|
 |
Animal Crossing: Wild World Nintendo DS Nintendo  You'd
think a game in which you have to toil for a boss in order to earn
money to pay off your mortgage would be not only dull but depressingly
realistic. Nintendo's 'Animal Crossing' for Gamecube demonstrated
that, on the contrary, it can be stupidly entertaining: provided that
the tasks in question are collecting seashells, fishing and delivering
letters, the boss is an avuncular raccoon and the mortgage is on a
house in a town inhabited by a collection of anthropomorphised animals.
In 'Animal Crossing', both the Gamecube and the new DS versions, you play an little elfin character moving out of home for the first time. You arrive in your town with no more than the clothes you stand up in and whether you sink or swim is entirely up to you. Tom Nook, the local shopkeep and building mogul, will build you a house, but you have to pay him back by taking a job as a jack-of-all-trades at his shop. You'll get to know the other townsfolk, too: the elderly mayor Tortimer (a tortoise); the scholarly museum curator (an owl); and a motley and ever-changing menagerie of citizens who just love to stop for a chat. There's a strong sense of community in Animal Crossing: everyone knows everyone and festivals are celebrated as a town, whether they be New Year's Eve or La-Di-Day (where townsfolk vie for the honour of composing the village's signature tune). 'Animal Crossing: Wild World' is very similar to its parent Gamecube game. It's an amazingly good transfer: the graphics look, if anything, better on the DS - the cartoony larger-than-life style is ideally suited to a handheld console. The developers have crammed more activities and characters into the new game and streamlined other aspects of it (for instance, the Town Hall houses not only the Post Office/bank, but also the Civic Centre, which handles all the stuff the talking tree used to). There are some really nice new features: an observatory where you can discover and name constellations; a coffee shop where you can enjoy a cup of joe while exchanging pleasantries with the taciturn barrista; new fish, insects, fossils and furniture items to catch/collect; and, if you pay off your mortgage, Tom Nook will even open a beauty salon where you can change your hairstyle. The DS' local wireless and internet capabilities mean you can visit other players' towns and even move a friend into your own. If you liked the Gamecube Animal Crossing, it's well worth investing in 'Wild World'. It's everything the original was but portable and with a multiplayer function: what more could you want?  |
|
The latest issue available now!     |
All content copyright dB Magazine