Oh hai. It's been a little over a month since I last posted. And I've been playing this almost every day since. At least 80% of days since. And now I can give a review that's a little deeper than first impressions combined with stuff I read off the back of the box:

This game is not much different from the last two but the few precious differences are things that were very noticeable needed in the last two games, such as a 24/7 postal service. That said, it still feels like things are missing. Animal Crossing's core design is something that is cool on paper but requires you to break so many rules to make it work. And they keep breaking more rules each time, but they haven't broken quite enough yet.

However, like the last game, it's still fun despite flaws, only this time it has fewer flaws, and more associated hype. Usually 'hype' is irrelevant, but not for this kind of game. I could go back and play Pokemon Red any time I want, but it's still not as fun if other people aren't also simultaneously playing it, because a great deal of your motivation comes from the knowledge that your customization will eventually be seen by other players. Animal Crossing is similar, and, fortunately, City Folk is enough of a 'thing' that there's no problem finding other people to play with. Especially in contrast to the last game I played with online social multiplayer, Mega Man Star Force 2, which had such a weak release it's nearly impossible to find enough active players to achieve certain goals.

The elephant in the room is a lack of better passive interactions. This game has added an offline mail system (through which the Happy Room Academy and the Auction House syndicate), and there's the city which is supposed to act as a hub for passive online interaction, but it doesn't really do enough. There's a disappointing lack of offline town interplay, even though realize that allowing users to passively leave their town open at all times might be adverse to the 'point' of the game. Though, this can be somewhat virtually achieved by just leaving your game on all the time, though it's not robust enough to be left unattended for days without needing to restart. But it still feels like Connect24 wasn't used to it's fullest potential.

It feels like the game broke the rules it needed to break to fix some problems with the last version, but didn't use those newly-broken rules to fix problems with itself. Actually, that's it. That's the big problem with the game. It improves old things and adds new things, but forgoes obvious improvements to the new things.

For example, grass tears away if you walk over it too much. Great, that's cool. But many players have found that after a month their town is just a muddy dump. It takes too long for grass to grow back, and there's nothing you can really do about it. The obvious improvement would be to sell 'grass seeds' at Nook's store or something. Or have a Katrina charm that makes your grass grow back, or something. It almost feels like they're intentionally pawning problems off to the sequels so they can be counted as 'upgrades' to the game's system.

There's also a general laziness in the transition. Like, the hair style place was moved into the city, instead of being at Nookington's, but once you get Nookington's the barbor shop store front is replaced with a big empty space. I mean, there's a noticeable empty space where her shop used to be, and the tables with items on them still 'make room' for her store front, but it's just not there anymore.

Or, the fact that you can build a bridge, but only in annoyingly preset spots. I'm sure the next game will allow you to place a bridge anywhere in the river. See what I'm saying?

Anyway, all that said, it's still a great game, despite annoying obvious problems. It's great because it's a social platform to interact with people, which is always fun. You just have to suck it up and realize it's not about the laziness or intuitiveness of the design. It's about making animals say sexual things to your friends.

So, I got this. I also got a wireless USB keyboard, Wii Speak, the guide, and various plushies and cat costumes for the contest which I entered. Total, it probably cost more than the Wii itself. Is it worth it? Sure why not.

As I was playing it, my boyfriend (who I also forced to play) kept stating that I didn't look too excited to be playing it, even though I was clearly exited to buy it. Because Animal Crossing isn't so much about playing it, it's kind of more about believing that the fictional world is more real than it is. The fun is having perceived story and relationship arcs with neighbors, more than it is about the daily grind. The actual things you can do are limited, but the fun is knowing there is a persistent virtual world that you and others have stake in. I'm really looking forward to other people getting the game, and friending it up.

Also, here's some details I found impossible to find before buying it: You can import your Wild World character, but only their face and catalog, and even though you can, the game encourages you not to. You cannot transfer over items, you can only rebuy non-uniques from your catalog. Outside of that, there is no Wild World connectivity. Which is kind of intentional and kind of great. Even when Rover asks you about importing your DS info, he seems hesitant to let you do it, and applauds you for choosing to 'start fresh' without it. It's weird, it's like the designers wanted to prove that the feature was there, but also kind of knew it would break the gameplay: You stopped playing Wild World for a reason, and your reason for stopping would just be transfered to a new game, so why not try again?

It's also done other subtle little things to keep you from quitting. Like, the catalog is no longer displayed as a Pokedex with missing entries, so it's hard to have collection urge, which is one of the reasons I quit playing the last one, because it became to feel like an impossible task, which is the opposite of what Animal Crossing is all about. Also, the catalog can be updated via downloaded content. They even cut back on how big your house can be. You can no longer have a giant mansion like in Wild World, only the two-floors-and-a-basement of the original Animal Crossing. Another really clever addition is the ability to get a closet JUST for Gyroids in the coffee shop (if you're friendly enough with the barista), which solves the problem of Gryoids being annoying space-clutterers. Also, closets are huge now, you can store 160 items, an additional 160 gyroids and 64 original patterns. While Wild World deviated from the original in being 'bigger', City Folk makes minor modest adjustments--some which even appear to be an elimination of features--to make you less likely to quit playing. It's nice.

Here's some stuff they added: You now pick your house from one of four randomly-plotted houses. Mine is right next to a cliff with a big front yard, and Dominik's door opens right into the sandy beach. Player houses are a lot more similar to animal houses (you don't have the pavement under your house anymore, it's about the size and shape as anyone else's house, with a mailbox instead of a sign). You can also get silver tools now, which are more effective tools, and gold tools have the special enhancements of the silver tools, but serve as trophies for completing daunting tasks. There is also a town fund, and donating to it can build a new bridge, a fountain (for turning axes gold), and a windmill or a lighthouse (you can choose), which sort of extends your mortgage goals once you've paid off your house. Oh yeah, you can also swat the Wii remote to catch bugs or fish, which actually feels really really good.

And then there's the city. The city is kind of cool--one thing that felt missing from Wild World was the non-town area. Where is Gracie Grace from, etc? How come it's called "Wild World" but it's just a bunch of towns. It's nice that there's an urban area, it kind of makes the game world feel more complete. The city itself, is basically just a bunch of service buildings, with a central area, where you can see any NPC character pulled from the entire list of NPC characters walkin' around. Then there's stores:

• There's the hairstyle place, where you can change your hair or also get a Mii mask applied to your character, which lets you take on and off a Mii mask/costume at any time from the designs screen.
  
• Katrina tells your fortune and can also give you 'charms' that only work for OTHER players when visiting YOUR town (like 'burry a shell') and, likewise, she'll give other players charms for their town that YOU would have to perform.
  
• Then there's a silent auction house (where you can access your closet--cool!) which is basically an ad hoc ebay between you and your registered friends, where you can only bid once, and can't see the current highest bid, and at the end of the auction the prize or refund is mailed to the bidders, and the money is direct-deposited to the seller.
  
• There's an expensive store that will sell a different complete set of furniture each day (though you buy each piece individually) and expensive exclusive clothing.
  
• There's an ATM, for accessing your bank and stuff.
  
• There's the Happy Room Academy HQ, where Lyle (formerly the insurance guy) is the 'host'. Basically, whoever among your friends has the highest HRA score will have a replica of their house on display in your city.
  
• There's a theater, where Dr Shrunk will tell jokes themed on a certain emotion. The jokes are usually bad, but they are designed to evoke that emotion (ie, 'Disappointment' is a joke about disappointment, but then he gives a disappointing performance) and they teach you emotions that you can access at any time from the top level menu by clicking on an icon at the top of the screen. There's also a rare different doctor who will teach a different group of emotions.
  
• There's Redd's store. It's basically a speakeasy. You can get to it every day, but it's harder to find the password. I still haven't found it.
  
• There's a skunk who will shine your shoes. You can choose to get a random shoe color scheme, or one that matches the style of the clothes you're wearing.
  
• There's a rumor that you can get access to Mr Resetti's HQ, where you can get a silver tool upgrade.

That's basically it. Online mode works pretty much the same, and you still have to be playing and open the gate (alas, no Wii Connect 24 for town visiting, only auctions and stuff) but it's easier to leave your gate open now, since it's a console and not a handheld, right? I'm pretty sure that this time you can leave your gate open at all times too, and the game will play as normal, without limiting what you can do when people come over. And, obviously, Wii Speak is out, but you know about that. The USB keyboard is also really cool. You can use it for typing letters and stuff, but you can also type into the 'chat' at any time without having to go to the keyboard menu. Just start typing, and a text box will appear, press enter and it'll popup above your head.

It's a good game. There aren't many changes from the last one, but the designers seem to have learned a few lessons about why people quit playing, and hopefully the players have too. Yes, it's basically a slightly better version of the same old animal crossing, but don't you like to think you could make it work? Isn't it fun to believe you're going to play the game forever, even though you might not? It's a fun and unique experience, and if anything, City Folk is another chance to start fresh.