The game for men...manly men.
This isn't one of those games where you play for 6 hours straight, at least for me. Like the original, this game runs on real time using your DS' internal clock. If someone says he'll meet you tomorrow at 5:00, they really mean tomorrow. Unless you time travel, once again. Once you start your game, you'll be asked some question that'll determine your appearance and whatnot. After that, you'll be set off in your newly created town that, hopefully, you came up with a good name. Because if you decide to be smart and name yur town a crappy name, you'll have to rebuild a new town to change the name, thus erasing your current (and only) file. What a shame.
You'll eventually meet Tom Nook, which fan will recognize as the bell-hungry raccoon that give you your first and later houses. You'll do some chores for him and then you'll set off to make some money! You can do numerous things in this game, like fossil digging, growing trees and flowers, fishing, catch some bugs, make constellations, expand your house, and much more! You can even go Martha Stewart on your self and decorate your house. What, 'decorate' not good enough? Fine, 'customize' your house. In Wild World, the holidays are now all made up, 'Yay Day', where you say nice comments to your residents. However, know how the majority of people act, your 'nice' comments will most likely turn out being offensive. But hey, if your townsfolk don't mind, so what? You can even use the top screen to shoot down UFOs, birds, and presents. You can even see your constellation at night and if you're lucky, you might see a shooting star. So make a wish...with A.
Speaking of townsfolk, you can have up to 8 residents. Each character you get is random and he/she has his/hers own personality and annoying catch phrases. One nice thing is that your residents can move out of your town. So if you ever find yourself getting stuck with Mitzi or another annoying resident, hit them with a net, ignore them when they call you, and never visit them! They'll be packing their bags in no time... Many special characters will pop in here and there, usually giving you something in return for doing a task for them.
If all that gameplay wasn't enough, it was....Wi-Fi! Yes, now you too, can chop your friend's and/or foe's trees down! You can also leave trash, plant pitfall seeds, or just plain talk to your friends. What you say to your friends, is limited in curse words, as some are censored from the game. However, here is where some of the flaws come in: The Wi-Fi isn't as fun as it sounds. Sure you can trade items, chat, sell/buy items, but its not much different from the single player mode. There aren't many things to do in
Wi-Fi that'll keep you at a McDonalds for a long time. One thing that was really nice was that your residents can move to your friend's town and vice versa. Wi-Fi is a good addition to Animal Crossing, but it can be better.
The graphics are pretty good for the DS, running in full 3D and real-time. Like most (or all) DS games, this one has no frame rate issues and the only long load time will be loading your profile. Animation flows smoothly as you get to see the wonderful, vibrant colors of the seasons and characters. The sound is pretty good too, good vibrant tunes that changes depending on what the weather is like or the time of the day/night. You can even customize your own town tune so you can put your music at work. Of course, if you stink at that, you can always leave the default one or choose a resident's one when the holiday, 'La-Di-Day' comes.
Overall, this is one of those must-own DS titles out there. You won't be disappointed with this game, and as soon as you think you're done with it, you'll be tempted at least to check on your fellow town.