Animal Crossing: Wild World

Animal Crossing: Wild World
Game cover
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Release	JP: November 23, 2005 NA: December 5, 2005 AU: December 8, 2005 EU: March 31, 2006 SK: December 6, 2007
Genre(s)	Simulation game, Communication Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer, online multiplayer

Animal Crossing: Wild World, known in Japan as Oideyo Dōbutsu no Mori (おいでよ どうぶつの森, lit. "Come to Animal Forest"), is a life-simulation video game published and developed by Nintendo exclusively for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was first released in Japan on November 23 2005, and was later released in North America on December 5 2005, in Australia on December 8 2005, in Europe on March 31 2006, and on South Korea on December 6, 2007.

Animal Crossing: Wild World is the follow-up to the video game Animal Crossing, which was released on the Nintendo GameCube. It shares many similarities to its predecessor, but also features many changes. The most prominent change is the ability for the player to play with anyone in the world whose Friend codes they have.

Gameplay

The objective of Animal Crossing: Wild World is to pay off a debt to Tom Nook, who allows the player to move into a house he owns. If the mortgage is paid off, the player's house will expand until an upstairs, left, right, center and back room are included. This is slightly different from the first game, in which the finished house only consisted of a basement, a main room, and an attic. While paying off a debt, the player can do a variety of optional tasks, including interacting with other villagers and filling the catalog of the things they have, like furniture, fish, clothes and stationery. Animal Crossing: Wild World is entirely non-linear and does not require the player to pay off their mortgage. Unlike the previous game, all player characters share the same house and work to pay off the same mortgage, instead of each having their own house.

Animal Crossing: Wild World makes use of several of the Nintendo DS's features, including the touch screen, dual screens, and internal clock. The touch screen is used for menu navigation and interacting with the surrounding area, including movement, using tools, talking to other villagers, entering buildings, picking up items, etc. The dual screens are used to display the overworld on the touch screen and the sky on the top screen, which varies depending on the circumstances. The internal clock is used to great extent; like the previous game in the series, Animal Crossing: Wild World uses the internal clock so that the game can be played in real-time (or according to what time it is on the player's DS). The environment changes based on the time of day and the season; for instance, as it gets later in the evening, the sky goes from orange to black, and the weather changes depending on what season it is on the calendar. The game also has events which take place on certain days, including "Yay Day", "La-Di-Day", Fishing, Bug, and Flower tourneys, Acorn Festival and the Flea Market. Unlike the first Animal Crossing game, it does not include any real-world holidays, such as Valentine's Day, April Fools' Day, Halloween, Christmas, etc.

New elements

Although Animal Crossing: Wild World is a follow up to 2002's Animal Crossing for Nintendo GameCube, it is not a sequel in the strictest sense. Wild World is very reminiscent of the original and contains the same basic premise and shops with some changes, such as an expanded museum that now contains an observatory and a café and the expanded Able Sisters' tailor shop that now sells hats and other accessories. Flowers can now dry up and require watering whenever they turn brown, either via a watering can or automatically when it rains. Players can now invite villagers over to their house. The angle at which players view the town has also changed, as well as the removal transitions between acres, and making the towns smaller in a sense. As a result, the world now moves in three-dimensional space. Now, only eight animals can live in one village at a time. The script in 'Wild World' is also much bigger than the original's script. As a result there is less repeated dialogue from villagers, giving the game a more organic feel. Also each villager has his or her own theme, and enjoys certain types of furniture. Moody boys, such as Butch or Chow, have the town tune in a lower form than peppy girls, such as Victoria or Bunnie, who have it high pitched. Players can now also choose from a wider variety of clothes and accessories, such as hats and umbrellas, and can also change their hair style.

The most notable addition to Wild World is the ability for players to visit other players' towns by exchanging "friend codes" and connecting with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Play control for the game has also been modified from the first game to take advantage of the Nintendo DS' touch screen. Changes range from easier menu navigation and text entry to the ability to "wave" at on screen characters simply by tapping on the touch screen.

Main objectives

House improvements

A main goal in Wild World is to get bells, the resident currency of the game, and decorating the player’s house and expanding its size by paying off each mortgage to Tom Nook, the local shopkeeper. Since, unlike in the original, all players have to share a single house, each player can help pay off the mortgage. After the initial mortgage for the house is paid off, the player can choose to increase the size of the main room, add a second floor, and add three extra rooms onto the first floor. In addition to expanding house size, a player may be motivated to decorate their home in a preferable manner to obtain a high "Happy Room Academy" (or HRA) rating. The HRA gives players a numerical rating based on their interior decorating skills. The rating is based on numerous factors; adding points for complete furniture themes and sets, and detracting points for furniture in unreachable locations and lack of neatness. The reward for having a high HRA score is to receive miniature model homes as placeable items in the player's house. Interestingly, the HRA reward items increase the player's HRA score. The three items are One Story Model, Two Story Model and Mansion Model. These are the following house expansions and how many Bells the mortgage is for that you must pay off to get to the next level:

• Initial House 19,800 Bells
• Larger Main Room 120,000 Bells
• Largest Main Room 298,000 Bells
• Second Floor 598,000 Bells
• Left Room 728,000 Bells
• Right Room 848,000 Bells
• Back Room 948,000 Bells

Items to decorate the house with can be obtained in several ways. Tom Nook sells items at his store, changing his stock daily, and other businesspeople who visit the player's village will also sell their wares. Shaking non-fruit bearing trees also sometimes results in furniture and money falling out, and balloons carrying items across the sky can be shot down with a slingshot. Occasionally, the town will hold a flea market, and the player can visit other town characters to purchase items from their houses, and vice versa. Sometimes, when the player connects to Nintendo Wi-fi Connect, they will get a present from Nintendo in their mailbox. Additionally, the player's mother (NPC character) will send the player presents through the mail. Besides getting mail from Nintendo via the game's online capability, players can also connect to each other, and visit each other's towns to exchange items and Bells (the currency of the game) or engage in "cataloging," where a player can add an item to their catalogue by picking up an item in a friend's town, then ordering it from Tom Nook's store in their own town via his or her catalogue. Finally, running errands for the townsfolk, correctly guessing the answers to their quizzes, sending them things in exchange for others or sometimes just simply talking to them can result in them giving the player an item as a reward. These rewards can include furniture of low or medium quality, clothing, Bells or wallpaper or carpet.

Another main goal is to accumulate as many bells as possible in your savings account. There are different rewards for certain amounts of bells in your account. A much debated issue is hacking, using an Action Replay DS, to earn bells. For more information, visit one of the largest Animal Crossing: Wild World hacking sites, Know the Unknown.

Fossils, fish, bugs and paintings

Another goal that the player can choose to pursue is collecting the fish, bugs, fossils and paintings in the game. One of each species of bug and fish can be displayed at the museum, run by the owl curator Blathers - who incidentally suffers from entomophobia and is usually sleepy in the day. Fish are caught with a fishing rod, while bugs are caught with a net. The availability of most specimens of fish and bugs depends on the time of year, but can also depend on the time of day or night and the weather conditions. To collect fossils, the player must first acquire a shovel. Then, after digging up a fossil, the player must take the it to Blathers to be identified. After Blathers has identified the fossil, the player can: give it to the museum; place it in their house as a decorative item or sell it to Tom Nook at his store. If the fossil hasn't been identified he will say that he does not buy that type of stuff, but will accept the fossil for free. Paintings are very rare and difficult to find. They can only be bought at Redd's tent, which comes around every week on a day determined by the player by talking to Lyle, a shady insurance salesman. However, there is a chance that a painting bought from Redd will be a fake, meaning Blathers will not accept it. Conterfeit painting insurance may be bought from Lyle, but due to the high initial cost and poor compensation received, this is not recommended. Filling the museum results in the player receiving the museum model.

Other features

Nook's shop

File:Nookingtons.JPG

Nookingtons, the final upgrade of the store.

The main store in a player's village is run by the local merchant Tom Nook. When a new game is started, the store is very tiny and sells 2 tools, 1 type of stationary, 2 types of seeds, 1 type of plain tree seedling, 1 wallpaper, 1 carpeting, and 2 types of furniture, all random. At this stage of the game, the shop is called "Nook's Cranny". "Nook 'n' Go" is next after you spend 25,000 Bells in the store. Here, one can get similar items but more are available at a given time. "NookWay" will appear after you spend 65,000 bells. Here, one can get more items than is available in "Nook & Go". "Nookington's Department Store" is by far the best store and the last store anyone can get. 240,000 bells has to have been exchanged between Nook and the player, and the player must have also have at least one other player visit his or her town via Wi-Fi or DS to DS and buy something from "NookWay". "Nookington's" features two stories, the downstairs features general products with all the tools, flowers, paper, medicine, and other objects. There is also a hair salon, called Shampoodle, (which is owned by a pink poodle named Harriet) where one can change their hair for 3,000 bells. If one gets 6 haircuts, the other styles can be used (i.e. if you are a girl, you can get boy hairdos, called "pixie cuts"). Upstairs features furniture for your home, where furniture, wallpaper, carpets,and paint for one's roof can be bought. Timmy and Tommy, Tom Nook's employees, run the upper floor. The store has 6 tools, 3 tree saplings, 7 flower seeds, 4 packs of paper, 1 medicine bag, 1 note in a bottle, 3 carpets, 3 wallpapers, 8 furniture items and 1 paint can.

The Roost

The Roost is a café owned by a pigeon named Brewster located in the museum's basement, where the player can spend 200 bells for a cup of coffee or, on Saturday nights, listen to K.K. Slider (Totakeke in Japanese) after 8:30 PM. Brewster is also the waiter of The Roost, and, despite his timid personality, will gladly offer the player a cup of coffee each day. He is vehemently against letting the player's coffee cool before he/she drinks it, and he will not let the player leave without drinking it hot. Although initially taciturn, Brewster will reveal more about himself if one buys coffee from him every day. Many other characters also make cameos at the café depending on the time of day and the day of the week. The characters and times are:

Visiting character	Time	Day
Rover	12:00 pm - 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm	All week
Resetti	2:30 pm - 4:00 pm	Sunday
Harriet	11:00 pm - 12:00 am	Monday - Friday
Kapp'n	12:00 pm - 1:30 pm and 2:30 - 3:30 pm	All week
Lyle	12:00 pm - 1:30 pm	Saturday
Pelly	6:00 am - 6:55 am	All week
Phyllis	9:00 pm - 9:55 pm	Sunday - Friday

Special items

Some items are only obtainable by special means, such as getting a specific number of Happy Room Academy points or trading items with characters. These include models of the player's house and Tom Nook's various stores, Nintendo-themed items (items based on classic Nintendo games), such as a Mario coin, the Triforce and an Arwing. There are golden tools to be found in the game. These items are the Golden Shovel, Golden Axe, Golden Net, Golden Fishing Rod, Golden Slingshot and Golden Watering Can. Special conditions need to be fulfilled in order to acquire the golden tools. Some items will earn you extra points with the HRA such as the Gold Lucky Cat or the Triforce. Other items are acquired by shooting down a seagull in a flying saucer and finding all of his ships parts. You may acquire the leaning tower of Pisa, a chocolate bar and The Mouth Of Truth.

Pictures and Paintings

Every villager has a small, framed picture of themselves that players can obtain as a gift from a villager after attaining a specific level of friendship with him or her. Sending letters and going to birthday parties can help. They are furniture items, therefore the player can use them to decorate their house. Each picture has a caption in the form of a quote from the villager, depending on their species, personality and, sometimes, their color. They help you remember people that have moved and add a healthy bonus to your HRA score.

Crazy Redd sometimes sells paintings when he visits a player's town. These paintings are similar to the ones the player can place in his or her house (using custom-made patterns), but depict famous artworks (such as works by Leonardo Da Vinci and Georges Seurat though they are only referred to by simple names, such as "Amazing Painting" or "Perfect Painting," and not by their actual titles). These paintings are sometimes counterfeit. If the player has insurance from Lyle, he or she will receive 100 Bells as compensation if they hand it over to him on Saturday, when he's hanging around outside their door. Counterfeits will be rejected by Blathers, and Nook will pay only 10 Bells for it, if it has been examined by Blathers.

Boondox

Boondox is a poor town far north of the player's town that the player can donate to. At the beginning of the game Boondox is so poor it's said that they have to eat dirt. Eventually though they will be able to eat queson if you donate enough. Players can obtain different colored feathers by donating certain amounts of bells to the Boondox Flavor Fund. The feathers will be sent to the player's mailbox after they have donated enough.

These are the types of feathers and the amount of money you need to donate to obtain them:

• Green Feather: 10,000 Bells
• Blue Feather: 200,000 Bells
• Yellow Feather: 500,000 Bells
• Red Feather: 800,000 Bells
• Purple Feather: 1,100,000 Bells
• White Feather: 1,400,000 Bells
• Rainbow Feather: 6,400,000 Bells

The feather's don't really do anything except prove your wealth. You can either place them in your house or you can place them as an accessory on your characters head.

Mail

Residents are encouraged to buy paper from Tom Nook and to write letters to the villagers. This is an important part of friendship with villagers which often results in them giving the player their picture. There are 64 different paper designs, some of which can only be obtained by being written to by other villagers, such as Nook Paper, sent when an ordered item has arrived, and cannot be bought by the player. One will also obtain Formal Paper when Gracie gives the player a "Fashionista Badge". The player cannot buy Formal Paper. There are also some other types of stationery that can't be used such as the Academy Paper, Fox Paper, and Nook Paper. Villagers will always reply to letters, which can be mailed at the Town Hall, and if the player attaches a present such as fruit, furniture or shells, he or she will usually receive furniture, carpet or wallpaper in return. Sometimes, the player may receive letters from 'Mom' who will write to tell the player news from home. This feature was famously mis-interpreted recently (as of Dec 2007) as mentioned below. Occasionally 'Mom' may send the player gifts, including non-native fruit. Bottle mail can sometimes appear on the beach, but they are just random letters. Also, villagers who are moving out will send the player a final letter to say goodbye. The player can also store his or her letters and bottle mail at the Post Office.

Flowers and Trees

Every Animal Crossing town has a native fruit, which grows on several trees dotted about the player's town. Each tree carries three pieces of fruit at once, and once the tree has been shaken, it takes two days for new fruit to grow. The player will start with only pears, apples, oranges, peaches or cherry trees, but the others are available in other ways. Tom Nook buys native fruits for 100 Bells each, and non-native fruits for 500 Bells each. Fruit can also be sent as gifts with letters or planted to grow more fruit trees. From time to time coconuts may wash up on the beaches, these can also be buried to grow further trees, though they must be planted by the sea for them to grow. Fruit trees have a much higher chance of growing successfully if they are planted in place of other trees which can be chopped down with the axe tool. Using the Wi-Fi Connection or DS Wireless Play, a player can get fruit from other towns to plant in their own town. The player may also receive non-native fruit (or occasionally an acorn) in the mail from 'Mom' or sometimes from other villagers. To receive a non-native fruit from a villager one can simply write them a single line letter and attach a native fruit to it; there is a chance they will send the player one of the non-native fruits in return. Non-fruit trees and cedar trees also grow in Animal Crossing, and can also be bought from Tom Nook and planted.

Flowers which grow in Animal Crossing are varieties of tulip, rose, cosmos and pansy. The flowers are usually red, white or yellow, though hybrids can be grown in pink, blue, orange, purple, black and gold by planting certain colors close together. Villagers will also plant 1-3 flowers every day during the Flower Fest, which is a week-long holiday that comes every second week in April.

There is also a rare flower named the Jacob's Ladder which is shown as a bluebell like plant which only appears if the player's town is perfect.

Flowers are fragile and can be destroyed by running through them. It is safe to walk through them, but running through them once causes them to lose petals, and running through them three times causes them to completely fall apart and disappear.

Every day 3 weeds are automatically placed in areas around the town. Weeds are represented by two or three long stalks of grass that pulled up when found, improve the villagers' ratings for the town. There are also three and four leaf clovers which grow on grassy areas. These do not affect the town's rating. If a town becomes too weed-infested, a giant weed called the Rafflesia will appear and will not disappear until all other weeds are removed. This plant is difficult to remove because sometimes the weeds grow back straight away.

Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

Animal Crossing: Wild World's Wi-Fi capabilities allow players to visit other players' villages no matter where they are in the world, assuming that access to a compatible wireless access point is available and that they are using a version of the game with a compatible language. For example, the Oceania and North America versions can connect locally and via Wi-Fi, but they cannot connect to a version from Japan due to a difference in character encoding. Up to four players can be in an Animal Crossing: Wild World town both via local wireless or through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Connection to random players is not possible, as connection is made by the mutual entry of "friend codes." Animal Crossing is the most popular Nintendo DS Wi-Fi game (based on usage numbers).[1]

References in Popular Culture

"Animal Crossing Tragedy

On Dec 17th, 2005, a website called "thisisgame.com" released a comic detailing a (purportedly true) story about a wheelchair bound woman with a degenerative disease who was turned to Animal Crossing by her son. It became an obsession to her, and comprised a great deal of her time, allowing her to "live a life" that she wasn't physically able to. Eventually she was unable to continue to play as the disease progressed and sadly, in 2006/7 the woman passed away. Months later the son was inspired to play the game again, and was brought to tears when he saw that his mailbox was full of mail and presents from "Mom" which he interpreted as coming from his mother who had been the only person playing the game for quite some time. The letters described were actually from the NPC character Mom who is described above. Millions of people have viewed the comic in its various forms, including the original in Korean, as well as one with an English Translation.

U.S. Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Gifts

File:Acww truletter.jpg

The letter from Katrina distributed during the Toys "R" Us giveaway

Nintendo gives away in-game items via the Wi-Fi Connection service. To get these items all you need to do is connect to Nintendo's Wi-Fi service on the day of the giveaway or before the next item is given away. Participating Toys "R" Us stores gave away six exclusive items (one different item each day) from July 23, 2006 to August 1, 2006 using special Nintendo DS kiosk machines. These items were received from bottle mail. These special giveaway items include the 1-Up Mushroom and Flamebar.

Sales information

On December 1 2005, Media Create stated that Animal Crossing: Wild World sold 325,466 copies in Japan in its first week of availability, beating the previous mark set by Jump! Superstars and becoming the best-selling title for the Nintendo DS [2] until the release of Touhoku Daigaku Mirai Kagaku Gijutsu Kyoudou Kenkyuu Center Kawashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu: Motto Nou wo Kitaeru Otona no DS Training. The game also sold over 100,000 copies a week for 7 consecutive weeks, reaching 2,000,000 copies by March 5, 2006. As of May 8 2006, 3,000,000 copies have been shipped in Japan. [3]

In its first month of release, Animal Crossing: Wild World reached No.3 on the United Kingdom All Formats sales chart and has achieved sustained sales success, remaining in the All Formats top 40 sales chart for 51 consecutive weeks before remaining in the Full Price top 40 chart.

As of July 26, 2007, Animal Crossing: Wild World has sold 8.03 million copies worldwide.

These strong sales have helped to establish Animal Crossing as one of Nintendo's key franchises.

Reviews

• 1UP.com – 8.6/10
• Club Skill – 8/10
• Weekly Famitsu – 37/40
• Game Informer – 8.75/10
• Game Rankings – 86.8%
• GamePro – 3.5/5
• GameSpot – 8.4 (nominated for Gamespot's Best DS Game of 2005 and Funniest Game of the Year)
• GameSpy – 4.5/5
• Gamestyle – 7/10
• IGN – 8.8/10
• Metacritic – 85/100
• ONM – 95% (Nintendo Gold Award)
• Rotten Tomatoes – 92% [4]
• X-Play - 4/5
• EGM - 7.5/7/9
• Hyper Magazine - 86 out of 100

Awards

• IGN Editors' Choice Award
• IGN 2005 Game of the Year Awards - Best Online Game (DS)
• Parents' Choice Videogame Award 2006

External links

Official sites

• Official Animal Crossing: Wild World Website
• Template:Nintendo.com
• Official Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Site
• Animal Crossing: Wild World instruction manual (PDF)

Interviews and media

• Interview with Jim Merrick, Nintendo of Europe at Puissance-Nintendo
• Animal Crossing: Wild World at MobyGames
• 1up's article about AC:WW
• AC:WW gameplay videos on IGN