The animals are back…

Game + USB Microphone

Graphics
Let us first agree on something: the idea is not to use the wii’s capacity to its maximum, but to render a childish/colorfull/… universe, which is well done. The facial expressions work well, and the different “types” of characters are well defined.

Grade: 9 / 10

Music
Aaaah, the musics. Knowing that you can collect the songs of K.K. Slider, but the basic music is the one from the previous AC, it is both nice and a bit boring. Not the best game soundtrack I ever heard, in fact.
Grade: 7 / 10

Gameplay
Very easy to use, with more than one possibility for fishing/insects hunting/…, and a shortcut to instantantly chnge the tool. All the item gestion is done with “Drag & Drop”, the only painful thing being the keyboard on screen (but it should be possible to use an USB keyboard, I should try). That said, insects like the bees are really hard to catch.

Items interface

Fishing
Grade: 8.5 / 10

Length / Sidequests
Well, until you have collected all the insects, all the fossils and all the paintings, taken part to a handful of special events, decorated and redecorated you house means the play time is huge. That said, it is possible to use “Time Travel”, that is (on condition not to come back) to set date and hour to play a bit of every day… (“Something else” > “Set date/time”) with the character who greets you… and in case of visit, it is the time of the visited place that is used.
Grade: 9 / 10

Story / characters
There is no storyline as such, but the characters are well rendered, so much that some, fix or not, are ruining my nerves: the stuck up of the city hall, as well as a white squirrel in my village, whilst some other I find wonderfull (Hélaine the sheep or the young ninja squirrel…), There are special events (feasts, closed days, …), present items (if you activate the wireless connection to the Nintendo site, see the instructions or official site), like recently a sand castle, or special visitors (the carpet merchant for example). Globaly it is rather nice, but since they introduced the City to visit, they should have tried with something new… like choosing inhabitants or other.

Grade: 8 / 10

In the end…
If you like these “infinite” games where it is possible to interact with other people, and the rather childish ambiance, jump on it. It is really nice.
Final grade: 8.3 / 10

Image sources:
My Animal Crossing Game
Official site http://www.nintendo.fr/NOE/fr_FR/games/wii/animal_crossing_lets_go_to_the_city_9586.html