Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City

Animal crossing is a quirky series that started all the way on the N64 as Animal forest, basically its kind of like the sims but with animal characters instead of people and believe it or not this formula actually works quite well. Basically you control a character which you can name, and move into a town which you also can name. You manage how your town operates, try and earn money to pay off your mortgage and try and find rare items for your house.

One of the new features is that you can now take your character into the city, where you can take part in auctions to buy items, watch shows in the theatre amongst other things and as a whole the game is quite relaxing. Although its a little dissapointing as the game is hampered by the wiis limitations and setup as a console.

For instance if you wanna play with friends, you can with up to four people but in order to do so you need to register those rediculous friend codes which is tedious affair compared to the xbox live approach where u just press a button then your done.

The wii speak microphone is a nice idea but its arkward getting the thing stuck on the tv, especially if its a flatscreen where i had to improvise with stick tack to keep it in place. Nintendo i would have prefered a headset to talk to friends, the sound quality is ok but it aint exactly a replacement for Skype on the pc. For the money i would just get the game on its own and the mincrophone seperately when more games are compatible.

Heres a summary of Pros and Cons:

Pros: *A relaxing experience that has the potential to last years.
*The city feature is a nice touch that adds incentive to play.
*The rotating globe prespective is improvement of GC version.

Cons: *Friend Codes are a nightmare to play with each other.
*Wii speak device is seldom supported at the moment.
*This version doesnt take the series anywhere new from previous versions.

So personally if you never played a version before, id give it a shot. Otherwise you may wanna give this version a miss as it dont take the series to new heights as promised at E3. Thanks for reading.

The Animal Crossing: LGTTC game is great, the WiiSpeak is great, but when you combine the two together, you get something utterly fantastic.

Let's start on the Animal Crossing: LGTTC side of things. Animal Crossing: LGTTC is a life simulation game where you are the only human and you live in a life without worries. Now, before you start thinking that this is a clone of The Sims, this game is totally different. The Sims makes you focus on a life almost parallel to the real world, with all of those money and romance fears. Animal Crossing is like The Sims, but with all of the worrying parts stripped out and a more cartoonish feel. You start life as a man/woman who is moving to a new town and has to start life again. You begin the game by getting your new house and running some errands for Tom Nook to pay off some debt. Once you have finished his chores you can truly start living your life to the full, by making friends with the residents, catching bugs and fish, and exploring the brand new city area. There are also a few more innovative features in the game, like being able to transfer your character from Animal Crossing: Wild World onto the game, taking part in auctions with other players around the world, and hanging out with your mates (wherever they are in the worls) while chatting to them - literally. What's that 'literally' on the end for? I'll explain, once I've said this - Animal Crossing: LGTTC is such as good game that you will get ABSORBED into it. There is one downside though - it's too similar to it's predecessors. But still, I have played it's predecessors, and I still loved it.

Anyway, about the 'literally' part. You may have noticed that this game is packaged in an oversized box - this is because it includes WiiSpeak. WiiSpeak is a microphone for the Wii that allows the whole room to chat with another whole living room. You may want to use it with solo use, but it can be used with the whole family. Animal Crossing: LGTTC uses the WiiSpeak microphone when in online play, so you can actually talk to friends. The quality is, while not fantastic, is still great. Currently Animal Crossing: LGTTC is the only game to use WiiSpeak, and only one future game has been comfirmed to use WiiSpeak - The Conduit. But, you can also use the WiiSpeak in another way besides games - namely, the WiiSpeak Channel. When you get WiiSpeak, you'll find a piece of paper inside it with a code. Before you think this is junk, the code on it can actually be inputted into the Wii Shop Channel to download the WiiSpeak Channel. The WiiSpeak Channel is a Wii Channel that allows you to just essentially chat with Wii Friends that also have WiiSpeak, much like Skype. But, it can also send voice recordings to Wii Friends for them to listen to when they open up their Wii Message Board message - even if they don't have the WiiSpeak Channel.

RATINGS

Animal Crossing: LGTTC - 9/10
There's nothing wrong with this game, aside from the similarity with it's predecessors. If you have played the previous titles, keep the score as it is. But if you have never played it before, then I suggest adding another mark. You can buy it without the WiiSpeak, but I reccommend buying this with it.

WiiSpeak - 10/10
Simply fantastic. The clarity is clear and it works a treat, never failing. The included channel also works a treat. If you are put off by Animal Crossing's small flaw, then you can buy the WiiSpeak on it's own, but the rest (especially Animal Crossing newcomers) should buy this package instead.

CONCLUSION
Simply a must buy. Animal Crossing has been recreated, keeping it's tried and tested formula while adding brilliant little bits, while the WiiSpeak is just flawless. Just get it, okay?

I find as a mum that this game is fun for all the family, I mean even I can play it !! The game has encouraged healthy competition along with the idea of sharing:-)

However the game also encourages my kids to think about the environment, helping people out, saving and the ideas around finances and family life.

Would very much recommend this game to children and adults alike!!

Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City with Wii Speak (Wii)