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Nintendo media summit - Animal Crossing: City Folk - impressions

by rawmeatcowboy
06 October 2008
GN 1.0 / 2.0

Animal Crossing: City Folk is a weird game to demo. It’s not really a title that you sit down with for 5 minutes, play through a bit, and get the experience. As with any Animal Crossing game, you have to sit down with it for a few weeks before you can really get a feeling for what the game has to offer. That opportunity will come up soon, but until then, all we have are some quick impressions.

The first time I played Animal Crossing: City Folk was at E3 2008. During that first exposure, I was playing the game out on the loud show floor. Not exactly the bes environment for a game like Animal Crossing. This time, the setting was a lot more intimate, but the surroundings were still pretty loud. I got to experience…pretty much the same thing I did the first time around.

Animal Crossing: City Folk offers much of what the past titles featured, with some new elements added in. Obviously, the city aspect is the biggest change, but it’s not a hugely revolutionary element. The city acts as an extension of your normal town, and gives you more shops to visit, people to talk to, and fun to have. Some of the old shops/outlets have actually been moved to the town, such as the hairdresser.

I can’t decide if the City extension is really worth it. I haven’t seen anything that couldn’t be done in the usual town setting, but perhaps that will change as playtime builds up. More things will be unlocked, and you’ll have more reason to visit the city. I’m not saying that City Folk is bad…it’s far from it. It just feels like less of an evolution than Wild World did after the original Animal Crossing.