Animal Crossing on Nintendo Wii

Game Cover

Animal Crossing allows you to step into a living, breathing world where seasons pass in real time and your destiny is yours to create.

Enjoy a new house, a new neighbourhood, and some new friends. You can try your luck in a Fishing Tourney, collect shells, or participate in special events and holidays. You can communicate with friends and family; travel to the new city and get a Mii makeover, and much more.The world is your sparkling, fresh canvas.

This blog is going to analyse the visual style and game-play of Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Wii.

Visual Style . . .

This part of my blog is going to analyse and describe the visual style of the game. I'm going to start off with the style of graphics used within the game. The graphics in the game are very simple, almost cartoon like. The designer may have done this to make the game more appealing to everyone rather than just 'gaming geek's'. The simple graphics will also interest younger children as it makes the game easier to play as there is not much going on in the background. The designer have used so many vibrant colours which boosts up the overall design of the games as it does look very appealing, almost beautiful as you can see in the image below.

Due to the wii being know for its  abysmal graphics, it wasn't surprising to see that they haven't improved the graphics off the water effects. As you can see below, the water is appalling for a 7th generation game.

Below is a link with more information on the graphics used in Animal Crossing: 

http://www.wiisworld.com/wii-reviews/Animal-Crossing-City-Folk.html

As for the animal crossing environment, its very realistic. You have got many trees that grow fruit, houses, shops, a town hall, the beach and even a bus stop to catch the bus into town. I think the game designer has tried to make the town as realistic as possible so its more fun to play, however there is only so much fun you can have in the real word, and only so many chores you can complete in real life, so this may bore players after a long time of playing the game.

There are many characters on Animal Crossing, you have all the other animals that live in your town, however these can up and leave your town whenever they like. You also have Tom Nook who own the convenience store, Pelly who works in the Town Hall, Cooper and Booker who are the cordial guards, the Mayor, KK.Slider the musician, Bathers who is the museum curator, Mabel and Sable who own the clothing shop and the only enemy in the whole game which is Mr Resetti - shown to the left. Mr Resetti shows up if you don't save your game or you deliberative change the time of your console to fast forward time. He will give you a talking to so you won't forget to save or cheat the game. None of these characters are player able, you are the only character you are in control of. To make the game more interesting an interactive the games designer has made it available for friends to like there towns together, so you can go visit your friends town. I think the games designer has done this to make the game more interesting for players as there is only a certain amount of chores in real life you can complete, once they are done there would be nothing to do.

Cinematic sequences through out the game have stepped up a notch, due to a graphical improvement but only a small one. Through out the game there are two main cut scenes, these are when you first start the game, your inside a taxi and being driven to your new town and the other cut scene is when you catch the bus into the city. I think the games designer has done this so the gamers isn't bored while waiting for the game to load, it gives the gamers something to watch and read which should make the time go quicker while waiting. 

Game-play. . .

This part of the blog is going  to analyse and describe the game play  of Animal Crossing: City Folk. I'm going to discus the following topics and how they are used within the game to enhance the playing experience.

Animal crossing has no means of goals or missions to accomplish, the only goal Animal Crossing has are those that are set by yourself. If you want to become rich and have a big house or if your the leisurely type and would rather catch fish or bugs it entirely up to you. This has enhanced the game play as it can suit all the different players, as in some games that do have goals like 'Sims' players sometimes get board when they cant complete a certain goal. 

The narrative of Animal Crossing is a life simulation game, doing day to day real life activities.The player lives in a rural village that's populated with anthropomorphic animals. The Animal Crossing game is synced with the Wii system clock and calendar, which allows the game to be to be played in real time, which then effects the in game events like the time of day and seasons. This enhances the game play as every new season brings something new to the game, whether if its snow on the ground or blossom on the trees.

The difficulty is all down to the player due to the player deciding what they want to do, as there are no specific goals to complete. The gamer can make the games as difficult as they they or as easy they like. An example of the difficulty level could be to raise 1,000,000 bells and donate it to the town so that a windmill or lighthouse is built - this could be seen as difficult as it will take a long time to raise 1,000,000 bells. this enhances the game play as the game can suit any gamer, if it a hardcore gamer then they can set the goals high or if its just an young child wanting to have fun then can set the goals as low as they want.

Animal Crossing offers many rewards, some benefit the town and some are for the gamers benefit. The town rewards consist of a new bridge, a fountain and a windmill/lighthouse. Each of these rewards can be receive by donating a certain amount of money to the town at the Town Hall. The gamer awards consist of tool upgrades - golden shovel, fishing rod, net, axe, slingshot and watering can. These also can be achieve by doing various tasks for example catching every specie of fish rewards you with a golden fishing rod. In a way the rewards links closely to goals, as the gamer can work for something to get something in return. Having these rewards in place enhances the gaming experience as it makes the gamer want to peruse the certain task to receive these very rare items. 

The game mechanics of Animal Crossing are pretty simple as there is no way you can complete the game. Even if you unlock all the locked items you can still carry on with your day to day tasks on the game. The game is never ending which means gamers can play it forever!

Multi-play on animal crossing is not applicable, however you can play with your other friends through a WiFi network. I think the games designer has done this to enhance the playing experience as there is only so much stuff you can do on the game so talking to your friends can pass the time away on the game. 

Below is a link to some more information of the game-play of Animal Crossing: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing:_City_Folk 


Overall, all the above has effected the visual style and game-play of Animal Crossing: City Folk on the Nintendo Wii.