Animal Crossing: City Folk, and Why it Doesn't Work

I love Animal Crossing. I really do! I started playing it in May 2006 with Wild World. I still have it. I also have City Folk, the Wii version. Comparing the two...City Folk is much worse. Here's why CF just doesn't work:

1. City Folk is, of course, not portable. No "normal" person is going to lug around his/her Wii everywhere they go. At least not a Wii and a TV.

2. This is perhaps my biggest problem with it. CF does not support local wireless multiplayer. This was Wild World's greatest feature: the ability to travel to other players' towns or invite a whole bunch of others to your town and throw a party or something. Sure you can still do that in CF, but you HAVE TO have people's friend codes to do it (they need yours, too). And you CAN'T just go over a friend's house and instantly link up (do they say "link up" anymore?) and travel between towns. And that just makes it harder to be on at the same time. Besides, I want to take part in an auction, and I need to "link up" to do so.

3. Lack of lots of new features. All the way. Sure, you got the City, a two-level town, a few new characters, better graphics, and new events/holidays, but I was just able to list all that! And that's pretty sad. Especially on one line.

4. The two-level town I just mentioned in #3. Yeah. That's just plain annoying. Enough said.

5. Resetti's still there.


So I haven't played CF in about 4-5 months. It's too boring. And to think I was drooling over it leading up to and when it came out. Nintendo Power, the USA's official Nintendo magazine, gave it an 8 out of 10 (1 point less than WW). I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10 at most. Sure there are good things about the game, but not nearly enough.

One of the main things that bugs me about it is that the villagers have become less social than they were in Wild World. In WW, if you kept talking to them they'd talk about different things. In CF, you talk to them once or twice, and they keep going on about the same thing. I would have liked it if the city were a lot bigger. It doesn't seem worth going half the time. After the few first trips, I only ever really go to see if the prize guy is there.

Yeah, I agree. I haven't played CF in months, and I don't want to turn it on.

When it was announced, I was excited. Like, really excited. I couldn't wait to get it. Then after I got it, maybe for a week or two I was entertained, then nothing.

The city is boring. It's exciting for the first few trips, then I just don't bother going there. It's not worth it. There's barely anything to do there.

The game was just a giant missed opportunity. As someone who enjoyed Animal Crossing and Wild World, Nintendo's direction with City Folk was very disappointing.

At most you could call it a Wild World expansion and nothing more. That's not what most fans wanted when they heard that Nintendo was developing an Animal Crossing game for Wii. It may have been smart from a business perspective to choose a minimalistic route with the game, but it's obvious that there are many features left out of City Folk that probably could've made it in had the game been developed with not only a better vision, but also with more time.

The online features alone are completely lackluster in comparison to what Nintendo could've pulled off with the Wii hardware.

When it was announced, I was excited. Like, really excited. I couldn't wait to get it. Then after I got it, maybe for a week or two I was entertained, then nothing.

Yeah man. That game...I just cant get sucked in like i did with the first two. I got the Cube AC back in like 2004 or so and played for about two years pretty loyally and got almost everything possible in it. I had lots of fun with it. Wild World came out and i played that for two years in the same manner. I didnt get almost everything in the game but i got enough. It was also easier for me and my friend to go to eachothers towns, with just being next to eachother with a wireless router. CF came out and i wanted it sooo bad! When i got it, i found it to be even more dull than the original AC which wasnt really dull but got that way due to lack of online and the fact one has to muck around with memory cards. Also the townspeople didnt give you pictures like in WW: Something i really really loved about that game. Also its harder to get money in CF and i just...lost interest. I havent even had it a year and im just pretty much done with that game. I dont have all the upgrades on the house but i just...dont really like playing that game. It feels less like fun and more like a chore. D:

While I agree with Rash this it was a giant missed opportunity, a lot of the OP's arguments are petty. I found it pretty tough to go back to Wild World after playing Let's Go to the City.

I completely agree with Rash. I also thought that the city is pretty boring, and just a place where the rest of the NPCs are which normally visited your town.
I want the island back.

I don't plan on getting this game even though I enjoyed it's predecessors immensely. It doesn't look like it has any noteworthy additions nor anything to keep me playing it.

It hasn't got any, really. It's great having four houses which all have an upstairs, main room and basement, and the odd cool moving items you buy are neat, but there's nothing much else. I mean, it's actually worse having all of the visiting animals stay in the City, because then you don't get the random surprise of them turning up in your town. The auction house was a complete waste of time, as was the HRA, and Gracey's only has four furniture sets (and some of the items are repeats from WW, and were regularly priced in WW too.)

When I got Nookington's and saw there was a wall lamp at the back, I was like WHAT. They didn't even put a painting or something there.

That reminds me, Nookington closes at 9 o'clock.

I could never stand that since I usually play at night. It completely stopped all income.

Why has no one mentioned the horrible "Animal Tracks" feature?

Originally Posted by Quin

That reminds me, Nookington closes at 9 o'clock.

Yes that irritates me.
Also the animal tracks thing doesnt really bother me. I think its kinda cool that you can actually forge paths in the grass.

Originally Posted by Pikachu

I could never stand that since I usually play at night. It completely stopped all income.

You can switch back to nook n' go, which is very small. Its open to 1 if you do though.

Yeah, I agree with Rash and the others. I loved the other two (much more so the GameCube version), and this one was disappointing beyond belief. Don't get me wrong, I had fun with City Folk for a little while, but I stress "little". Even though Wild World had really annoying limits, it WAS portable, so that was a big plus.

The GameCube game was brilliant. Even though that one also had some flaws that are hard to go back to, it had the best atmosphere in my opinion-- it had the best holidays, I like the top-down view better than the rolling view, I love the trains better than the bus, cab, or gate, et cetera. I miss hearing that train whistle after the "Nintendo" startup.

City Folk was one gigantic disappointment.
It is, however, a very good Animal Crossing game on its own. Like, if you've only played either WW or ACGC, or haven't played either, then this game will be relatively new and fun to you, as it mixes some of the best things from both.
But if you've played both previous AC games, this is a colossal waste of time and money.

EDIT: Also, **** ANIMAL TRACKS

Aren't the City Folk holidays pretty much the same as the GC one?

Originally Posted by Quin

Aren't the City Folk holidays pretty much the same as the GC one?

Thankfully, yes, for the most part. With added ones to replicate Easter and the like.
EDIT: And if I'm right, Europe, Japan, and NA (at the very least, I dunno about other regions) each have their own specific holidays as well.

The GameCube game was brilliant. Even though that one also had some flaws that are hard to go back to, it had the best atmosphere in my opinion-- it had the best holidays, I like the top-down view better than the rolling view, I love the trains better than the bus, cab, or gate, et cetera. I miss hearing that train whistle after the "Nintendo" startup.

I agree. The acre system was great and seemed to have a structure about it. I also miss hearing the train whistle at random times. I always miss KK Slider in CF because hes not in plain view. You actually have to go in to the Museum. Same with WW. I didnt like that cuz i often forgot to even go see him in those games. The holidays were awesome in the Cube version. The lack of holidays in WW was crap! Unfortunately i just didnt want to play CF enough to find out if its holidays are like the Cube one. D:

I also find it funny that while City folk is a wii game, even an n64 game did more. The n64 game had a larger town, more stuff laying around your town, (like a ball, leaves, ect) more neighbors, and neighbors that actually did stuff.(like, they actually fished on the tourny's) Why didn't they have things like that in CF?

Oh man that's terrible. Animal Forest was the very first one too, so that's pretty awful considering a Wii game doesn't have those features.