Animal Crossing: City Folk

Animal Crossing City Folk

Rating E

Score  9.0/10

             The Animal Crossing series is back, for the third time.  Is the third time the charm, or does this game stay too close to its roots?  This game is only available for the Nintendo Wii.

             Animal Crossing City Folk, for those unfamiliar with the series, is like the Sims series, but much more carefree.  After the simple jobs given to you by Tom Nook, a local shopkeeper sells you a hose, and you’re free to live how you wish.  Want to be rich?  Do daily chores and sell anything you can get your hands on to Tom Nook.  Feel like relaxing?  Unwind by talking to neighbours, check out the fossils at the museum, scan the city for shopping deals, or just sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee at The Roost.  Feeling competitive?  Challenge a neighbour or a friend via online play to a fishing contest, bug catching contest, or Tic-Tac-Toe, Animal Crossing style!

             The city is a whole new part of the game.  Unlike previous Animal Crossing games, you can go to other stores to shop for furniture or accessories, as opposed to being trapped in your small town and only burying the items in Tom Nook’s shops or the Able Sisters’ shop.  In the city, you can get free balloons, learn new emotions for 800 bells apiece, and shop for rare, although not cheap items.  Shampoodle, a hair styling poodle from previous games, has a permanent store, as well as Crazy Redd and Gracie.

             “Bells” are the currency in this game.  Eight hundred bells is the same as eight oranges or a cheap shirt.  You can keep all your bells in the bank, without fear the stock market will crash and leave you poor!  As opposed to talking to someone at the Town Hall to deposit and withdraw bells, there are ATM’s located at convenient places in the town and city.  Other than the bank, you can hold all your money in your pocket, stuff the cash in your closet or keep it hidden in the town somewhere.  You can use the money to pay off the mortgage Tom Nook set up for you.  Like most things in Animal Crossing, it’s completely optional, but it’s the only way to expand the size of your house.  The unique thing about Animal Crossing is the fact it uses a clock to identify the date and time and it changes the game to correspond.  7pm is night time in your small town and sunrise is 6am.  Neighbours go about their regular business all day, everyday.  Neighbours will gossip, trade items, adopt new styles, get sick, get better, move in/out, show off, catch new fish and bugs, whether you’re there or not.  Some neighbours go to bed right at sunset, some stay up all night.  The night is more silent than day, since many stores are closed.  The clock is also used to identify special dates, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and your birthday.  On each day, a special event is created to celebrate that occasion.  For example, there’s a countdown at New Years Eve.  During the countdown, the mayor gives free fireworks and at midnight, fireworks fly into the air and explode with a loud BANG and continue for hours.

             Animal Crossing is not very different from previous games, but it’s still an amazing game that lets you decide what to do 99.9 percent of the time.  What it lacks in originality, it makes up for in freedom and addictive gameplay that has hooked gamers since 2001.  Whatever lifestyle you choose, Animal Crossing City Folk has you covered.