i've always been a bit of a nut for Animal Crossing. my sister had City Folk when i was real young and i got to see her play it a few times, but at that time the only other videogames i'd seen were Mario, so it confused the hell out of me. later in life, however, i got my grubby little mitts on New Leaf, and that was where my love really blossomed for the series. a couple of years after that i got a Gamecube and Animal Crossing, the original, for my birthday, and i absolutely LOVED that one. hell, i'd say ACGC has a spot on my list of favorite games of all time, that's how much i love it. you might have noticed a single game exempt from that little history lesson, however, and that's Animal Crossing: Wild World. somehow this one always seemed to allude me, i didn't play it until i was well into middle school, and i didn't get into it until i was in high school. funnily enough though, this is the entry in the series i hear the most nostalgia talk for, and is usually what i hear got people into the series. (well, of the people who got into the series pre-New Leaf, that is...)

a lot of people pin ACGC as being the black sheep of the series, and while it is very different, there's no denying that Wild World also shares a lot of that early entry weirdness. while Wild World did introduce a lot of mechanics and ideas that would become mainstays for the remainder of the series, each new addition comes with an asterisk. you can now grow and breed flowers, but doing so is pretty infuriating, since you can't tell what flowers you've already watered, and they wilt super often. town ratings are exceptionally picky, and getting a "perfect" town borders on impossible. because of the new menu system and lack of a quickswap for tools, catching bees requires a really weird technique where you "fling" their pathing off your track and confuse them while you get your net out. unlike in ACGC, every player that lives in your town share the same house, instead of getting their own. probably weirdest of all, Wild World lacks almost all of the main holidays. no Toy Day, no Harvest Festival, no Halloween! instead you get New Years, the Acorn Festival, and Yay Day, which takes place on the fourth sunday of every odd numbered month, and where everyone has to be nice to each other. a lot of Wild World's holidays never appear in any other game either, making the whole thing even stranger.

all of this probably makes it sound like Wild World is a total flop of a sequel, but that couldn't be further from the truth. as i said before, Wild World introduced a whole plethora of new features that would become vital series mainstays! easily the biggest one has to be multiplayer, it's always so weird to remember that ACGC just straight up didn't have any way to play with others, because Animal Crossing has become so synonymous with multiplayer to me. not to mention, Wild World had online multiplayer from the get-go! that feels like the type of thing that would need at least one more entry to get added, but here it is right from the start! so many new cosmetic options for making your character more personalized to you, you're not locked to being able to change one single texture like you are in ACGC, you get to change shirts, wear hats or glasses, and can even change your hair! touch controls are huge for custom designs too, making a pattern with a Gamecube controller just wasn't it in ACGC, so this is absolutely a welcome change. the portable nature of the DS also adds a ton to the style of play they encourage in AC, and of course it promotes the social aspect of the game. i mean, in ACGC, if you wanted to visit someone's town you had to convince them to let you borrow their memory card (or use a blank memory card to store their town data so you can visit) take it home, ride the train over, and even then it's not like you're playing with them, you're just visiting. in Wild World, all you gotta do is go to the gate and connect with local wireless. it really does feel like AC was made for portable play, and that's probably why i've never been able to really get into City Folk. oh yeah, and the new additions to the museum are awesome. this was the first game to introduce the Roost and Brewster, and i think Wild World's iteration of it is the best it's ever been. the constellations with Celeste are also a super fun addition, and a pretty cute utilization of the top screen. this was also the first game to make the museum exhibits be more elaborate, in ACGC they were these pretty tiny rooms that had everything crammed together, but Wild World gives them some room to breathe and it feels a lot better this way.

well, Wild World is certainly innovative, but how does it stand as a game, separated from its legacy? well... it's rough. the controls feel pretty clunky, unlike something like New Leaf where the controls are a hybrid of buttons and touch screen, Wild World separates the two control schemes in a weird way. when you press a button, the game switches into "button mode", as indicated by a little icon that pops up in the top left of the bottom screen. if you tap the touch screen the game switches into "touch mode", and these two control modes are completely separate. when you switch modes, you can't make any inputs for a second, and it feels especially clunky switching from touch to buttons. this is pretty annoying, i generally prefer moving my character with buttons, but i like using the touch screen for stuff like menus. it feels cumbersome having these be as separated as they are, i really don't know why they did this. another sticking point is the performance, the game runs at a cool 20 fps at all times, and it definitely takes some getting used to. some people don't really like how the game looks overall, since the DS sort of struggles with 3D graphics, but i'm personally alright with it. they did their best with the hardware they were given, and i think it turned out alright. one last thing i wanna bring up is the soundtrack, this is absolutely just personal taste on my part, but Wild World was the first game where they went for the more "relaxing" sound with the music, and it's not nearly as fun as the music in ACGC. like, come on, they made 2AM relaxing. have you HEARD the ACGC version of that song? changing that is a total crime, and it wouldn't go back to the classic style until New Horizons.

so... is Wild World really worth coming back to? from an objective perspective, probably not. if you're looking to get a portable Animal Crossing, New Leaf is literally right there, it's a lot more accessible and has a lot of quality of life additions compared to Wild World. but from a personal perspective... i love Wild World. it's so fascinating coming back to it with all of my other AC knowledge, and i can appreciate everything it's going for, even if it doesn't 100% nail the landing. i'd say to at least give it a shot for a week and see if you like it, it deserves a chance.