even with the QoL and new features that the other games bring to the table, i still find myself coming back to this one the most. while it definitely isn't perfect, there's a lot to love about this one, and it has a lot of cool features that i think a lot of people overlook when playing this game blind.

for starters, the villagers. i don't need to say much about them, but they're near perfect in this game. they all have the perfect balance between nice and rude, with a lot of wild and unpredictable lines thrown into the mix to give every villager life, and enough dialogue to last a lifetime, without getting stale. their chores, villager photos and gossip about other villagers really does help to make you feel included with this fictional town, but not to the point where they flatter you for doing anything. on another note, the special characters are easily at their best in this entry - each one is very distinct from each other, and while we don't see them interact with each other often, the many stories they tell (which have a surprising amount of depth to them) about their experiences with other characters in your town just makes these characters feel more relatable and realistic in some ways (sable's episodes are a real good example of this), and does a good job of linking the whole world together.

gameplay wise, i will admit it is pretty basic on the surface, but the desire for more things to do is designed to make you think outside the box and discover many hidden secrets. customizable patterns can allow for some really creative town designs (if you're willing to spend the time designing them) along with flower breeding, golden tools, (the golden axe sequence may be tedious, but i just think how they went about it is so interesting compared to city folk) unlocking hairstyles at nookington's, and a whole lot more. there's even features that i'm still finding out recently, e.g. tapping on your villagers across the riverside will make them wave at you, wtf
also while it's not officially up anymore, i also want to state that multiplayer is a reallly big part of this game, to the point where whole ass item sets are locked behind them somehow. while the multiplayer is pretty barebones and doesn't allow 3 people inside the same building for some reason, there is quite a lot of potential with this form of online that could have been utilised better, but was still very innovative and interesting for its time. the funniest thing to me is that hackers used to have whole gangs that would break towns by spamming buildings everywhere, or "seeding") as its called

as perfect as i want this game to be, there are obviously some issues. the game runs like ass, even for a ds game. it's playable and easy to get used to, but framedrops when every villager is out and about is unacceptable. it's definitely not a ds issue either - games like Mario Kart and Metroid Prime released around the same time as this, and they achieve a stable 60/30fps while looking a lot better. must have been a hell to make this game, considering how it's optimised poorly as well. i also don't mind the removed holidays, but they could have at least thought of cooler ones to replace. i'm not a fan of la-di-day or yay day, they seem really lackluster in comparison to the bright nights and acorn festival.

there's a lot of other stuff i love about this game that just goes under the radar in many people's eyes. celeste and the constellations, wishy the star,, the "Talking to Myself"/ "Message of the Day" posts on the billboard, blanca, katie/kaitlin, but at the end of the day, i still think this game holds up extremely well in comparison to the other games. most people may think i'm nostalgia blinded, but realistically we all are in some way, can't blame me for it :)
if you're a fan of other games in the series, don't miss out on this one, there's definitely something to be loved here - just play for more than a week!

i could go on for hours about why i think the older animal crossing style is more interesting and unique.
the original animal crossing and wild world are all about making the best of a shit situation, savoring what precious time you have since no one/no thing waits for you. not the shops, not the people, you arent the center of your own world, you arent this omnipotent mayoral god like all the newer games try to push so hard. the game starts of literally putting you in debt and forcing you to work it off showing life can be hard and unfair, sometimes all you can do is grit your teeth and push onward until later, you can finally enjoy the payoffs, all the work you put in making it all the more satisfying. You also learn to enjoy your free time and the little things more like doing some light fishing or gardening listening to the somber soundtrack. the villagers being rude is also a huge contributing factor to why i love it too because fun fact, not everyone in life is nice/ black and white fitting into one archetype. not every villager needs to be cycled out for the perfect village comp people seem so hinged on nowadays spending real money to buy their perfect lineup. it also makes you learn to appreciate the nicer people more. animal crossing and its sequel wild world are some of the best most accurate portrayals of modern every day life, that no other title has really seemed to grasp in quite the same way, new animal crossing is all about you being the center of attention, nothing happens or moves unless you directly do it. in the new game villagers cant even move in unless you delegate and build theiur houses. old animal crossing villagers would move in and out however they pleased "i like this spot so i wanna live here, this isnt your island or life to dictate"

Animal Crossing at it's core is extremely charming and hard to put down. The first time I played this title was in 2019. Whenever I start a new file on an AC game, it's during some of the hardest times of my life. AC has proven to carry me through my darkest hours, and take me out of a bad mindset by charming me with its adorable characters, daily tasks, and home decorating. This was my third AC title I have ever played. Despite the title being on the DS and having obvious limitations, the game manages to create an experience that feels much larger than a simple handle held game. I'm very glad AC is as large as it is now, and hope people jump back to this title and experience AC in one of its most simple forms.

je sais pas quoi dire tellement c'est le plus grand jeu de l'histoire, je vais rédiger une review digne de ce nom quand j'arreterai de trembler rien qu'en repensant aux nuits passées à chasser les tarentules avec les musiques atteignant ce mélange subtil de réconforto-badance si particulier.... ma première rencontre avec Elisabec........ les souvenirs et sensations de ce jeu tiennent dans mon coeur un emplacement bien précis qui ne perdra JAMAIS son éclat, sa puissance nostalgique et son influence dans mon appréhension du monde visible

So the one I spent the most time with was New Leaf, and the one I played most recently before this was New Horizons, and as someone who argued that part of the reasons New Horizons was boring was because it was too easy/gentle/kind to the player, I can now much more confidently say that I was right.

I've only had my town for a few days now, but I think I'd say my perfect Animal Crossing game would be somewhere between this one and New Leaf. This one is missing a lot of quality of life upgrades that I was very used to with New Leaf (like donating more than one thing to the museum at a time for example) that I feel like don't really apply friction/an edge to the player in a way that's satisfying. Similarly, the pause in input between playing using stylus input and switching to buttons (or vice versa) is really annoying. I like playing my DS games using both stylus AND buttons, especially in a game like this, where overworld movement feels better with the D-pad but I despise using it as a cursor in full-screen menus. But there are other things about this game that give it a certain toughness to it that I feel like is lost in the more modern games.

The biggest example I can think of is the villagers, which I know is something people bring up a lot. In this game, the villager's personalities feel a lot more real. And because the player is just another person living there, there's this balance that you feel like you have to strike with the environment. It's not your community because you own it, it's your community because you live there.

I definitely see the appeal of the future games, especially NH with how much freedom you get. But I don't know, at a certain point, it just lost so much character and personality in exchange for giving the player more power over the map. Here though, I feel like I'm part of a living, breathing world that exists even when I'm not there. And I really need that.

Does Animal Crossing: Wild World hold up today, in comparison to the first Animal Crossing? Absolutely not. But from both a technical and design standpoint, for a 2005 Nintendo DS game, this may very well be the most impressive leap to a handheld device I've ever seen.

In comparison to its predecessor, this truly feels like a full execution of the original's odd "prototype" state. The top-down segmented map has been replaced by a modernized seamless rolling map, and there is nearly double the amount of content here this time around, all fitting on a single 32MB cartridge. The game of course pushes the hardware to its limit, with the framerate itself seemingly capped 20fps; a significant drop from the original's 60fps (through the GameCube port). At the end of the day though, its limitations still emit the game's charm, whether through the polygonal furniture or the wacky sound design. And that soundtrack, of course? Immaculate as ever.
Really the only disappointing thing I found in this game was the removal of national holidays, due to localization/release decisions, as far as I'm aware. However, the events in their place are still nice, with one of my favorites being the Flea Market event, where villagers will enter your home and purchase furniture from you.

The pick-up-and-play nature of this series is perfectly at home on a handheld device, and Animal Crossing: Wild World proves that. It's definitely not the one I would recommend new players check out nowadays, but you can't help but admire how remarkable this experience was translated to Nintendo DS like this, especially with the advent of online multiplayer.

Truly wild.

Alot of people say there's no reason to return to the old animal crossings when the newest one is out since that's the one with the quality of life improvements and modern conveniences and while that is true in that aspect these older ones especially the original, this one & city folk clearly just have way more depth to every character, all the villagers have way more to them in the older ones they feel human they all have individual likes and dislikes they're all unique vs. the new ones were they are essentially just cute - not cute husks with eight different personality types spread across 300+ villagers with no little unique likes and dislikes for all of them just eight flavours of stock villager and that's it that you collect as decoration for your village / island.

It feels like in attempt for more mass appeal animal crossing had to eliminate most of it's soul to do so in new leaf onwards which is a damn shame the new games are clearly more free to customize everything to your will and it is fun more and convenient to design than the older ones but feel alot more hollow and lacking in personality than them at the same time, it's been really interesting for me to play this game now since it's my first time playing and I started with new leaf and I say alot of this confidencence and clearly no "older games were better cause I grew up with them!" bias.