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I’ve been reading Aaron Linde’s blog (editor for Shack News), and he does these what some would call “lazy” reviews. He briefly tells about the game, and what he would give it. This is what I am going to do, as I don’t really have the time to post regular news, and do full reviews for each game that I get. I’m also not going to rate games on a letter or number basis; I’m just going to tell what I liked about the game, what I didn’t like, and who the game is good for. So here’s the first one for Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii.

Ugghhh…where to start with this one? I’ve been a fan of Animal Crossing ever since it came out on the GameCube. In case you don’t know, in Animal Crossing, you make your character, you get a house, and you live your life. You have to pay off the mortgage that is on your house to the evil Tom Nook, who owns the town’s store. To pay the house off, you can sell fruit, fossils, items, and anything that Nook buys. This is a main “plot” in the game, to get your house as big as it can be, but there is much more to do.

If you’ve played Animal Crossing before, you know that you can walk around, talk to neighbors, collect items, decorate your house, and visit people, and have people visit your house. You can also fish, shovel up gyroids or fossils, and catch bugs. You can donate all of those to the Museum, or you can just sell them all to pay off your debt, or buy that Elegant Bed from Gracie Grace.

With the installment of City Folk, there are new events and activities that you can do on the holidays, and on regular days. These can range from going trick or treating on Halloween, or playing hide and go seek with your fellow townsfolk. You can also use a keyboard to type messages when you’re playing online, as well as use Wii Speak to talk with the people you’re with. So, here’s the meat of everything, and what makes this a “Microview”, instead of a regular review; what I liked and didn’t like, and who should overall buy the game.

What I like:
•    Addition of the City adds some depth to the game
•    More items and characters that you can have in your town, and collect
•    Even with the same-old feel, there’s still a lot you can do
•    You can transfer your old person as well as items from Wild World to City Folk
•    You can now play games with the people in your town depending on the season. You can play hide and go seek, have snowball fights, and so on.
•    Better involvement for holidays – For Halloween, you get all dressed up in a costume; there’s just more involvement for the player in all of the holidays and events that go on
•    Wi-Fi is better; you can use a keyboard to type up messages, and you can use the Wii Speak so you can talk to who you’re visiting.

What I don’t like:
•    If you’ve been playing the series for a long time, you may be disappointed and bored easily
•    There could be more depth to the city – you can visit the Marquee, go to Gracie Grace, but odds are you’ll get bored after you get some emotions, and besides, you can’t afford anything in Gracie Grace anyways
•    Auction house only open some times at some days of the week – Say the auction house is only open on Tuesday at 6 a.m., if you don’t want to get up, then you’re going to have to wait for a while.
•    Still the same-old friend codes, their just as long, and just as annoying. If you can get past the part that you have to trade codes with people to play with them, then you’ll have fun on Wi-Fi.

Who would like this game: I think that anybody can like this game. It’s relaxing, and there’s a lot that you can do. You can fish, sell items, visit the city, and more. It’s unlikely that somebody will be bored with this game in the first week. If you’re into the relaxing, “simulation” sort of games, then this should be a must-buy for you. Obviously, the more expanded-audience gamers would be the first to buy this, and would probably be the majority of people who would enjoy it, not saying that hard-core gamers can’t/won’t like the game.