Spend your day fishing, chatting to friends and planting flowers. (Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City (Wii))

Member Name: Lunar13

Product:	Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City (Wii)
Date:	08/06/09 (494 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots to do and more relaxed than other games.

Disadvantages: Not enough development from the Game Cube version.

I have loved computer games ever since I first played chucky egg on the school computer many years ago. The one problem I have with most games is the time limits you seem to be under in most games. I have enough pressure at work with meeting targets and fitting a huge workload into too few hours without playing games that also involve rushing about.

Animal crossing games are set in real time and there is no pressure to do things quickly. The game passes through the seasons so you will experience summer, autumn, winter and spring in real time. You can even make a smowman in winter.

The first task when you start the game is the bus ride to your town. You sit on the bus and a character named Rover will talk to you. This is you opportunity to check the date and time of your town, choose the mane of your character and the name of your town. As you get off the bus Rover will give you a town map and advise you to go visit the town hall upon your arrival. If you have played previous versions of this game you will find the start very familiar to the Game cube version. Much of the dialogue appears to be the same and there is only very slight difference in the quality of the graphics.

Use you map to find the town hall, when you walk in go to the counter and depending on the time of day you can talk to Pelly or Phyllis. They will tell you about the houses that are available to buy in the town. If you are the first player to register on your Wii then there will be a choice of 4 houses, I picked the one closest to Nook's shop as you have to visit it so often. You can walk into all the houses and when you step outside the house Tom Nook will appear and ask if you are ready to buy it or want to keep on looking. Once you have chosen your house you have to take a job at Nook's shop in order to start paying him back the Bells (Animal crossings currency) that the house cost.

Use your map to find Nook's shop, every time you create a new town the layout will be slightly different, though it will contain all the major buildings and features. Tom will give you a uniform and then begin to give you tasks to do for him. If you have never played the game before then these jobs are a good way to figure out lots of different aspects of the game. I found it quite tedious, all the time they spent developing this game the tasks are exactly the same as for the game cube version. You have to complete these jobs as you are not allowed to buy the things in Nook's shop until you have finished working for him. Nook will set up an account for you in the town hall where you can pay your mortgage in whatever amounts you like. There is no interest or time frame to paying off the debt but once you pay it off, next time you go to the shop Nook will offer to upgrade your house, there are several upgrades available including larger rooms, a basement and an upstairs. You really need these upgrades to be able to store all the things you have collected during the game. Of course you will want to spend time decorating and arranging the furniture!

Things to do in the town.

Meet the neighbours.

There are several other characters in the town who you will want to get to know. They sometimes ask you to deliver things for them to other villagers and for this you will get a reward. Occasionally you may turn on the game to find a villager has moved out or moved in. if you ignore them for too long they are more likely to leave your town.

Catching fish

Once you have bought a fishing net from the shop you are free to go to the river and sea to start catching fish. You can sell the fish to Nook, donate one of each to the museum and display them in your house. Different fish appear at different times of day, times of year, different places and in different weather. I got this game when it came out just before Christmas and still have some to find. You can also enter a fishing tournament several times through the year to try and win a trophy. The best way to catch a fish is to wait until the ball goes under the water then press A otherwise you may loose the fish.

Catching Bugs

You will need the net from the shop for this, as with the fish there are many bugs to catch at different times. They can be sold to nook or donated to the museum. You can go and view anything donated to the museum. Some bugs are harder to catch than others, I am still struggling to catch a blooming bee.

Digging up fossils

There are usually 3 fossils per day to be found. You will need the spade for this and you can find a fossil where there is a crack in the ground. Take them to the museum and give them to blathers. He will identify it for you and if it is one that is not on display in the museum he will ask you if he can keep it. If he gives it back to you then they can be quite valuable when sold to Nook.

The other items that can be donated to the museum are paintings, but be aware he can spot a forgery a mile off. Within the museum you can go for a coffee and create star constellations.

You need to keep on top of weeds in your village as there are new ones everyday. You can also cross-breed some of the flowers that you find growing in your town. You can sell the fruit from the trees in your town but you will only get 100 bells per fruit. If you manage to get a non-native fruit from someone else plant it as you will get 500 bells per fruit. You can find coconuts on the beach occasionally these need planting near the sand in order to grow. If you don't have a friend to swap fruit with you can post a piece of fruit to one of the characters in your town, they might just send you back an exotic fruit like an apple or orange!

This is just really the basics of what you can do in this game. There are also special events such as Christmas, jingle will come to town giving out presents if you can find him on Christmas eve. At Easter you can take part in the egg hunt, you will find lots of eggs that you can dig up in exchange for gifts from Zipper T. Bunny. There are loads of other events that take place, you normally get a warning about them several days before on the notice board by the town hall.

The one new thing in this game that wasn't in the game cube version is the city aspect. You can take the bus and visit the city where you can visit different shops and meet other characters. I think this is actually a let down in the game as so much more could have been done here. I think they could have combined the city aspect with the Wi-Fi and meet other players there, to me it feels like a missed opportunity.

If you know anyone else that has this game you can swap friends codes and visit each others towns. There are actually loads of internet forums where you can swap codes with people all over the world. Just be careful, if they want they can chop down all your trees and ruin you grass if they feel like it. Some people have the Wii speak version which allows players to talk to each other, I don't have this as I find it a bit creepy having someone talking to me through the telly! You can type messages to each other by using the Wii remote which is quite easy when you get used to it.

Overall I find this game very addictive and easy to play. I have to admit to being disappointed that that they haven't made more additions from the previous game. I guess I am to old at 28 to be playing computer games but it makes a change from watching TV while feeding my baby. This game costs £29.99 from Amazon and is brilliant value for money when you consider how long you can play it for. There are lots more things to do in the game than I have discussed but I don't want to spoil it too much if you like finding surprises in games. I hope I haven't rambled on too much with this review.

Summary: A brilliant game which can be very addictive.