Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City Review

Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City
Wii
Nintendo
£39.99

PART Sims, part role playing game and part a friendly chat, Animal Crossing Let's Go to the City is a rather strange conglomeration of styles.

It all starts with a bus trip into town, during which you'll have a conversation which will help you set out your character, city name and so on.

A kindly shop owner helps you to get your house, and thereafter you'll be working as hard as possible to raise enough cash to pay him off.

This is achieved to start with by carrying out tasks such as picking apples, hunting for eggs and catching fish and selling them.

Perhaps this is quite RPG-like, bringing back memories of starting out in many a game, building up strength by chopping down trees in the forest and so on.

To move into the Sims territory there is an element of social mobility, bettering yourself by going to the theatre, visiting neighbours, and working towards improving the town.

A key selling point is using the new WiiSpeak microphone which allows a host of players to be heard if they're in the same room, or allowing linking of consoles to chat.

It's hard to imagine a situation where there are four people playing this in the same house, but it's a nice additional string to the bow, although it must be said that teamspeak and microphones is nothing new, and has been working for yonks over on the PC.

The graphics are deliberately 'cute' and low tech, resembling something on a handheld console, but is in keeping with the game's style.

Animal Crossing is good fun, addictive, and utilises the Wii speak well, and the only slight downside is that it can feel a bit 'samey' after a while.

****