This new Wii entry in the Animal Crossing series offers towns, cities, online voice chat, and more!
The heavily rumored Wii iteration of Animal Crossing is now official. Animal Crossing: City Folk will hit stores this holiday season and will bring along the gameplay we all know and love and some very new innovations. The biggest of these innovations is the WiiSpeak microphone. The device, placed on top of the sensor bar, picks up the conversation of the entire room to "encourage a more inclusive experience." The WiiSpeak microphone allows for online voice chat via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. In this upcoming game, you will be able to use this feature with up to three other friends so you can hang out in either your or one of your friends' towns. However, this device will be sold separately.
The title of the game also hints at the other big innovation in the series. There is now a bus that will take you to the city if "you're in the mood for something a little faster paced." In the new area, you can do many things including, but hopefully not limited to, seeing a show at the theater, shopping at stores like Gracie's Boutique, and going to the hair salon and getting a new haircut and a "Mii makeover," which makes your character look like a Mii. However, if you become too entranced with the allure of the big city, your animal neighbors will begin to miss you.
Besides these two big innovations, this appears to be very similar to the previous incarnations of the series on GameCube and DS. As per usual, up to four players can live in the same town and you can interact with all of your friends, whether they are CPU-controlled animals, family members on the same system as you, or friends from all over the world.
After all, who can resist collecting eggs on Bunny Day? Check out the trailer for the game below. Animal Crossing: City Folk will come out this holiday season.