On top of being pretty, the rest of City Folk’s presentation is also top notch. The Wiimote performs admirably in most applications; resulting in a game that is generally a breeze to play. Character motion is more fluid than ever before, and those brought up on the DS game, Animal Crossing; Wild World, will likely find it hard to ever go back to its predecessor’s sluggishly slow framerates and running speed. The music is also pleasant and retains its characteristic minimalist charm, even though many of the themes seemed to have been recycled from past games.

Unfortunately, as a person who played Animal Crossing: Wild World to death. City Folk bored me to tears. To put it bluntly, there is virtually nothing new, nor remarkable, added to the game, and it feels like the producers have put themselves on autopilot. Sure, the City is a technically new institution, but instead of actually being a refreshing host for Animal Crossing’s rousing nightlife and new faces, the entire thing reeks of laziness. Aside from the shoe-shining skunk Kicks, Gracie Grace’s high-end boutique, the (useful) auction house, and a few fleeting passersby, practically everything that happens in the city happened in Animal Crossing before.

As the “big, bustling City,” I admittedly expected a lot from the new area from City Folk. While I was willing to let the character redundancies slide past for their everyday convenience (which is admittedly a bonus), I couldn’t be more disappointed in Nintendo’s mandated curfew for their world. With the exception of the second iteration of Tom Nook’s store (which stays open to a moderately acceptable 1am), virtually everything in Animal Crossing closes by 10 pm. Why? I can understand maintaining a “small city” vibe for the initial Nook’s Cranny and the town, but why not have the City be the designated zone for late-night players? This ultimately makes the city both an annoyance and a shame for veteran players, as the new expansion area was the most promising addition to the series since Wi-Fi.

Quite simply, there’s just not enough new stuff to justify a full-priced purchase, unless you couldn’t be happier with the idea of playing a virtually unchanged version of Wild World on your big screen TV. The inventory is still painfully cramped, letter writing has grown tenfold more difficult thanks to the Wiimote’s waggle, and the biggest structural changes I saw to the towns were cliffs that added height to certain areas of the map. Of course there’s hundreds of new bugs, fish, and fossils to be collected, as well as a never ending amount of household objects and clothes to uncover, but considering how utterly identical this game is to its predecessors, it’s hardly worth it for those even mildly burnt out on the last two games.

With that said, and if I may put my series-wide disappointments aside, Animal Crossing: City Folk is still a superb title that should be picked up by everyone who has yet to play an Animal Crossing game.

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