal Crossings: Wild World for the Nintendo
DS, has been a long time coming. I felt I could not give a complete
review until I got my DS a Wifi connection. The time has come, I got my
Wifi connection, I am happily ready to grace you with this long winded
game review...it's got some tips and hints in here as well.
I bought
Animal Crossing Wild World for one reason, and one reason only. Animal
Crossings was probably the funnest game I had played on my Nintendo
Gamecube back in the day. Adding Wild World to my DS game collection
only made sense. Why would I not want this ultimate game of all time?
I was able to purchase it on the day of its release at Gamestop for
$34.99. Believe me this game was selling out like hotcakes at McDonald's on a Sunday morning.
The game itself starts off a bit like the one on we all remember on Gamecube. Oh the hours that went into the Gamecube version. Hehe.
Anyhow...
You're leaving home, about to start a life on your own away from your
parents. You answer a few questions before the game itself starts. You
then choose your name, your gender, and the name you would like to call
your town. After all of this basic stuff, your character arrives. (The
neat part is if you don't like how he/she looks, you can always restart
the game. The characters face can and will change every time you start a
new game. You can also a new person to your town. -You are allowed to
add 3 more friends- say a brother, or sister to live in the same house
as you)
Upon your arrival you will be greeted by a raccoon named
Nook, he is the owner of Nook N Cranny's; the town's local shopping
center. Nook takes you to see your home, and then he slaps you with a
bill. However you don't have any money. Dang! This is
where the games actual play is put in effect. You have to earn that
money, and believe me it won't be an easy, or fast job to complete.
After checking out your home Nook leaves and asks you to meet him back
at his shop. You have a choice to either, get to Nook's and start
working immediately, or you can go and check out your house some more
and the town.
Your House:
Yech, its a rather
small and ugly looking house. It will be up to you, from here on out, to
decorate your home to your preference. I will get into the home
furnishings and decorations further on however.
Once you get to Nooks, he asks you to perform little annoying missions to earn some bells (money).
You will be asked to deliver packages, introduce yourself to all of the
animals in town, and post a bulletin for Nook on the town bulletin
board.
These small jobs Nook assigns you are basically the games
tutorial, it gets a little annoying, but once you complete the tasks
you get to roam free, and Nook hooks you up with a town map. The town
map makes it easy to locate other animal's homes, when you first start
off.
Animals In Wild World:
The number of animals
in your town will vary from time to time. At one point you will have up
to 10 neighbors, and sometimes you will have 8. The animals tend to
move out, and move in about once a week. However sometimes it takes
awhile for a new animal to move in. Your neighbors will vary from
friendly and bubbly, to complete grouches, each animals personalities
will differ from the last, and you may even grow more fond of one than
the other. Don't get too attached though, when an animal moves out of
your town, you can't take it personally.
You will see a large
variety of different animals, so when one animal moves out, another
interesting animal can move in. You will see rabbits, dogs, toads, pigs,
bears, chickens, roosters, ducks, hedgehogs, squirrels, monkeys, cats,
chipmunks, etc. The list goes on and on.
How Do I Pay Nook's Loan?
Well there are many, many ways to pay Nook back. At first you most
likely will be selling Nook sea shells that you happen to find at the
beach, which is always located at the very far bottom of the town. You
can also run errands for the animals in town. They will either give you
bells, clothes, or furniture.
You can then sell the clothing and
furniture you were given to Nook, who will buy them from you. This is
basically how you make money.
Hidden Tips For Making Fast Money:
-If you hit rocks with your shovel, sometimes a rock will release bags
of bells. Keep hitting it, and the bags of bells will get bigger. There
will only be one money rock per day in your town.
-If you go up to a tree and shake it, sometimes a bag of 100 bells will fall to your feet.
Okay, so now you have some money. However don't pay of the loan just
yet. First your going to want to purchase some tools from Nooks shop. A
major necessity is the fishing pole, shovel, net, Axe, and the
slingshot.
Once you have gotten the pole you can go fishing.
This is where things get fun. You find a river, or you go to the ocean;
once you see a dark shadow in the water, release your line. When the
line starts shaking, reel him in! It's easy. One can spend hours fishing. There are quite a few fish to catch too, 56 different species to be exact.
Once you have caught fish, you can either bring them to the museum, to
have them put in the museums aquarium, or if you have caught two of the
same type of fish, sell the extra ones to Nook.
There are a few
rare fish that Nook will pay almost 10,000 bells for. Now remember
different fish come out at different seasons. Animal crossing Wild World
is set in real time. So if it's February 7th 2007 for you, it will also
be the same date in Animal Crossings. (You can however change the time
in the game if you'd like).
The net is used for bug
catching. There are 56 different bugs to catch. Like the fish, rare bugs
are worth big bells. You can donate bugs to the museum, or sell them to
Nook.
The shovel is used for digging, hitting rocks, digging up cut down tree stumps, and planting flowers.
If you happen to be walking around your town and see a star shaped marking
on the grass or sand, that would be where you would dig. What you dig
up is a mystery every time. It could either be a fossil, (take this to
the museum to have it identified) a pit fall (if you happen to step on a
star that contains a pitfall your character will fall into a hole- just hit the A button to get out)
it could even be furniture that another animal may of buried, or a
gyroid. (A Gyroid, is a wooden type totem pole looking thing. If you
place it in your home it will make noises) Gyroids are found the next
day after a rainstorm in large quantities. I usually sell them to Nook,
as they are worth 800 bells each.
The slingshot is used
to shoot balloons down in the sky. Balloons come every now and then, and
you will see them floating in your top screen. The balloon usually has a
gift attached to it. If you happen to get lucky and shoot it down, the
gift will fall to the ground. Usually the gift contains a piece of
furniture for your home. Shooting balloons down is probably the most
difficult task that this game has to offer.
Also at night
sometimes a rare flying UFO can be seen. Try and shoot that down for
presents. Not many people know about the UFO's as they are only seen on
very rare occasions late at night in the town.
The Axe is
used to chop down trees. Now you don't want to go crazy with cutting
them all down, it will make the animals in the town upset, and could
even case them to move out.
The Axe is used to lighten up areas
that have too many trees crammed together, causing you not to be able to
make your way through. Cutting a few trees down just makes it easier
for you to move around the town in a quicker manner. You don't want to
go any further than that. Trees are a good thing, so keep as many in
town as you possibly can.
Furniture:
Collecting
furniture will prove to be no easy task. There are many different types
of sets one may want to acquire. You either get furniture by buying them
from Nook in his shop, or getting them from completing tasks from
animals in town.
However you may also acquire furniture in the
lost and found. There will be two dogs waiting by your main gates, ask
the dog to the left if anything has been lost. He will show you a list
of things if there are any. Feel free to take everything if you want.
You may also check out the garbage bin which oddly enough, is located
in the Post Office in town. In older Animal Crossing games there was a
dump to pick through. I miss the dump in this game and wish they
included it.
There are 576 different pieces of furniture total,
so it will take a lot of time for you to get them all. Once you have
gotten a piece though, don't be afraid to sell it. You can always
repurchase it, as it will be saved in you catalog. (Your catalog is a
list of any furniture you may have had in your possession in the past,
regardless of whether its in your house at that time or not).
There are also 64 different wallpapers, and 64 different types of
carpets for you to decorate your home with. You can get crazy and
creative.
You also will have the option to join the HRA. This is
a home rating system. Every week you will get a letter in your mailbox
from the HRA with a grade on your home. If you get a great score,
sometimes the HRA will send you a gift and congratulate you.
I
know there are ways to do feng shui in the home as well. I haven't
mastered this yet, but I do know if you master it, you will get some
sort of gift from the HRA.
Decorations also go beyond the home.
You decorate the town by planting flowers and trees. Be careful you
don't run through flowers though, as you can kill them. If you plant a
lot of flowers, sometimes there is a good chance of creating hybrid flowers. These are rare occurrences, and these types of flowers will never be available at Nooks. You can create black roses, and gold roses so long as you place flowers next to one another properly.
If you don't play the Animal Crossing: Wild World for about a week
though, the town will become overrun with weeds. They're easy to get rid
of though; you just stand over them and pick them. Its pretty easy.
There also is a small chance that you will find a patch of clovers
while picking weeds. If you pick them, there is a random chance of
finding a 4 leaf lucky clover. You can wear it in your hair, or put t in
your home.
The Able Sisters:
They are located in
the Able Sisters shop. This is where you go to buy different clothing
patterns to wear. Here you can also create your own styles to wear, or
use as a pattern on your umbrella. The cost to make your own clothing
will always be 300 bells. It's neat because after you create a new
pattern, and put it on display, sometimes animals in your town will
sport the new look as well. You can also purchase accessories like
glasses, beards, hats, and hairstyles here when they become available.
Two different accessories will be available each day.
Paying Off The Loan:
As you pay off your loan, your house will get larger and larger, and
so the bill from Nook will also grow. However if you keep paying off
your loan you will eventually earn yourself the mansion. The
best, and very last upgrade to your house. It consists of 3 levels and 7
rooms total. There is enough room in the mansion to decorate in all
kinds of themes available.
Message In A Bottle:
Another neat feature is message in bottles.
You can purchase them at Nooks. You can then write a letter to someone,
anyone really. You never know where it ends up- it travels to other
wifi Animal Crossing DS users. I like to leave my email address in the
letter and a little gift, and see if someone emails me letting me know
they got my message. Sometimes you may even get a message in a bottle
washed up on your shore.
You can also write letters to other
animals in your town, usually they write back and add a gift. So it's
fun to do. You may also write letters to other users in your house, or
write letters to other wifi users on your friend list. Letters are sent
by bringing them to the Post Office.
Nook Upgrades Too!
As you upgrade your house, Nooks store will also upgrade, becoming
larger and nicer with each upgrade. Eventually there will also be a hair
salon in Nookingtons. You can take your character here for a
makeover for 3,000 bells. Your hair style and hair color will change
depending on how you answer the hairdresser's style and fashion
questions.
Special Events Are Happening Every Other Week In Wild World!
Now just when you think things are becoming boring, a special event
will pop up. You can find all the details out about special events on
the town bulletin board. The board will tell you the time, date, and
description of the event. So stop at the town board every day if you
can.
Special Visitors For Special Events:
A
reindeer will come for a visit on Christmas Eve. He likes to hide in
your town. If you happen to find him, he will give you a Christmas
themed piece of furniture for your home. If you continue to seek him,
each time he will give you another piece of furniture. Save these
pieces, they are the only types of furniture that you cannot re-order
from Nooks catalogue. However if you get doubles, sell them. They're worth a lot of money.
When it is snowing in your town, you will also sometimes find balls of
snow. If you roll them, you will create a snowman. Its hard to do, and
takes some concentration and fine hand skills to pile one ball on top of
the other. Once he is made, he will give you a gift, which is worth a
lot of money. You can make a new snowman everyday and everyday get a new
gift.
On the 4th of July at night, if you look at the
top screen you will see a display of fireworks. If you go to the town
center you will find Tortimer, the town mayor. He will give you
sparklers to hold during the festivities.
On Halloween everyone in town will be dressed in costume. You have to be careful, if they run up to you, you must give them candy. Make sure you buy candy at Nooks in advance; if you don't have candy they will give you a trick.
There will also be a visitor named Jack roaming about the town on
Halloween night. If you find Jack roaming about tag him. He will give
you a piece of Halloween furniture.
Seek him out as much as
possible without getting tagged by other animals. Otherwise they turn
your Halloween furniture into jack o lanterns, which are worth nothing. His furniture is also worth a lot of money, so if you get doubles sell them to Nook.
There is also a random chance of a sea gull named Gully,
that sometimes will wash up on shore at the ocean. He will look dead
when you find him, but if you keep prompting him to talk, eventually he
will wake up. He will then tell you a huge story about why he washed up
on shore, and then he will give you a rare foreign gift. These gifts are
worth a lot of money if you sell them to Nook. However they also make
the house look nice, and will raise your HRA score, so you may want to
think about keeping them for decoration purposes.
Gracie is a fashion designer; she will visit your town about once a month.
You never know when she might pop up, she doesn't leave a bulletin, but
if you talk to the animals, sometimes they clue you in. If the animals
talk of Gracie, she will be in the town that day or the following day.
It's now up to you to find her. When you do she will ask you to wash her
car. If you wash it nicely she will give you one of her fashions. You
can either wear the clothes she gives you, or sell them to Nook. Her
clothing is worth way more bells than any other pieces of clothing you
may come across in the game.
Redd, a raccoon that looks like Nook; only crooked,
will also visit once a week. He will send you a letter in advance and
let you know when he will be visiting the town. In the letter he will
also send you the password to get into his tent. If you loose the
password you will have to ask every single animal in town what the
password is until you find the right animal that knows the password. It
can be annoying, so try and save Redd's letters.
Redds tent has a
variety of rare items that you cannot find in Nooks shop. Here is where
you may come across paintings for your museum.
However,
sometimes his paintings are fakes and worth nothing. So it's really a
gamble unless the insurance man comes to visit-, which doesn't happen as
often as you would like. At Redds sometimes you loose, sometimes you
win. It's sort of a gamble. His prices are also extremely high; so make
sure you visit him with quite a few bells in hand.
There will
also be an old woman selling turnips every week, if you buy them, then
sell them at Nook's you can make a huge profit.
The prices of turnips rises and fall each day, just don't let them spoil. They will rot and be useless in one weeks time if you don't sell them.
During spring and fall seasons your town will also be visited by a
beaver that will hold fishing tournaments. It's simple really, catch the
biggest bass, and win the trophy.
There will also be spring festivals, fall festivals, and other activities for you to participate in.
Graphics:
The game itself may look lame and childish, but in reality it has a
lot to offer. The town you will be in is very colorful. Everything is
done up in a 3D type environment, and sort of reminds me of a more
childlike colorful Southpark.
Wifi:
If you have the Wifi connection this is where things get very fun in Animal Crossing: Wild World.
Now before you get all excited, you must remember you have to have a
friend code plugged into your friend rooster, and that friend must have
you plugged in as well for you to visit, and have visitors. It's the
most annoying process that Nintendo has added, seeing how not everyone
has 10 friends who own Animal Crossing: Wild World.
There are
forums and websites where you can exchange your friend codes with
others. (By the way the dog at your main gate will give you your friend
code to give to others).
The best site I have come across for friend code exchanges is www.animalcrossingcommunity.com
Once you have exchanged codes with someone on the site, you can then
visit their town or have them come and visit yours. Once you have a
visitor you can exchange furniture, play, pick different fruit, then
plant them in your town for fruit variety, or just gossip. It's really a
lot of fun being able to explore someone else's town, seeing how each
one is different.
Sadly though, you have to be careful when you
let someone in your town that you don't know. It wouldn't be fun to have
them cut down all your trees, steal hybrid flowers, and ruin your town,
like some people just may do. If you see any sort of activity you do
not like, you can just turn your DS off, and take them off of your
friend rooster. However the site I provided gives other users a rating,
so you can see comments from other users, if that person is a good
visitor, or a bad one. A bad visitor can ruin all of the fun if you
happen to come across one.
Don't let one bad person stop you from having visitors though; you can rid your town of bad visitors easily. Remember though, when you do have visitors that are new, try and monitor them.
If they don't chat back when you ask them something, or if they keep
running through your flowers, ask them to leave. If they don't, turn off
the DS and erase their friend code from your friend code bank. There
are many known hacks to this game, so if you feel someone is suspicious,
kick em' the hell out!
My Feelings:
I have been
nothing but impressed with Animal Crossing Wild World. The game is a
great buy and the fun never runs out. There is always something to do in
your town, or in others towns. You will not be disappointed if you
purchase this game. It has incredible re-play value.
Recommendation:
Animal Crossing Wild World is a game that truly everyone will enjoy if
they just give it a chance. Although the game seems as if it is
designed for children, adults too can easily become hooked. Just look at
me, I'm frigging 25 and cannot get enough of the game.
Where To Buy Animal Crossing: Wild World For The Nintendo DS:
You can find this title nearly everywhere video games are sold. I have
seen it on sale at time for $19.99. It's well worth it though, even if
it's not on sale and you have to spend $30.00 on it.
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