Animal Crossing: Wild World
Encyclopedia
is a 2005 social simulation
video game developed and published by Nintendo
for the Nintendo DS
handheld game console
, and is the second game in the Animal Crossing
series.
Wild World focuses on living in a remote
village
populated with anthropomorphic animals, where the player is encouraged to perform any number of tasks, such as collecting
and planting. Like all Animal Crossing titles, the game is synced to the console's clock and calendar, allowing the game to be played in real-time
, which affects the occurrence of in-game events based on the current time of day
or season
. Wild World also utilizes Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
, which notably allows players to travel and visit the villages of other players via online play.
The game released positive reviews upon release, gaining aggregate scores of 86 and 86.46% on Metacritic
and GameRankings. Wild World is the ninth best-selling game on the Nintendo DS with 10.79 million copies sold worldwide as of May 2009.
items, fish and insects, or socializing with the village's residents. The game is synchronized with the Nintendo DS
clock and calendar, allowing the game to be played in real-time
. For example, both daytime
and night
will occur in the village depending on the current hour, and snow
will fall during the winter
months. Different events occur at particular times of the year, such as holidays and the variation of collectible fauna
depending on the month or season.
Wild World features a high level of customization
. The player character
's appearance can be modified to the player's preference: it can be dressed from a large selection of available clothes and accessories, or players can design new clothing pattern
s from scratch with help from the village tailor
. The environment itself can be modified: tree
s can be grown or chopped down in any part of the village, and the players share a house that can be furnished with collected furniture and items. Wild World also adds the ability to draw constellation
s that are visible in the night sky.
Wild World utilizes the two screens of the Nintendo DS in various ways. The game allows players to interact via the system's touch screen, which is used to manage inventory, write messages, draw designs for clothes, or control the player character. Unlike the previous iteration which had used a top-down perspective, Wild World allows both the ground and sky to be visible at the same time on each of the screens, allowing the players to view events occurring in the sky without needing to switch perspectives. This is done by using a "rolling log" effect, in which the terrain seems to bend and roll beneath the player's feet when travelling about the village.
, with which players can visit other villages. Because players are required to exchange and register Friend Codes prior to visiting, connection to random players is not possible. Up to four players can explore the same village simultaneously. NWC can also be used to exchange items and custom-designed patterns between players, as well as receiving exclusive gifts from Nintendo
while connected.
Wild World is also compatible with its Wii
successor, Animal Crossing: City Folk. Players are able transfer their player character and inventory from Wild World to City Folk via a wireless connection between the two consoles.
touch screen and implement multiplayer capabilities. When development on Animal Crossing: Wild World first begun, it was decided that nothing was going to be region-specific in order to make the game easier to localize. Therefore, certain events that were originally observed in Animal Crossing, such as those based on Halloween
, Christmas
, and the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival
, are not observed in Wild World. This rule was also applied to the variety of fish and insects the player is able to collect.
item called "Red Tulips" that was able to corrupt saved game
data. If placed on the floor inside the player's house, the item would create an invisible and indelible "wall" that rendered the spot in which it was positioned useless. Nintendo issued an official statement regarding the glitch, telling players that the bug was not caused by a hacker
but was due to an internal error with the upload tool used to send exclusive gifts to players, and recommended that users who received the letter delete it whenever possible.
In 2008, journalists who were sent copies of Animal Crossing: City Folk for review
were also sent copies of Wild World that contained existing save data to demonstrate the game's ability to transfer a player's inventory from Wild World to City Folk. On December 3, MTV
reported that one of the animal characters in the modified copies of Wild World had its customizable catchphrase set to "Ñiggá
." The edited slur had not been caught by the game's profanity
detection system, which prevents players from setting character dialogue to anything deemed distasteful. Nintendo issued an official apology and recalled the modified copies, stating that the incident was caused by a wireless function that automatically transfers catchphrases between games.
.
Some reviews felt that Wild World did not entirely expand upon the what Animal Crossing had to offer, referring to the changes as incremental. While some reviews liked the implementation of using either the Nintendo DS
buttons or the touch screen for game control, Nintendo World Report
felt that using the touch screen for controlling the player character
was "imprecise," and IGN
felt that "Nintendo did not take the [game] down a path that takes advantage of this touch screen control." The absence of familiar holiday
s, which were removed to ease the localization process, was also criticized.
The addition of online play was praised by many critics. Computer and Video Games
felt that the online play "extends the experience into true social gaming," and IGN stated that "Nintendo gave us everything we were asking for when playing the GameCube version: a much more intuitive way of trading items and enjoying other players' creations. And, at the very least, the company succeeded." However, multiplayer was also criticized for its tedious implementation and questionable restrictions, specifically the requirement of Friend Codes and the inability to send mail to other players unless he or she was visiting that person's village. Other online "oddities" mentioned include the disappearance of all animal residents during the visit and the fact that North America
n and Europe
an players are unable to connect with Japan
ese players. Wild World producer Katsuya Eguchi
stated that these limitations were due to hardware and memory
constraints.
stated that Animal Crossing: Wild World sold 325,460 copies in Japan in its first week of availability, beating the previous mark set by Jump! Superstars and becoming the best-selling title for the Nintendo DS until the release of Brain Age 2. It is the 29th best-selling game of Japan in 2008, selling 4.7 million copies by July that year.
As of May 2009, Wild World has sold 10.79 million copies worldwide.
Social simulation game
Social simulation games are a subgenre of life simulation game that explore social interactions between multiple artificial lives. The most famous example from this genre is The Sims series of games.-Influences and origins:...
video game developed and published by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
handheld game console
Handheld game console
A handheld game console is a lightweight, portable electronic device with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are run on machines of small size allowing people to carry them and play them at any time or place...
, and is the second game in the Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing
The Animal Crossing games have garnered positive response. The first three games are among the best-selling for their respective consoles. Animal Crossing has sold 2.321 million copies; Wild World 10.79 million; and City Folk 3.38 million...
series.
Wild World focuses on living in a remote
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
populated with anthropomorphic animals, where the player is encouraged to perform any number of tasks, such as collecting
Collecting
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...
and planting. Like all Animal Crossing titles, the game is synced to the console's clock and calendar, allowing the game to be played in real-time
Real-time (media)
Real time within the media is a method of narratology wherein events are portrayed at the same rate that the audience experiences them. For example, if a movie told in real-time is two hours long, then the plot of that movie covers two hours of fictional time...
, which affects the occurrence of in-game events based on the current time of day
Hour
The hour is a unit of measurement of time. In modern usage, an hour comprises 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds...
or season
Season
A season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
. Wild World also utilizes Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
The is an online multiplayer gaming service run by Nintendo to provide free online play in compatible Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and Wii games. The service includes the company's Wii Shop Channel, DSi Shop, and Nintendo eShop game download services...
, which notably allows players to travel and visit the villages of other players via online play.
The game released positive reviews upon release, gaining aggregate scores of 86 and 86.46% on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
and GameRankings. Wild World is the ninth best-selling game on the Nintendo DS with 10.79 million copies sold worldwide as of May 2009.
Gameplay
Like all games in the Animal Crossing series, Wild World is an open-ended game in which the player assumes the role of a human child who has moved into a village populated with anthropomorphic animals. During his/her time spent in the village, the player is able to perform a number of various activities, such as collectingCollecting
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...
items, fish and insects, or socializing with the village's residents. The game is synchronized with the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
clock and calendar, allowing the game to be played in real-time
Real-time (media)
Real time within the media is a method of narratology wherein events are portrayed at the same rate that the audience experiences them. For example, if a movie told in real-time is two hours long, then the plot of that movie covers two hours of fictional time...
. For example, both daytime
Daytime (astronomy)
On Earth, daytime is roughly the period on any given point of the planet's surface during which it experiences natural illumination from indirect or direct sunlight....
and night
Night
Night or nighttime is the period of time when the sun is below the horizon. This occurs after dusk. The opposite of night is day...
will occur in the village depending on the current hour, and snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
will fall during the winter
Winter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...
months. Different events occur at particular times of the year, such as holidays and the variation of collectible fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
depending on the month or season.
Wild World features a high level of customization
Personalization
Personalization involves using technology to accommodate the differences between individuals. Once confined mainly to the Web, it is increasingly becoming a factor in education, health care Personalization involves using technology to accommodate the differences between individuals. Once confined...
. The player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
's appearance can be modified to the player's preference: it can be dressed from a large selection of available clothes and accessories, or players can design new clothing pattern
Pattern (sewing)
In sewing and fashion design, a pattern is an original garment from which other garments of a similar style are copied, or the paper or cardboard templates from which the parts of a garment are traced onto fabric before cutting out and assembling .Patternmaking, pattern making or pattern cutting is...
s from scratch with help from the village tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
. The environment itself can be modified: tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s can be grown or chopped down in any part of the village, and the players share a house that can be furnished with collected furniture and items. Wild World also adds the ability to draw constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
s that are visible in the night sky.
Wild World utilizes the two screens of the Nintendo DS in various ways. The game allows players to interact via the system's touch screen, which is used to manage inventory, write messages, draw designs for clothes, or control the player character. Unlike the previous iteration which had used a top-down perspective, Wild World allows both the ground and sky to be visible at the same time on each of the screens, allowing the players to view events occurring in the sky without needing to switch perspectives. This is done by using a "rolling log" effect, in which the terrain seems to bend and roll beneath the player's feet when travelling about the village.
Online connectivity
Wild World is the first game in the Animal Crossing series to feature online play and was one of the first games to utilize Nintendo Wi-Fi ConnectionNintendo Wi-Fi Connection
The is an online multiplayer gaming service run by Nintendo to provide free online play in compatible Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and Wii games. The service includes the company's Wii Shop Channel, DSi Shop, and Nintendo eShop game download services...
, with which players can visit other villages. Because players are required to exchange and register Friend Codes prior to visiting, connection to random players is not possible. Up to four players can explore the same village simultaneously. NWC can also be used to exchange items and custom-designed patterns between players, as well as receiving exclusive gifts from Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
while connected.
Wild World is also compatible with its Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
successor, Animal Crossing: City Folk. Players are able transfer their player character and inventory from Wild World to City Folk via a wireless connection between the two consoles.
Development
The game was first announced at E3 2004 under the tentative title Animal Crossing DS, where it was revealed to utilize the Nintendo DSNintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
touch screen and implement multiplayer capabilities. When development on Animal Crossing: Wild World first begun, it was decided that nothing was going to be region-specific in order to make the game easier to localize. Therefore, certain events that were originally observed in Animal Crossing, such as those based on Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
, Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, and the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival
Hanami
is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers, "flower" in this case almost always meaning cherry blossoms or ume blossoms. From the end of March to early May, sakura bloom all over Japan, and around the first of February on the island of Okinawa...
, are not observed in Wild World. This rule was also applied to the variety of fish and insects the player is able to collect.
Technical issues
On January 26, 2006, a blank letter was sent to a number of players connected to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection that contained a glitchSoftware bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
item called "Red Tulips" that was able to corrupt saved game
Saved game
A saved game is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. This saved game can be reloaded later, so the player can continue where he or she had stopped...
data. If placed on the floor inside the player's house, the item would create an invisible and indelible "wall" that rendered the spot in which it was positioned useless. Nintendo issued an official statement regarding the glitch, telling players that the bug was not caused by a hacker
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
but was due to an internal error with the upload tool used to send exclusive gifts to players, and recommended that users who received the letter delete it whenever possible.
In 2008, journalists who were sent copies of Animal Crossing: City Folk for review
Review
A review is an evaluation of a publication, a product or a service, such as a movie , video game, musical composition , book ; a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer; or an event or performance, such as a live music concert, a play, musical theater show or dance show...
were also sent copies of Wild World that contained existing save data to demonstrate the game's ability to transfer a player's inventory from Wild World to City Folk. On December 3, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
reported that one of the animal characters in the modified copies of Wild World had its customizable catchphrase set to "Ñiggá
Nigga
Nigga is a term used in African American Vernacular English that began as an eye dialect form of the word nigger .- Use in language :In practice, its use and meaning are...
." The edited slur had not been caught by the game's profanity
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
detection system, which prevents players from setting character dialogue to anything deemed distasteful. Nintendo issued an official apology and recalled the modified copies, stating that the incident was caused by a wireless function that automatically transfers catchphrases between games.
Reception
Animal Crossing: Wild World received positive reviews, gaining an aggregate score of 86 out of 100 on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
Some reviews felt that Wild World did not entirely expand upon the what Animal Crossing had to offer, referring to the changes as incremental. While some reviews liked the implementation of using either the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
buttons or the touch screen for game control, Nintendo World Report
Nintendo World Report
Nintendo World Report is a Nintendo-specific video game website that covers Nintendo's current consoles, the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, and Wii.-History:...
felt that using the touch screen for controlling the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
was "imprecise," and IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
felt that "Nintendo did not take the [game] down a path that takes advantage of this touch screen control." The absence of familiar holiday
Holiday
A Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...
s, which were removed to ease the localization process, was also criticized.
The addition of online play was praised by many critics. Computer and Video Games
Computer and video games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
felt that the online play "extends the experience into true social gaming," and IGN stated that "Nintendo gave us everything we were asking for when playing the GameCube version: a much more intuitive way of trading items and enjoying other players' creations. And, at the very least, the company succeeded." However, multiplayer was also criticized for its tedious implementation and questionable restrictions, specifically the requirement of Friend Codes and the inability to send mail to other players unless he or she was visiting that person's village. Other online "oddities" mentioned include the disappearance of all animal residents during the visit and the fact that North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an players are unable to connect with Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese players. Wild World producer Katsuya Eguchi
Katsuya Eguchi
is a game designer and manager at Nintendo EAD. He was born in 1965 in Tokyo, Japan and grew up in the Chiba Prefecture. He began work at Nintendo in 1986 and spent some time doing promotional artwork before starting as a designer on Super Mario Bros. 3. He first served as director for Star Fox in...
stated that these limitations were due to hardware and memory
Random-access memory
Random access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in...
constraints.
Sales
On December 1, 2005, Media CreateMedia Create
is a Japanese company that "gathers and analyzes data from the digital entertainment industry, specifically focusing on the Japanese console gaming market...
stated that Animal Crossing: Wild World sold 325,460 copies in Japan in its first week of availability, beating the previous mark set by Jump! Superstars and becoming the best-selling title for the Nintendo DS until the release of Brain Age 2. It is the 29th best-selling game of Japan in 2008, selling 4.7 million copies by July that year.
As of May 2009, Wild World has sold 10.79 million copies worldwide.