I've avoided this thread for the past few days because my yearning for it grew greater. I caved and bought this, had my first play session with it early yesterday and I'm liking it so far. It's still very similar to Wild World but thats not a bad thing, I just wish there was more to do like a lot of people do, I just don't hate the game for it.
I'll be posting my friend code up, hopefully, later today and i'll be sure to add everyone here. Fair warning though, my town is nothing special since i've yet to plant any of my own trees or flowers, I didn't even make a town flag yet!
Don't worry, mine isn't special either (working on it).
I am personally enjoying it more than "Wild World". The online is far smoother and it feels great playing it on a tv.
Its a much polished experience than Wild World, IMHO.
I agree with everything except the online bit... but thats cuz I never played WW over wi-fi. By the time i got the game most people lost interest, and i wasn't going to scour the internet for die-hard AC fans to exchange friendcodes with.
I love the controls in CF are great. I love how you can play with just the wiimote if you're too lazy to hold up the nunchuk, and i love how the d-pad lets you change tools or put one away without going thru your pockets.
Online in Wild World was pretty sucky because life in your town would literally stop when another player came in. All of your villagers stay inside of their houses, and I believe more than one player can't enter the house. Then there was the communication aspect of the game. First, Wii Speak does a WORLD of wonders to the AC formula. Since the game is so light and breezy you can freely talk about anything not related to the game, like pets, movies and South Park episodes (something me and S_B did this morning :p ). Second, typing Wii mote is MUCH better than typing with the DS screen. Touch controls are good, but still feels like typing with one finger. You can type very quickly with the wiimote. Plus, you can connect an USB keyboard which gets the job done even aspect.
City Folk actually creates content around 4 players, like festivities and KK Slider, something Wild World never did. Since the Wii processor is faster and stronger than the DS's it allows for far more content to be shown online, creating a far more robust experience.
Then there are the graphics. I'm no graphics whore, but WW looked pretty bad. It was too grainy, the framerate was terrible when compared to other, more advanced DS games and you missed a lot of details due to how small the screen is. CF, on the other hand, looks clean, polished and bright. It adds a lot to the experience.
While I admit that taking some of the special visits and turning them into City attractions steals a bit of the anticipation it is very convenient. Dr. Shrunk barely appeared in my village so being able to visit him all week whenever I want is always a plus.
And like you mentioned, the controls are great. They are far more comfortable on the hands than the DS version.
Overall, City Folk is so awesome that Nintendo should have just scrapped the DS version and focus only on the Wii version. That way the impact would have been bigger.