You've been here and done that in your village full of animals, but it never gets old.
You start off as usual. You're new, you buy house, you do chores for Nook, then you're on your own to pay off the debt, make friends with neighbors, and so on. This time around, the game is much more polished up than the last, and there's more content. Gameplay-wise is perfect. The menus are easily accessible through the pointer feature. You can also control your character around town by pointing in the direction you wish him to go, and press A. I find this useful for the times where I'm lazy or tired, and just use one hand to play, which is quite relaxing. You can also use motion controls to swing the net (which is useful for hitting neighbors in the head without worrying about talking to them by accident) or fishing (both casting and reeling). You can also use the A button for all tools. City Folk features 64 bugs and 64 fish this time around, compared to the 50-something bugs/fish in the last game, and mere 40 fish/bugs from the first game. You can also take pictures, save them onto your SD card, and post them on your Message Board.
The city is nice, and hasn't taken too much away from the village as I feared. You can get fortunes, go to the very expensive store for clothes and other items you don't particularly need, learn emotions, do your hair (or get a Mii mask), and go to Crazy Redd's if you have the password. The village seems a little bigger, and it has the return of cliffs and waterfalls, as well as a nice little round-about ramp to get to the upper part of your village (the part on top the cliff). It's a nice little change to a traditional formula. The non-jagged graphics are a VERY welcome change, as well. Gone are the blocky faces and blatant 2D fruits/trees/fish/bugs...well, you get the picture. Everything looks a lot better. An impressive part, though, is that in your Bug and Fish menu, you can view 3D models of each Fish and Bug. It was a nice little surprise.
Sound is ok, but it could be better. As I suspected before the game's release, much of the music has been recycled from Animal Crossing: Wild World. I think there's a touch of Gamecube soundtrack in it too, but don't take my word for it. The "Animalese" from the villages is still fun to listen to, and some characters have a new pitch of sound for their "voice", if you wanna call it that. Some other sound effects have been improved and sound slightly better, too.
Online multiplayer is great. Friend Codes aren't too much of a chore, as you just add each other's code and your good to go. Afterwards, though, you can actually send letters from your town to your friend's town now, thanks to WiiConnect24. It's a very welcome feature and keeps me constantly writing letters to my friends. You can't go to the city with other players, though. Wii Speak works very well, though. In my experience using it, as long as you don't keep the mic really close to your TV speakers, you'll be fine. The voices are really clear, and hardly broke up (unlike my experience using the 360 headsets). Unlike the DS version, City Folk is more accessible to multiple players this time simply because it isn't a portable game. My dad loves Animal Crossing, but was unable to participate in it because he doesn't have a DS, so this game is more "family friendly" in that aspect.
Overall, I'd warrant Animal Crossing: City Folk a buy if you still can't get enough of the series like me. Nintendo didn't try to fix what wasn't broken. It's always fun to start over and build up your town again. As long as you don't Time Warp (you know what I mean), you'll have tons of fun with this franchise all over again.