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We all know you played Animal Crossing on your Gamecube. Yeah, you might be some diesel guy who only plays MMO’s and hack & slash, but you loved fishing and pulling weeds in your Animal Crossing world. Hell, I spent a whole night once (eight hours straight) just fishing so I could pay off the bells on my house. That’s dedication my friends.

It’s now years later and Nintendo has reincarnated Animal Crossing into a smaller, yet more graphically enhanced version called Animal Crossing Wild World. Basically, the game follows the same format; you play as a resident of your Animal Crossing town and spend your days fishing, catching bugs, digging up fossils and such. Ultimately, this game could be billed as simply a Wi-Fi sequel to what was one of the most successful release games of the Gamecube console.

It could be labeled as that but after playing it, this reviewer really doesn’t think so. Think of it like this. Animal Crossing Wild World is an advanced version of an already great game. Not a sequel, but an improvement on the console version. Those of you that liked the original will immediately fall back into routine with Animal Crossing Wild World . Those of you that never played the original could still learn this game with no prior knowledge.

Okay, let’s get down to business. Animal Crossing Wild World is one of the first games on the DS to utilize the highly touted Wi-Fi capabilities. From a birds eye view, there are a lot of advances (and some disadvantages) to Animal Crossing Wild World. Just for you, our JIVE readers, I have decided to catalogue them in a handy dandy list. Consider it my report from the Animal Crossing town I have named JIVE-land. Read on and enjoy…

On the up side:

1. You can still partake in all the activities that made the original fun such as fishing, catching bugs, digging up fossils, mailing letters, and so forth. Your same staple characters are there such as Tom Nook, Copper, Pelly, and Mr. Resetti. We all know how much you love Mr. Resetti.

2. The game is still time sensitive. For example, I happened to play on my birthday (Christmas Day in case you want to send me a late birthday present) and I was greeted by one of my town’s residents with a birthday cake. Sometimes it’s nice to have some things stay the same.

3. They’ve made positive changes to your menu screen for both selling items to Tom Nook and mailing letters. There are now fifteen slots you can use, preventing you from having to make more than one trip. On the down side, Tom Nook no longer asks you if you want to see more of that item if you only try to sell him one. You must now manually put each item in the selling slots.

4. You now have a recycling bin in the post office instead of the unsightly town dump.

5. Tom Nook now has a point tracking system. Compare it to the frequent shopper card you use at the supermarket. Every time you make a purchase you earn points. Once you’ve earned a certain number of points, your membership rank will go up, earning you gifts and discounts. Who knew Tom Nook could be so generous?

6. There is now an observatory where you can create constellations and view constellations.

7. Oh yeah, have I mentioned its Wi-Fi! If you know a friend who is also playing Animal Crossing Wild World, you can go visit them in their respective towns. Up to four people can interact at one time. You can also play DS to DS if you register the players you are playing with to your friend roster. You can have up to 32 friends in your roster. You will have to exchange friend codes for this to work. Players will not be able to enter your town unless they have your friend code.

8. You also have the capability to utilize tag mode. You can buy a note a bottle, write what you want, and then release it into the water. Have your DS in Wi-Fi and set up tag mode. If another player is in tag mode, their Animal Crossing Wild World games can communicate automatically when their paths cross. This is just another utilization of the Nintendo Wi-Fi community.

9. The town police station has now been replaced by the town checkpoint. Both Copper and Booker are there but now added to their regular duties are the added responsibilities of helping you go out and arranging your friend codes.

10. Saving is now done via lying down on your attic bed instead of talking to that vibrating fire hydrant-esqe thingy. The game also allows you to save at any point by pressing the start button. (Finally! Thank you Nintendo!) Game controls are done via a phone next to your bed saying, “Welcome to JIVE-land.” (or whatever the name of your town is)

11. The game still has secrets, which really were the benchmark of the original. For example, I built a snowman that came to life. The next day I was sent a special present in the mail. This leads me to believe that a lot of the goodies that were present in the previous console version will also be available in this version.

On the down side:

1. The game is no longer holiday specific. I played on Christmas Day yet there were no holiday lights on the tree nor was there a town event and there was no Rudolph. How disappointing!

2. While I like the dual screens, the top screen through most of the game is nothing more than a screenshot of the sky. The main uses I found for the top screen were a place for my character to stand while in the manual mode or to see a present floating in the sky that I still can’t catch. Damn those presents!

3. The game is now 3-D, meaning the ground is now round shaped instead of flat. This is great but they got rid of the grid marked map and instead just have a map with house icons. I miss the letter and number marked grid map of the original.

4. Animal Crossing Wild World utilizes both the d-pad and the touch screen to control your character. This has somewhat of a learning curve. It definitely is doable but it took me a couple of tries to get my fishing down pat.

5. There is no town wishing well. This isn’t a necessary thing but I kind of missed its cryptic sayings.

All in all, you can obviously see that the positives outweigh the negatives. If you were a die hard Animal Crossing fan of the Gamecube version, then yes, you will notice the differences. Will they be apparent enough to prevent you from playing Animal Crossing Wild World… no, I don’t think so. Are you going to notice them… yes, absolutely.

With all this being said, I still think Animal Crossing Wild World is a really good game. Nintendo listened and made some of the needed improvements that many of the fans had asked for. The Wi-Fi capabilities are an innovative and exciting addition to the game. My only wish would have been that they had kept some of the mainstays in the game such as holiday specific days and such.

4.5 out of 5 Residents of JIVE-land