I’ve used the term “video game crack” to describe three games in my life: Peggle, Oblivion, and Nintendo’s Animal Crossing. In 2006, I picked up Animal Crossing: Wild World on a whim, partially intrigued by my brother’s obsession with it and also desperately wanting a game to show my wife that the cash dropped on a new handheld was worth it. By the end of the summer in 2006, my family had three DS Lites, three copies of Animal Crossing: WW, and an enormous debt to a entrepreneurial raccoon. Yes, it was SO worth it.

If you’ve never experienced an Animal Crossing game, just hearing the premise might sound stupid. Yeah, you’re a human who has recently moved to a town full of talking animals. And yes, you are gonna be fishing, buying and selling various goods, and even doing your new furry friends favors to pay off your house. Hell, you’ll probably find yourself digging for treasure and dino bones in your spare time.

So, what is the appeal to this random game? I can’t speak for everyone’s tastes but, if you’re anything like me, you’re a collector. During my life I’ve collected coins, stamps, comics, baseball cards, skulls, transformers, and, more currently, video games. Animal Crossing: Wild World brought my favorite pastime, collection, to a game and it was great.

You begin the game by riding in a taxi and a dog, the driver, asking you questions that will determine your character’s appearance and the layout of the town in which you are moving. Once you get to the whatever-you-named-it town, you are set up with a house by Mr. Tom Nook, the aforementioned entrepreneurial raccoon, and you are required to pay for this house in bells, the town currency. Poor and looking for a way to pay your debt, you might start collecting fruit and selling it to Nook. You might start digging for bells and bones, or catching insects or fishing. All of those items can be sold for cold hard bells as well, but… there is a freaking museum in your town! Yep, you guessed it, they want your dinosaur bones, insects, art pieces, and even your fish to display. That is the part of the game that hooked me… the collection of items for your museum.

My wife, on the other hand, found the collection of items to decorate the home more appealing. Carpets, wallpapers, furniture, decor, etc. Although I was interested in getting the special items, such as Star Fox, Metroid, or Zelda wares, Amy (my better half) was spending her time completing coordinating collections. Her rooms were neat while mine were cluttered with samurai swords and shark tanks.

Despite the openness of the game, the fantastic collection aspect, and the intriguingly random plot, Animal Crossing: Wild World would not have worked had it not been for the ease and fluidity of the controls. This was the perfect DS title. It didn’t use the touch screen as a gimmick and it allowed the use of the d-pad and buttons. I loved that you had a choice. I used both the options because it was easier, say, to pinpoint where you want to cast your fishing line with the stylus than with the buttons. However, I liked navigating the menu by using the d-pad and buttons.

Though, I could go on for hours describing the variety of activities and aspects of Animal Crossing: Wild World, such as decorating your own clothes, connecting with friends via wifi, and neighbor portrait collecting, I’ll spare you from my ramblings and leave you with one final thought: This game is crack and you collectors truly owe it to yourself to experience Animal Crossing.

Title:Animal Crossing: Wild World Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo Platform(s): Nintendo DS Release Date: December 5, 2025

       

Tags: Animal Crossing, DS, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Spawn Kill Favorites

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 27th, 2009 at 11:00 pm and is filed under DS, Editorials, Featured, Spawn Kill Favorites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.