Animal Crossing: Wild World

Animal Crossing: Wild World (Japanese: おいでよ どうぶつの森 Oideyo Dōbutsu no Mori) is a life simulation game for the Nintendo DS, set in a town where the player is a person who lives among animals. It is a follow-up to the 2002 hit for the Nintendo GameCube and the Japan-only, , and. During development, the working title was Animal Crossing DS.

The important features of the first game return in this one, but with improvements and many changes. Activities in town include buying and selling items, fishing, and several others, especially becoming friends with the villagers. The game occurs in real time, with the real calendar, and time progresses even when the game is turned off.

Wild World has been a favorite among many video game critics. IGN gave the game a "great" 8.8/10 rating, and ranked it 12 in the top 25 Nintendo DS games. However, some critics thought that Wild World would have been better if some events and features from the GameCube were kept and put into the new installment, like Toy Day and Halloween.

Online play
Wild World is the second Nintendo title that uses the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, the first being Mario Kart DS. This lets players use wireless access points to connect to the internet and visit other players' towns.

Release
Wild World was released in Japan on November 23, 2005. It was released in North America on December 5, 2005, in time for Christmas. Players in Europe had to wait until March 31, 2006 for the European release.

Gameplay
Following the release of the popular GameCube original, the player starts out as a human in a town with no money, but might be able to gain some by shaking trees or selling clothes and accessories to the Able Sisters. The player mortgages a small house from the local shopkeeper, the Tanuki (or raccoon in the English version) Tom Nook. Paying off a loan results in a larger house, which, when all mortgages have been paid off, becomes a mansion. All players live together in one house.

Most players will want a bigger house, because decorating their house in their way, with furniture and other items, is one of the main features of the game. The player can collect fruit, fish, insects, paintings, fossils, furniture, and other items. There are over 550 different pieces of furniture. Once the player has some furniture, taking it to their house is easy; the furniture becomes a leaf that fits in their pocket. They can also customize themselves by buying clothes, accessories, hats, or drawing patterns.

Outside the house, the player can befriend the animal neighbors. The animals are much more interactive in this game than they were in the original. The animals can still ask the player to do errands for them, but there is no longer an explicit menu item to request, and they no longer require finding a missing item through a long chain of animals. Animals can also give the player a picture of themselves, with a unique quote on the back that is for the player to keep, even after they move away.

The player can also customize their town by planting trees and growing flowers. At the museum, the player can donate certain items to the collections. At the tailor's, the player can buy clothes or draw their own patterns. This way, the player can customize their town.

And if animals are not enough, the player can invite up to three human friends to their town using the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection or DS to DS.

New additions

 * Using Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection, it is possible to visit friends' towns online.
 * New tools: the Slingshot, Watering Can and Timer.
 * New holidays, such as Yay Day and La-Di day.
 * More customizable than the original, with the ability for the player to change their hat, facial accessories, and hair style.
 * Designing personal patterns and the ability to use them in more places than in the GameCube version. They can be used as wallpaper, carpets, clothes, hats, and even place designs on the floor.
 * New characters, like Celeste, the observatory owl, Brewster the barman, and Harriet the salon hair stylist.
 * The sky can be seen, and it is possible to draw constellations that will appear at night.
 * The museum holds larger collections, and now also has an observatory and a café.
 * Animal villagers sometimes give their picture, so that they are not forgotten, even after they move out of town.
 * Animal villagers are much more interactive. They will chase people that they want to talk to, challenge players to fishing or bug-catching matches, come to the player's house for a chat, and tend to their own gardens
 * At 8:00 P.M. each Saturday, K.K. Slider plays songs at the café. Also some new songs were added, like Marine Song 2001.
 * The player can use either the control pad or the touch screen to control their character. The stylus and the touch screen make it much easier to move, manage items, and type letters.
 * If the player puts a letter in a bottle, it might wash up on a random person's shore.
 * There are 16 new fish, as well as 16 new bugs.

Changes

 * Blathers can now identify fossils himself.
 * Some characters from the original Animal Crossing and Animal Forest e+ (such as Porter) have been removed.
 * Some items and collectibles do not appear, such as the collectible NES Games.
 * Some buildings are gone. The Police Station and Post Office buildings have been removed from the town, but the Town Gate and Town Hall replace them. The Wishing Well is gone. The Town Dump is gone, but the Recycle Bin at Town Hall replaces it.
 * Don Resetti does not appear, but he reappears in.
 * The acre system is gone. The world now scrolls continuously, without sudden camera changes at acre boundaries. The world appears cylindrical; objects in the distance curve away so that the sky is visible instead of just having a top-down view.
 * The old password system for shipping items between towns is gone. Items can be carried through the Wi-Fi Connection. Also, the password to get items at the Tom Nook stores are removed, so the player would have to get everything from scratch.
 * Tom Nook sells only one house, not four houses, but up to four human players can live in the same house. In Nook sells four houses again.
 * The journal feature, where it was possible to write a public or private journal each month, is gone.
 * Container furniture such as wardrobes and dressers work differently. Each player has a storage area that holds 90 items, and they can use any dresser to access it. This feature replaces the basements of the GameCube game. In the GameCube game, dressers each held 3 items.
 * Certain holidays from the GameCube version have been taken out, such as Animal Crossing versions of Christmas and Halloween. These holidays return in.
 * Other villagers' houses may only be entered when they are inside them and awake.
 * The entire soundtrack is changed. This soundtrack is kept for, but the Resetti music uses the GameCube soundtrack

Problems
On January 26, 2006, an accident occurred relating to the Wi-Fi features. A few weeks prior, Nintendo sent out a free Mario Coin item from Satoru Iwata to all who connected to Wi-Fi while it was available. On the same day, a failed attempt to send a second exclusive item sent a blank letter to all who connected to Nintendo Wi-Fi before 5:00 P.M. This letter contained the "glitched red tulip" item. This item could be planted in cement as a tree or, if put into the player's house, would create an invisible, irremovable wall. The item could be disposed of by planting it in the ground or selling it. On February 13, 2006, Nintendo sent out a letter containing 1000 Bells and an amusing town bulletin board notice to apologize for the mistake.

Trivia

 * In the game, Able Sisters is always to the east of Tom Nook's Store, but on the cover, they are separated.
 * Before Wild World, a rumored Animal Crossing 2 for the Gamecube was originally planned to be released.
 * This is the first game to allow wireless connection to other towns.