I'm trying not to compare Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times to Animal Crossing, but it's so hard. I can probably blame my wife at least in part—she feels no such compulsion—but there are simply a sizable number of similarities that invite such comparison. I mentioned the toolset already, but there's also very AC-looking furniture for your in-game dorm room, clothing shops, flowers that need watering... the list goes on.

Accepting this can be useful, though; it gives people who haven't tried MQ (which I'm assuming is many of you) a good jumping-off point to understand. Given that, I can tell you things like how you have more clothing options, including skirts and pants (and there's no gender barrier to wearing either). Interaction with the residents of your town is a mixed bag; they definitely feel more alive than AC's residents—they'll actually fish or catch bugs with you, for example, and you can ask them out on dates, which results in them following you around and participating in nearly everything you do—but their conversations seem rather hollow, especially compared to AC's voluminous scripts.

But what I've loved the most is some really pretty neat ideas that revolve around music. At any time, you can go to the department store and pick up a CD to put into your home music player. But there's also the concept of music that you know. To learn a piece, you need to listen to music for a minute or two—whether it's a CD, playing on the turntable in the local juice bar, or being whistled at by a friend. Once you've learned it, you can then have impromptu jam sessions literally anywhere. My wife and I are both too poor in-game to buy a musical instrument yet, so we're limited to whistling, but if you start whistling a tune you know around other residents, they'll whip out their instruments and join in. Similarly, you can assemble an impromptu band with human players playing wirelessly (presumably also over WFC)—just have one person lead off and the rest can join in.

Mixed in with the weekly activities such as classes, mysteries, and the like, Magician's Quest shapes up to be a rather entertaining package. I couldn't get into the mostly-unchanged Animal Crossing: City Folk, but I'm not having much trouble with Magician's Quest. I'm not ready to give a verdict yet—and don't know if I will be anytime soon—but I think it's safe to say that left-out AC fans should consider giving this one a spin, especially if they can convince their friends to jump on board.