A Gaming Diary
Wii
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Dec 22nd
One of the best things about Animal Crossing is the lack of huge, game-changing events. No death, no atomic bombs reducing McNulty to a radioactive wasteland, no huge bosses carrying off animal chums. Instead the worst thing that happened over the weekend was that Rodeo lost his house key. And then I found it for him. Also, I got a snow globe from Tortimer and a pinwheel from Phineas. And a lovely monocle from the clothes shop.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Dec 19th
Dimrill came to visit and buried some pears.
Gladys hasn’t moved and out and seems to have stopped talking about moving entirely. Bah. She’s rubbish.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Dec 18th
In my new combo of tuxedo, top hat and curly moustache I look like a silent movie villain, ready to tie some unsuspecting animal (probably Cookie) to some train tracks. Excellent. That tuxedo cost the earth in Gracie’s, but it was worth it.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Dec 17th
This was excellent yesterday. I got some bubbles from a nice chap in the city. The Nothern Lights were on show over McNulty. And my wife got her brother over, so we sat down and chatted to him through Wii Speak, while other friends dropped in and out. It was all quite wonderful.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Dec 15th
A new animal moved into town on Sunday. A sheep called Wendy. She seems pretty awesome, but it’s hard to tell based on first impressions. I do wish Big Top would move in – he was my favourite animal in the DS version.
Nook’s got upgraded and got some new tools in, so I bought a slingshot and axe and gave them to my wife.
I won the fishing tournament on Saturday with 6.1″ pike. I also caught a tuna, but didn’t use it, so sold it the day after.
I also put gyroid up for auction – let’s see if it sells next weekend.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Dec 12th
The last couple of nights have seen a new real human visitor to McNulty, lots of snow and a lot of fishing.
Truth be told, after an epic session on Wednesday night I didn’t play it much last night. I was in a hospital for twelve hours and wasn’t up to much when I got home, to such an extent that even the normally relaxing Animal Crossing seemed like very hard work.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Dec 10th
Not an awful lot happened last night, but I did design an excellent Dr Who shirt. And I got a new haircut.
Also, it seems that Apollo has started worshipping Cthulhu.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Dec 9th
Last night mrak from Redditch came round to visit McNulty, then I went over to Redditch for a bit. Fun was had.
Also, we got cherries and peaches. I want an axe so I plant the peach in a spot where I know a tree will grow. Until then, I’m keeping it safe in my filing cabinet.
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City (Wii)
Dec 8th
This is the first Animal Crossing where my wife and I will share a town. We named it McNulty, in honour of hapless Jimmy McNulty, one of the main characters in The Wire. (Which, incidentally, is the best TV show of all time, no arguments.)
She moved in first, did all the Nook jobs and poked around. Then I started, did the same jobs again, then popped over to the city. It’s nice to see the animals milling around the main square. We saw some old friends like Rasher, Dotty and Wart Jr. Gracie’s is terribly expensive, but after some fishing I managed to buy my wife and excellent hat.
Anyway, it’s rather like the upgrade from the Gamecube version to the DS version. At first it appears very similar indeed, but has a host of small changes that only people who played wild World to death will notice. Outside the obvious addition of the city, there are styles of housing, new items, more context-sensitive animal chat, a new event day this weekend, you can now arrange visits to animal houses, etc.
It’s quite a clever upgrade, really. It feels similar enough to be comforting, but with enough little new things sprinkled about to add a feeling of excitement. And, on Nintendo’s side, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper and easier than developing a new game.
One for newbies and hardcore fans, then. The vast mass of more casual Wild World players, or those that played it for a while then got tired, won’t find much here for them, I don’t think.
