Animal Crossing: City Folk

Animal Crossing: City Folk

This is my first Animal Crossing game, so don't get mad at me if I don't say things that are correct or whatever :D

City Folk, the sequel to Wild World, which is the sequel to Animal Crossing (GCN), is Nintendo's attempt at The Sims. With animals. Basically, you are a new neighbor (a human), who's moved into a town full of animals. There is no actual plot, but it's more of a day-to-day activity thing. There's something going on a lot, such as holidays, a birthday, or a weird day Nintendo decided to celebrate. Talk Like a Pirate Day, hmmm.....

There's no limit to what you can do in Animal Crossing. You can fish, catch bugs, dig up treasures, go shopping at the local stores, such as Tom Nook's or the Able Sisters Clothes Store. Also, you can visit the City Hall, visit neighbors' houses, get a cup of coffee, or check out the many cool exhibits at the Museum.

Since you could pretty much do all this in previous games, you're probably wondering, "Why is City Folk different from past AC games." Well, as the title City Folk implies, your character can now take a bus to the city, and look at all the stores there. There's a theater, a department store, an auction house, even a salon. There's also a secret shop and a fortune teller. This wasn't a huge change for me, but this was:

You can now use Nintendo Wi-Fi and visit your friends' towns, or have them come here. This was a lot of fun, provided you have some friends. This is also the first game to use Nintendo's new WiiSpeak, promptly named, for a microphone to talk to friends. It basically sits in your room and picks up anything anyone around it says. It worked and sounded very well.

Pros:
Good Replay Value
Wi-Fi Connectivity

Cons:
No Real Change

Overall - 7/10

The Conduit

The Conduit (Wii)

The Conduit is a pretty mediocre shooter, that is if it was released on xBox or PS3. But for Wii's sake, it's the best one on the market. It's taken 3 years but we finally got a Wii FPS that isn't terrible.

Like I said, let's give this Wii FPS a chance, shall we? You play as Agent Ford, a kick-butt agent who was betrayed by the organization he works for, blah..blah..blah... seen this one before? Although The Conduit isn't light on story, it makes up for it.

The controls are fantabulous. I know that's not a word, but it does describe The Conduit's controls. You can customize anything, HUD placements, sensitivity, everything. This was The Conduit's main selling point for me. Once you do a little work, you will find the control scheme that is just right for you.

Like every FPS, you play through the levels in a linear way. The AI is terrible, however. They hardly ever take cover, and you see the same people like 20 times in one level. That brings me to another point: level design. It's very predictable and you almost know exactly when and where an enemy will show up.

The solo campaign is super short, about 5 or 6 hours. After reading all this, you probably thinking "Wow, The Conduit sucks!" but it really does not. Of all this stuff it lacks, it makes up for it all in the best multiplayer I've ever seen on the Wii. 12 players online, multiple game modes, Wii Speak? Whoa, yes it's true. Matchmaking is simple and takes about two minutes, and you can choose game rules, weapon set, and map. Some maps are awful, but some are fun like the Pentagon, the Sanctum, Streets, and the Warehouse. The only bad thing is that I always found myself playing Quick Match, no other modes. Because they are a lot of fun and I don't know why people don't choose them.

Well, that's about all The Conduit has to offer. It's not only a good shooter, but also a fantastic multiplayer game. It's only a shame that there's no local multiplayer, though.

Pros:
Epic Controls
Fantastic Online

Cons:
Level Design
Predictable Story

Overall: 8.0/10