And it makes me sad.
I'm a dude who would get lost in my Animal Crossing village. I'd just wander around... enjoying the music, fishing aimlessly. Surely, the conditions surrounding each previous release contributed to my enjoyment. I was in the midst of college when the GameCube version came out, and could afford to pack hours away into it. Wild World, being portable, was easy to insert into a busier post-college life. A bevy of refinements and additions sure didn't hurt, either.
When I was done with Wild World, though... I was done. It definitely added some neat things over the GameCube version, but I'd played through what was essentially the same game twice now. As a series designed around plodding progression and month-after-month playing, starting from scratch twice is pretty much my limit. I would occasionally muse, along with everyone else, over what a third Animal Crossing title would have to do to recapture my interest.
Invariably headed towards the Wii, there were limitless possibilities. Finally, a version that could be developed from the ground-up, instead of being either a port of an N64 version or running on N64-caliber hardware! A version that could offer truly compelling online functionality with the promised magic of WiiConnect24! Before the Wii was even released, Animal Crossing was used as an illustration of how its message board functionality could work. If it was in development from that early on, surely it would be something great.
Then E3 2008 came around, and we saw it—and it looked exactly the same. As the reviews start coming in, it becomes increasingly evident that my worst fears have come to pass: it is exactly the same. With seemingly fewer enhancements over its predecessor than even Wild World had, City Folk appears to be a love letter to wasted potential. Not only are additions sparse, but I hear even the hour-to-hour music has been completely recycled from previous versions of the game.
It boggles the mind, honestly. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I never would have fathomed that I should have kept them this low. Don't get me wrong: if City Folk had come out in 2002 I'd have been all over it. But this is the third time I'm being asked to go through the exact same motions. Maybe Nintendo figures that the wide new audience buying into the Wii phenomenon needs to be introduced to the series from scratch. Maybe this Animal Crossing isn't for me. NOA's insistence that this is their "winter game for hardcore gamers," however, seems to contradict this mindset.
I feel insulted, really. Finally there are no hardware limitations keeping them from taking the series in a fresh new direction, and Nintendo, ever conservative, manages to take zero risks. For some games, I can live with that. But when I'm being asked to start from ever-monotonous square-one in what's effectively a furniture expansion set, it's just not gonna cut it.
Maybe next time.
I'm a dude who would get lost in my Animal Crossing village. I'd just wander around... enjoying the music, fishing aimlessly. Surely, the conditions surrounding each previous release contributed to my enjoyment. I was in the midst of college when the GameCube version came out, and could afford to pack hours away into it. Wild World, being portable, was easy to insert into a busier post-college life. A bevy of refinements and additions sure didn't hurt, either.
Chillingly familiar
When I was done with Wild World, though... I was done. It definitely added some neat things over the GameCube version, but I'd played through what was essentially the same game twice now. As a series designed around plodding progression and month-after-month playing, starting from scratch twice is pretty much my limit. I would occasionally muse, along with everyone else, over what a third Animal Crossing title would have to do to recapture my interest.
Invariably headed towards the Wii, there were limitless possibilities. Finally, a version that could be developed from the ground-up, instead of being either a port of an N64 version or running on N64-caliber hardware! A version that could offer truly compelling online functionality with the promised magic of WiiConnect24! Before the Wii was even released, Animal Crossing was used as an illustration of how its message board functionality could work. If it was in development from that early on, surely it would be something great.
Then E3 2008 came around, and we saw it—and it looked exactly the same. As the reviews start coming in, it becomes increasingly evident that my worst fears have come to pass: it is exactly the same. With seemingly fewer enhancements over its predecessor than even Wild World had, City Folk appears to be a love letter to wasted potential. Not only are additions sparse, but I hear even the hour-to-hour music has been completely recycled from previous versions of the game.
It boggles the mind, honestly. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I never would have fathomed that I should have kept them this low. Don't get me wrong: if City Folk had come out in 2002 I'd have been all over it. But this is the third time I'm being asked to go through the exact same motions. Maybe Nintendo figures that the wide new audience buying into the Wii phenomenon needs to be introduced to the series from scratch. Maybe this Animal Crossing isn't for me. NOA's insistence that this is their "winter game for hardcore gamers," however, seems to contradict this mindset.
I feel insulted, really. Finally there are no hardware limitations keeping them from taking the series in a fresh new direction, and Nintendo, ever conservative, manages to take zero risks. For some games, I can live with that. But when I'm being asked to start from ever-monotonous square-one in what's effectively a furniture expansion set, it's just not gonna cut it.
Maybe next time.