You start the game by making a character in a nice and easy way: by answering some questions. A little later, after a lot of explanation so that also kiddies get it you get a loan for your first house and get a job to earn some money so you can buy and collect stuff. Your house is very important, just like the other inhabitants of the village so you'll spend a lot of time talking to them and hanging around.

The game still succeeds to feed you gradually with new events so that you keep coming back. Certain objects will only be found at certain days or hours that correspond what's happening in the real world (like Christmas) which gives a special touch to the game. Too bad Nintendo didn't make better use of actual events to add some new content or so through the internet connection. Maybe something for the next version? What you do get plenty of are plants, fishes, insects, fossiles and so on to collect. People that have something with collecting will easily become addicted.

New is that your character can leave the village by stepping on the bus. This will bring you to the city where you can find more locations and stores. This offers even more content and variation but you can't really call it revolutionary. More of the same is a better description, eventhough this addition does succeed in making the world a bit more credible and interesting. Nice but not essential.

Typically Nintendo is the operation between the Wii and the DS. The ideas are excellent: take your character (with the DS or online) to a friend to have a walk in their town. You can do this with multiple players at the same time and you can even have a nice chat through the excellent Wii Speak microphone (comes with the game). This is fun but it's (especially compared with Xbox Live or PSN) too complicated to set up these meetings. You can't talk with each other in advance and you need to open up a port before someone can join your world. On top of that you'll need to use your infamous Friend code, the name AND the city of your character. If Nintendo wants to follow their new strategy of accessibility they'll urgently have to look very closely to their online systems.

Technical aspects aside in the end a very relaxing and simply funny game remains. You walk around, talk a bit, throw out a fishing line or play hide and seek. You redecorate your living room or watch your collection of plants. Being in Animal Crossing remains a unique experience and almost makes you forget the little downpoints.