Animal Crossing Lets Go To The City

Playing Animal Crossing again is like slipping on that favourite pair of jeans or watching a repeat of your favourite TV show. You know exactly what to expect, but it feels good anyway. Animal Crossing has barely changed since the first game on the Nintendo GameCube, which makes it instantly familiar to experienced players.

Newcomers may be slightly confused by this odd game, though. It doesn’t have combat or missions or lengthy cut scenes featuring buff military men, instead you’ve got cute characters wandering around a village, performing relatively mundane tasks.

You have to make friends by helping out your fellow villagers, and stock up your home with new items. Other characters might ask you to collect apples or something, so you walk around the village finding apples or doing a spot of fishing. There are also events to attend, maybe a festival or a friend’s birthday. The game uses the Wii’s clock and the world changes even when you’re not playing so you can log in at certain times to see special events.

It’s a very unusual game, to say the least, but one that can be strangely addictive. You’ll find yourself quite eager to hunt down an elusive item for a talking animal, or log in at 3 in the morning to attend someone’s birthday party. It is however almost identical to previous Animal Crossing games, the only change being the ability to visit the city. You can hop on a bus and visit the Animal Crossing city for a day trip to do some shopping. That’s fun at first but if you played Animal Crossing: Wild World you’ll probably be wishing for something new by now.

Verdict: 55%   

Animal Crossing is still a great game, it’s ideal for kids or anyone who wants a more relaxing and unique game experience, but it’s barely changed from previous editions so isn’t recommended if you played the last game.