Animal Crossing City Folk. I have never been this excited about a game (except maybe Super Mario Galaxy). I just finished watching the Nintendo spotlight from the E3 conference -and I had a feeling that they would be talking SOMETHING about Animal Crossing, but they came right out of the gate with it!!!
I was jumping all over the house. Seems that ever since the Wii debuted, there has been talk of Mario Galaxy and Animal Crossing. I felt like I waited forever for Mario Galaxy, but nothing compares to how long I’ve been waiting, checking, wishing, checking again, for Animal Crossing.
I found out a lot about Animal Crossing, but there are still a lot of questions I want answered. Like, I assume you use the wiimote to dig and ax as if you were actually digging and using an ax, but they didn’t talk about that. What they did talk about was AWESOME. One really cool feature is how integrated it is to the online community. You’ll be able to send letters from Animal Crossing to cell phones, or email them. The town itself looks basically like the other two, the style is a mix between the Wild World DS version and the original. From what I read, there was a round table discussion with the Animal Crossing creator who also announced that you could go between your DS version and the Wii, transferring items. I didn’t hear it first hand, so if it’s true, that would be great. More importantly, it’s the first Animal Crossing where four players can play at the same time, there seems to be questions as if it’s players on the same system, or anywhere in the world. Even though it will be really cool to play with people via the wifi connection, I’m still hoping that the people in my town (me, my Dad, mom, and sis) can all play at the same time. But what I do know is at least you can walk around town with your friends using wifi. Imagine fishing at the same time as your friends! AND with the new Wiispeak hardware, you’ll be able to hear them as well. That basically means that Nintendo will be releasing a little hardware device that can sit on top of your motion sensor bar and pick up voices in the room. So when friends are playing Animal Crossing with the Wiispeak you can hear each other and communicate. You can visit in houses together, talk, hang out. I can’t wait.
So why did they call it, “Animal Crossing City Folk?” Well when you see a bus pull up at a bus stop in the city, you’ll know. The trailer movie shows characters going in places such as Gracies (the fashion designer giraffe), and Harriet’s Hair Salon (where you can get a new hairstyle or even better, put on your Mii mask. There is also the Happy Room Academy with Lyle, the Action House with a Gyroid and so much more. Animal Crossing has always been one of my favorite games. My Animal Crossing collection is almost as big as my Mario collection. I have won many, many auctions to get each and every tiny (and I mean tiny) figure, house, and building. As you can imagine, I can’t wait to get my hands on this game. Whoo Hooo! 2008 release!!!!
After watching Microsoft’s gaming line-up and console plan and hearing about the future of Sony, It made me really understand why I’ve always been such a Nintendo freak. Simply, the games are FUN, not just for me, but for the whole family. Nintendo’s upcoming release line-up includes all sorts of titles I can’t wait to get my hands on. Sure they have a few dark titles, like the crowd favorite, Call of Duty, Something or Other, but mostly it’s games like Wii Sport’s Resort. A vacation in a box. Using the new, super sensitive addition to the wiimote, the wiimotion plus, you can play frisbee with your ‘dog’ on the beach, you can ride around in the ocean on a ‘jet ski’ even sword fight. Wii Sports Resort will be a Spring 2009 release, and promises to deliver more games, but these were the only ones they mentioned.
Another cool, new game is Rayman Raving Rabbids TV party. The third game in the Wii Rayman Raving Rabbid Series. What makes this different than the other two is they added the balance board to the selection of fun ways to take advantage of the Wii. From the E3 video trailer it looks like you get to sit on the board to control things such as sledding on some sort of wild animal. You can also stand on the balance board to surf and such. The story basis I read about in Nintendo Power (so I already knew about this game) is the Rabbids have taken over the Rayman’s world, our world, and now they are after the TV, I can’t wait for this game, it’s going to be a lot of fun seeing more of what the Rabbids have cooked up.
Nintendo didn’t really give away too many details of the new Star Wars Clonewars game, but what they did show looked fun. Light saber slashing battles with Count Dooku and General Grievous. So it’ll be a lot of fun doing that, but I’m not sure about it being a game I will go back to again and again.
There is a new snowboarding game called Shaun White’s Snowboarding to take advantage of the balance board. It’ll be fun snowboarding, but I don’t think I’ll get it over something like Raving Rabbids, TV Party.
Nintendo also showed a lot of new games for the DS. I think the fact that they are coming out with more songs for Guitar Hero: On Tour so quickly is great, because with all the music games, you start looking for new songs pretty fast. The new release, Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades will allow you to swap songs back and forth with friends who might have one game and you have the other. The other thing that they talked about a lot was using the Nintendo DS to access, what seems to be the internet, but they were a little vague. They did say you will be able to access sites to check when your plane is landing or how to get a rental car, so it will be some sort of online stuff.
There were a lot of DS titles I’ve never played or heard of, so it’ll be interesting as they start getting released, which ones end up top of my Christmas list.
I know that a lot of hardcore Mario, Link, and Samus fans were disappointed that there favorites didn’t make an appearance at E3 (I know I was a little). The closest we got was a picture of Mario and Samus flashed up on the screen during the presentation, but come on, ANIMAL CROSSING is finally coming to Wii. That makes E3 for me, without all the other cool stuff they announced.
My Dad and my Uncle went to E3, the last year it was open to the public, just months before the release of Wii. They played Mario Galaxy, got to play numerous titles, try out the wiimote months before I got my hand on one, and heard all about Wii Music (yes I was jealous). All of the things they previewed have now been released for the Wii, except Wii Music. So I am happy that E3 2008, Wii Music is now a reality.
Wii Music looks amazing. Looks like something we will play a lot. Especially since we all can’t play every instrument for real like my dad the musician. This actually looks like it will be fun for all ages, even my three-year-old sister! Seems you can choose from over 50 instruments. There are individual controls for each instrument, used in a way you would if you were really playing the instrument. Like, you hold the “guitar” like you would if you were actually holding a guitar, with the wiimote as the frets and the nunchuk to strum. You drum by hitting the air with the wiimote and nunchuk AND you can use the balance board as pedals.
What got the crowd cheering was when Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, came out playing the virtual saxophone! He explained that in Wii Music you don’t have to follow patterns like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. You just hit, strum, or press buttons on your “instrument” and it makes the song sound cool. It does track your how fast or slow you play, so you should all play at the same tempo when you are playing a song with your “band.”
Another crowd pleasing moment was when Shigeru Miyamoto and some other Nintendo folks got up and performed live (and with their mii’s on the large screen behind them) the theme song to MARIO BROTHERS!!! A perfect way to finish the Nintendo spotlight.
