Animal Crossing: City Folk is very similar to its previous versions, but is still a great, long-lasting, addictive game.
The game is very similar to the past games in the series, and doesn't introduce many new features, apart from updated visuals, a small "city" area of shops to visit, and the aforementioned WiFi features. The game is also bundled with the Wii Speak peripheral, which can be used to talk to friends when you're in each others town.
Gameplay:
When you first start off in town, the local shop owner Tom Nook gives you a small house to live in, as you play the game, one of the many different aims is to continuously pay off the house's growing mortgages, so your house is enlarged each time. The main way to make money is by catching and finding and fish, bugs and fossils to sell for the in game currency; bells. The game revolves around the Wii's internal clock, so seasons change as as well as day and night, which affects game events and changes which fish and bugs are available to catch. You can only carry 15 items around with you at once, which could have been increased, and the game can be played with either the Wii remote + nunchuck or just the Wii remote.
Visuals and Sound:
The game's graphics are very simple and bright, and contain almost no ugly textures or jagged areas, an improvement from the previous versions in the series. The animations of the characters and wildlife are quite smooth and look pretty good. The sound is also what the series is used to, with different simple tunes playing each hour, and a variety of water and bug noises being heard throughout.
Longevity and Value:
Animal Crossing: City Folk contains a very large amount of different things to do, all of which will take a long time to complete. Collecting every fish and bug and filling the museum with them will take almost a full year, and if you are into it, the game will last a very long time before you get bored of it.
Overall, if you didn't play the first two games in the series, or don't mind repeating a lot of the same things again, then Animal Crossing: City Folk would be a great game to buy. It will last you a long time, is great value, and is a perfect game for someone interested in the genre.