Animal Crossing Girls' Night Out
In an effort to reach a new audience, Nintendo threw a "Girls Night Out" to preview Animal Crossing: City Folk. But your intrepid Gay Gamer reporter was able to sneak into the trendy Lower East Side club along with the female press to get his hands on the upcoming Wii game. I was completely out of my element in that crowd, unless I was playing the game, at which point, I knew more than the demo girls.
See, because this party was intended to introduce Animal Crossing to an audience that was unfamiliar with the game, they had it set up so that at each station was a girl who would walk you through the basics of planting flowers, watering them, cutting down trees, fishing, catching bugs and whatnot. Performing these tasks earned you bells, which were little tokens that could be redeemed for various things. There was a stylist available for consultations like Gracie, a Shampoodle area where someone from Sephora gave makeovers, gift baskets that could be bid on, and various swag. Being a boy, I skipped all the nonsense and got myself a stuffed Mr. Resetti, some magnets, stationary and the only T-shirt that wasn't baby blue or pink. It's black, but clearly for girls, so it's kind of tight. We'll see if I have the balls to pull it off!
There was a huge crowd crammed into the joint, although more of the girls seemed to be partaking of the open bar and hors d'oeuvres than the game. Still, those that were actually playing it seemed to be enjoying it, even if it's hard to get across the real charm of Animal Crossing in just five or ten minutes. You really have to immerse yourself in it to get the whole experience. A little taste isn't enough. Well, it was enough for me. For me to be totally unable to wait for my own copy!
For my full impressions of the game and some pictures of the event, make the jump!
At first glance, Animal Crossing: City Folk doesn't look that much different than the GameCube original, but it's all in the details. The overhead angle is like the DS version, and while watching someone else play, I thought the curve of the ground looked a little severe, but while actually running around myself, it wasn't as distracting as I'd thought it would be. You use the Nunchuck to move, and the A and B buttons on the Wiimote to interact. B will pull up weeds and flowers while A will talk to villagers, open doors and whatnot. Annoyingly, it's similar to the DS touch screen controls (which I never used) in that you have to click on yourself to water the plant, not the flowers themselves. But it's something I hope will be easy to adapt to. Also, the directional buttons on the top of the Wiimote are used to swap between your tools, making it a breeze to swap your axe for your shovel when you've felled the tree and need to dig up the stump. That, I appreciated.
The town doesn't appear to be much bigger than the previous games, and while the graphics are still cartoony in style, they're much more detailed. Moving the cursor to the bottom of the screen brings up a menu that makes it easy to access your map, inventory, and whatnot. There was a camera tab that I was told is for taking pictures, but without an SD card, that couldn't be demoed. It seems like pressing the 1 button on the Wiimote will take a photo, but whether it's from your character's POV or just a screen shot, I don't know yet. Still, I'm looking forward to taking pictures and Wii-mailing them to my friends! The inventory screen is similar to the DS version, with the drag and drop execution, but it feels a little cluttered on the screen.
One of the most interesting improvements that I'm very excited to try out in depth is the new clothing design interface. Instead of just making a pattern that covers the outfit, you can now select specific patters for the front, back, and sleeves. I designed a pattern that when I put on my dress, only covered the front. This expansion will allow for much more creativity in design, and I can't wait to see everyone's work!
Half of the demo stations were the town (some set for different seasons), while the others were the big city, something new to the series. A bus can be taken from your town to the city, where you will find various shops and random animals. These animals don't have a whole lot to say, but I'm hoping you can lure them into your village, because I saw some old favorites walking around. Seriously, I had an embarrassing geek moment when I walked into the Gracie Grace boutique to check out the fashions and got more excited when I saw Pippy in there shopping! This is where you can also visit Shampoodle to get your hair did, as well as a new makeover feature that will let you wear a Mii head as a mask. Unfortunately, while it sounds cool to be able to play Animal Crossing as your own Mii, in execution it was a little creepy-looking. I thought the head was too big and it didn't fit in with the AC style. Too bad.
Also in the city is an auction shop that was sadly empty when I visited, and a theater where Dr. Shrunk will put on a show that will teach you a new expression. Three expressions were available at the top of the screen, activated by clicking on them. This "show" costs bells, but at least you're not waiting around for him to randomly show up in your town to learn new expressions. Oh, and back in the town you'll find Tom Nook's shop as well as the museum and Blathers. I even went down into the coffee shop for a cup of joe, which surprised the girl who was supposed to be instructing me, because she'd never seen that before. Nice. There's also a stage in there where I assume K.K. Slider will perform on Saturday nights as usual.
Overall, Animal Crossing: City Folk doesn't appear to be the next-generation leap most fans probably would've hoped for, but it's still a step up, even if it's not a particularly big step. City Folk seems to have taken Wild World onto the Wii and added some extras. Multiplayer wasn't available to try out, but I assume it should work like the DS game, (which was great) but made better by the addition of the Wii Speak peripheral (also not available to test). Oh, and my biggest question was answered when I learned that you can have up to four people living in the same town with different houses. I didn't like the Wild World version where everyone had to share the same home. If you weren't into Animal Crossing before, City Folk isn't going to change your mind, but fans of the series will probably eat this up with a spoon. I know I will! Look for my review coming next week!
Wootini
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 14 November 2008
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: animal crossing city folk, hands on, nintendo, party, wii
This series has been a total disappointment in terms of innovation. Essentially, it's the exact same game that was released on the Nintendo 64 all those years ago, when there's so much more I wanted out of it. I wanted more personality types than just six for the animals, gardening and cooking minigames, more landmarks with more variety in scenery, virtual pet / aquarium games, part-time job minigames, more errands, side-quests, more collections, more dialogue, and more areas to explore.
Instead we got two new stores, and the ability to curse online at other players. Screw that. I'll hang on to the DS version, which I never play anyways because this series gets old fast.
Yay! Sounds like fun times. I was expecting this game to be so much more, but I'm still a fan of the series. I'm surprised how much I play it and still enjoy it.
You should post a photo of the stuffed Mr. Ressetti.
Mr. Ressetti? You were suppose to ask to see Wootini in the skimpy black girl shirt... I know his WiiFit body can pull it off ;)
Hi there! I got the new Animal Crossing game for Wii & I love it! So I had a question: Will this site make a list of gaymers that play Animal Crossing? If not this site, is there someplace else that can do it? We can share friend codes & help out each other's towns. I think it'd be fun to have some other gay people to be friends with. Let me know! I have pears...
I agree with Daniel. It would be great get a list of players/friend codes so we could go visit each others towns! I have pears as my native fruit but have all the others started so in a week or so I will have all the fruit and coconuts!