NINTENDO WII | 2008
What Is Animal Crossing: City Folk?
Animal Crossing: City Folk is a social simulator where players fish, collect bugs, and dig up fossils alongside happy animal villagers in their own personal town.
This iteration of Animal Crossing includes a city to visit that provides unique services such as shoe shining and makeovers.
Why Animal Crossing: City Folk Is A Bucket List Game
Animal Crossing: City Folk for Nintendo Wii is a must-play game everyone should try due to its simplistic game design and relaxing gameplay.
Collecting wildlife and befriending animal neighbors is a bunch of fun, and this game’s unique features make it a worthwhile entry in the franchise.
Animal Crossing is never a dull moment, and City Folk is one of the best in the series
Being able to control the world and interact with menus by using the Wii Remote’s pointer made navigating faster and easier than ever before.
Selecting items, fishing, and hitting fossils became simple point-and-click tasks but remained fun to perform.
Animal Crossing: City Folk also added a fun city area with unique shops to visit and characters to meet. The game also uses a scrolling-world camera view that makes the game world more dynamic to explore.
There’s also a breath of new content to enjoy from K.K. Slider songs to character customization options, hairstyles, and much more.
Animal Crossing is never a dull moment, and City Folk is one of the best in the series.
I’ve played this entry for hundreds of hours along with my spouse, and I can say with certainty that Animal Crossing: City Folk is a bucket list game players should play in their lifetime.
- Relaxing gameplay
- Charming, cartoon visuals
- Unique and endearing villagers
- Addictive gameplay
- Fun for completionists
- Very High Replay Value
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What System Is Animal Crossing: City Folk On?
Animal Crossing: City Folk is available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii in physical format. City Folk can be played on all versions of the Nintendo Wii, including the Nintendo Wii Mini. Furthermore, City Folk can also be played on the Nintendo Wii U via the system’s Nintendo Wii compatibility app.
Animal Crossing: City Folk is not available on PC, Xbox, or PlayStation systems. The game has also never been re-released on any other console or platform, making the Nintendo Wii the only place you can play Animal Crossing: City Folk.
With that said, two Animal Crossing sequels have been released after Animal Crossing: City Folk that are worthy to play.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf for Nintendo 3DS and Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s for the Nintendo Switch family of consoles are two direct sequels that build upon gameplay foundations of City Folk.
Animal Crossing: City Folk is available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii in physical format
Both games introduced gameplay mechanics, items, and new features to the classic Animal Crossing formula which makes each worth visiting.
I personally enjoy Animal Crossing: New Leaf’s portability and amiibo figurine interaction. Amiibo can be scanned to add unique items and new villagers to the game.
My love of Animal Crossing: New Horizons stems from the additions of a robust crafting system to create items, an expanded daily missions and reward systems, and the ability to place furniture and items outside.
If you don’t have access to a Nintendo Wii and Animal Crossing: City Folk, I suggest playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Nintendo Switch, as it’s the latest and most popular entry in the series.
Optionally, you can play Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for mobile phones such as Android device and iPhones.
Pocket Camp is a free-to play game that takes many of the series’ core components and offers them in bite sized chunks for fun min-sessions.
What Genre Is Animal Crossing: City Folks?
Animal Crossing: City Folk is a relaxing social simulator that is controlled in real-time by the player.
The popular game can also be categorized as a single player experience with multiplayer options, online support, and social features.
City Folk’s social aspect comes from building relationships with villagers and your town’s various main characters.
Players do this by accepting and completing tasks for neighbors such as finding missing items, delivering packages, and providing medicine to the sickly.
Gameplay’s occurs at the press of a button without needing to wait turns. Press a button to make something happen, and move your character by tilting the analog stick or by using pointer controls of the Wii Remote to point at locations on the screen.
Animal Crossing: City Folk is a relaxing social simulator that is controlled in real-time by the player
Most of the game is a single player affair, revolving around catching and donating wildlife to the town’s museum and paying off your mortgage. Stumbling upon new bugs, fish, and fossils as the seasons change while finding ways to maximize profits makes for hundreds of hours of fun gameplay sessions.
Multiplayer options such as being able to visit other player’s towns via online play adds even more enjoyable social aspects to the game.
City Folk also supports up to 4 players being able to live in the same town on the same system. Players, however, cannot play at the same time but can interact with each other in various ways.
One player can drop items or leave messages for another player as an example, making gameplay a shared experience that is dynamic.
My spouse and I played hundreds of hours of Animal Crossing City Folk by sharing the same town. She would take our Nintendo Wii with her whenever she traveled. We would both play at night and on the weekends, sharing items and tips with each other along the way.
The social aspect and ability to share the same village is what made Nintendo Wii’s Animal Crossing such a special game for me and my significant other. Memories I cherish to this very day.
How Long Does It Take To Beat Animal Crossing: City Folk?
Animal Crossing: City Folk takes between 60 and 500 plus hours to beat over the course of a calendar year. The time it takes to complete the game varies and depends on how many bugs, fish, fossils, and items that are collected along with the amount of seasonal events a player wishes to experience.
- Average play time: 70-150+ hours
- Completionist play time: 250-500+ hours
The average player can expect to spend 70 to 100 hours to complete City Folk’s main goals. Paying off your house and finding a good portion of museum donations can be finished within this time frame.
Completionists–players who enjoy collecting and doing every thing a game has to offer to completion–will need to spend 250 to over 500 hours to see and do everything the game has to offer.
Animal Crossing: City Folk takes between 60 and 500 plus hours to beat over the course of a calendar year
Since the game revolves around a real time clock, the day in the game is the same as in real life.
This means that the game must be played all year long to catch bugs and fish that only appear in Spring or Summer, for example.
Dedicated players will play City Folk over the course of a year in order to catch every wildlife and to experience seasonal events that only come once a year in order to maximize the most out of their gaming sessions.
Thankfully, you can play as much or as little as you like and still find enjoyment.
There are no rules and no mandates to how long you should play. Play time is a result of how much fun you are having with City Folk. Take your time and play as you like.
Can You Still Play Animal Crossing: City Folk Online (2021/2022/Beyond)
Animal Crossing: City Folk can no longer be played online. The online services for the game were shutdown on May 20th, 2014. After that date, online functionality for City Folk such as being able to visit other player’s towns, receiving free items, and sharing of content stopped being possible.
Furthermore, Animal Crossing: City Folk along with all Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS games that used Nintendo’s WiFi Connection service for online features cannot be played online.
Animal Crossing: City Folk can no longer be played online
Nintendo shut down their Nintendo WiFi Connection for online features on May 20th, 2014, removing online play from almost all games on the Wii and DS or severely limiting them.
Some online features shutoff by this event players can no longer access include
- matchmaking
- online play with others
- leaderboards
- virtual tournaments
- user generated data and content sharing
- online item exchanges
- the ability to download free content
- other features
Online features specific to Animal Crossing: City Folk that players can no longer access due to its online service being shutoff include
- visiting other player’s towns over the internet
- using voice communications with online players
- receiving free items and event gifts from Nintendo
There is no official way to play Animal Crossing: City Folk online, although a group of enthusiasts has created unofficial means to continue doing so. This unofficial method is not endorsed by Nintendo in any way or form.
Rather, play Animal Crossing: New Horizons to enjoy online features that is officially supported by Nintendo for the most up-to-date and modern online Animal Crossing experience.
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