Animal Crossing is a franchise that dates way back to the final days of the N64. It sold over 2.9 million on GC but really blew up with the DS version which outsold the Halo games and is still rising at something over 10 million units. The Wii version is already at 2.79 million and will easily outsell the GC version.

Before the DS version I always managed to avoid the AC games. They looked weird, I didn't  know what to expect. Buying the game was some sort of gamble I wasn't willing to take. Over the years I had heard enough from forumers to encourage me to try the game and so with the DS Lite purchase, I needed a new game to go along with it.

This was when I bought Wild World as an impulse buy.

Initially I was bewildered: this is IT? I thought. The game was tiny, restrictive, there was nothing to do. But as the days went by the game slowly opened up, gently rewarding you, not with OMG look at that mother******* boss moments, but with small daily rewards that went on for months and months. By the end of the year this alternative world had become my most favourite game of the year.

So I'm wondering, firstly if you haven't tried Animal Crossing yet, what are your reasons for not doing so?

And if you have, what were your very first impressions stepping into the game?

Ravenprose said:

All of the Animal Crossing games are epic win . . . except for the craptastic City Folk. Wild World is by far the best in the series, IMO.

Archangel3371 said:

Well my reasons for not buying it yet are that I simply have too many other games that I'm much more interested in getting before it. Not that I'm not interested in it just that I have other priorities. Perhaps one day I'll get around to it.

So what does perhaps one day mean? Because I've said that before and never picked up games. Pikmin 2 for example. Is is a case of a low price, or a dull part of the year? Or just lack of interest?

Is there something about it that just doesn't appeal to you? Because before trying the game I always saw it as a gamble and something weird.

SteelAttack said:

The first thing I thought after playing the game for a while was "fuck, this is so cool and relaxing and laid back". No scores, no predetermined goals, no ending whatsoever. Just a tiny bubble of awesome, your bubble of awesome, evolving bit by bit each and every day, throwing small but neat stuff at you at each turn.

Did you get into it immediately? Because it took me at least a week and a half before I really dug it. Does it ever feel pointless to you because of the lack of goals?

To me, in Wild World I got rich quick and ran out of items to buy so it lasted me 9 months. Which is ages to be fair to the game, I played it everyday.

In City folk with things like super expensive seasonal store ware at Gracies and uber items like fountains and windmills and seasonal events, + foreign events you can only see by visiting online. This will last me ages.

Ravenprose said:

All of the Animal Crossing games are epic win . . . except for the craptastic City Folk. Wild World is by far the best in the series, IMO.

So what were your first impressions of your first AC game?

I haven't tried the cube game, so the additions to City Folk over wild world are great to me. One thing that still annoys me about the game(s) though is a lack of inventory space for tools and items and even lack of storage space at home for items.

I have 3 characters because I needed the item space in closets. Eventually my aim is to have 4 characters with 3 rooms a piece.

gamingeek said:

Did you get into it immediately? Because it took me at least a week and a half before I really dug it. Does it ever feel pointless to you because of the lack of goals?

Pretty much. Like, a couple days. I understood almost from the get-go that this is a game that needs to be experienced at a relaxed pace, in small doses, and without hurries of any kind. To be honest, the thought of it being pointless because of its lack of scores/goals hasn't ever crossed my mind.

Ravenprose said:

I consider the original AC to be a close second to Wild World, but the refinements made in Wild World make it difficult to go back to it. City Folk is basically a combination of the original AC and Wild World, only not done as well, IMO. The only new things in City Folk is the lame city and animal tracks; just about everything else has been done before in those other two games. Thought Jingle was cool? He was in the original AC. Like Wisp the ghost? He was also in the original AC. City Folk is a lazy port of two more successful games.

Yes, I'm bitter.

SteelAttack said:

gamingeek said:

Did you get into it immediately? Because it took me at least a week and a half before I really dug it. Does it ever feel pointless to you because of the lack of goals?

Pretty much. Like, a couple days. I understood almost from the get-go that this is a game that needs to be experienced at a relaxed pace, in small doses, and without hurries of any kind. To be honest, the thought of it being pointless because of its lack of scores/goals hasn't ever crossed my mind.

Interesting. Some writers have said that the game is about rampant consumerism because of the daily shopping, new items and stock market system.

Others have wrote that its a form of addictive risk free gambling, I'll give you this, for this mystery item etc. I can see that, for instance you never know what fish you are going to catch till it comes out of the water. You never know what item someone has sent you till you open the letter. You never know what is in those floating presents in the sky till you shoot it down.

Have you seen or shot down the UFO yet? In the DS game when I shot that bastard down it was like WHOA day. I even took a cellphone pic of it. I've seen him fly across really fast once so far over nearly 3 months and missed him.

robio said:

I played AC on the Cube. . . for about 3 days.  I tried to get into it, but doing errands and decorating my home just never really seemed fun to me.  The only thing I really liked about it was getting to play the classic NES games.  If the new one had that feature again I'd probably play it, but I really can't get myself interested in it.

Yikes. 3 days. Did you even get all your tools by then?

You only would have seen about less than 1% of the items. Seen no events or holidays. No villagers come and go either. Ouch.