it's animal crossing, the staple mechanics'll never be bad so i cannot rate it any less, but the soundtrack is strangely the thing that kept throwing me off because it's the same as wild world's (with different instruments). this is a really subjective point, but it's strange, even with more updated instrumentation the very composition of wild world's soundtracks make me expect something a little smaller/minimal than a (comparatively) high framerate console edition (and the original compositions suit it really well!), but i'll put this down to association from years of playing wild world really lol. do also agree with the grass mechanics that the ground itself doesn't look as lovely, haven't played enough to determine if this really is the point where the dialogue went downhill but i've got my suspicions (!). not to mention how difficult i find adjusting to the wii compared to a standard controller for this specific kind of game, but again it's a subjective one. boy, this is a whole lot of complaining for an animal crossing game- well other than the grass the graphics are fantastically charming as always and fit right into the cosy visuals of the game for me, especially indoors, as always each object feels lovingly rendered - plus this game began pro patterns! definitely worth visiting on a tour of the older games especially for charm, but I'm not sure how well it'll age as an example of the series in terms of exemplifying its gameplay decades down the line.

Probably a terribly unpopular opinion, but this one was actually my favorite as a kid? I think it’s because I played it SO, SO much with my best friends compared to any of the other games (save WW) that I will forever be deeply fond of it. Like sure it’s not at all that impressive compared to what we have now but the addition of the city had me LOSING MY MINDDD when I was a kid, I would go to the city with my best friends every single day to fuck around. It’s admittedly not terribly different or much of an improvement from WW in most other respects, but I loved WW with a fevered passion, so that wasn’t at all a bad thing to me. Somehow I used to always get into situations where I didn’t save my game in this one, so this was the game that REALLY made me terrified of Resetti to the point of having nightmares as a kid LMFAO. The pretending to delete your save and cutting to the black screen prank with him made me cry as a kid it was objectively hilarious looking back. Again, I guess it’s not that impressive of a game in the series now, but to me it was everything as a kid and with how I played it religiously every single day for YEARS it’s easily the most hours I’ve sunk into any game ever (again, save maybe WW).

Stale isn't strong enough a word. The content recycling is one thing, though disappointing given the years between this & Wild World. But the dialogue looping is inexcusable. The original Animal Crossing & its DS sequel both offered just enough variety in conversations across villagers to keep the game loop working. With your neighbors getting stuck on one damn thing so often in City Folk, the illusion's dispelled.

Then you see how, even with some added content like new holidays & collectibles, the city itself is just a demystified way to access previously event-only features. Sure, it's awesome that I can get my hair done anytime vs. the dumb unlocking method in WW. But why not simply give & tell players a way to get the hairdresser at Nookington's? Then you can stay in the village—you know, the actually relevant setting of the game. Instead of finding better ways to let players unlock & integrate new functions into the village, City Folk took the easy way out, and it's harmed it ever since.

The developers must have realized (or learned through market research) how badly they missed the mark on most players' expectations. New Leaf fixes so many of CF's omissions & questionable decisions. But for all the fun I can still have with this entry, it just has me pining for a WW decompilation so we can get proper content & mechanics mods for it already. I loved this as a kid, but would much rather play the idiosyncratic GC versions or WW for those neat villager hobbies & pictures. Even returning now with cheats & emulation niceties doesn't make a dent in CF's mediocrity.

I haven't even touched on dirt paths, barely improved online, using the pointer for typing, and other exhausting but well-trodden topics. All I can do now is ponder how much worse this could have turned out if not for the core developers' consistency in porting the working bits of GC & WW over. I'm just glad even the most mid of pre-New Horizons entries is still a little fun. (N64 is a glorified prototype, so I'm not counting it here.)