Not as good as the original, but you can take it with you.
One difference is that everyone in town shares the same house. In my family we had eight people playing the same game spread out over two towns. Each person had their own space they could fill with their own stuff and no one else could mess with it. In this game anything in the house belongs to everyone. Also, there is only one debt, when split between four, or possible more (with people sharing characters), the debt is incredibly easy to pay off. Once you have that done there is very little to do in the game.
The second problem is with the towns people. In the Gamecube game you could go up to any town-person and request a job. In this edition the jobs are not so readily available. Rarely the towns people will request you to deliver something, but if you complete it you are often only rewarded with money, instead of the more desired furniture. Since this was one of the most time consuming activities on the original this game feels rather empty without it.
Another thing that is missing is the "Secret Island" which was only accessible on the game cube using the gameboy advance and connector. The reason I miss this island is, in addition to being a good way to make money, was the it provided a quest of finding rare furniture on request for your island resident. Which as silly as it sounds, I had a lot of fun racing my siblings to complete his requests. Sadly there is nothing comparable to the island on this game.
There are several fun part of the game that are still there. Holidays are still fun and T.K. is still around to provide you with music for your home. There is still the struggle to catch all the bugs and fish in the game, which can take up many hours in itself. The museum in this game is actually larger with paintings and fossils to collect too.
Theoretically it should be easier to travel to a friends town on this game, but I was never able to find anyone else with the game. A plus to the new multiplayer is that you can be in a friends town at the same time they are (a nice touch).
Overall the entire experience feels a bit watered down. I would have hoped that for the DS version they would have only added option, and thought there are a few new things there is a lot more the is missing. If this were the first Animal Crossing I played I might have had a better reaction to it, or, more likely, I would have dismissed the series without a second thought. There just isn't enough to keep anyone interested in this game for long.