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| Tom Nook should be used in Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U, he could rob you of your health as he does of bells in the Animal Crossing games. |
The Animal Crossing games seem to follow the Mario Kart games formula, that formula being where only one game from the series is released per console. Animal Crossing: New Leaf just released for the Nintendo 3DS in the U.S. this week, and is the first 3DS Animal Crossing game. Before jumping to the trailer for the new 3DS game, we're looking at Tom Nook's Wii outing.
Animal Crossing: City Folk released for Wii on November 16, 2008. The game was developed by Nintendo's EAD studio, and it received an ESRB rating of "EVERYONE" with "Comic Mischief" listed as content for parents and gamers to be aware of.
If you own a Wii, or even a Wii U because of its backwards compatibility with Wii games, you can now get Animal Crossing: City Folk for under $20 as a Nintendo Selects title. How many hours might you expect from the game if you have never played it though? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look at the official U.S. Wii Nintendo Channel data to get an idea!
The Brew
Animal Crossing: City Folk now has approximately 456,147 U.S. Wii owners who have 38,477,386 Total Hours of game-play reported, with about 1,667 days possibly reported. The number of U.S. Wii owners with reported data has increased by just over 150,000 since July 2010, and over 80,000 since May 2011. The Total Hours reported have increased by over 15 million since July 2010, and over 9 million since the 2011.
City Folk players have averaged a total 84 Hours 22 Minutes "Per person" of play time with the game, which averages out to be 1 Hour 59 Minutes played per time reported. Its average reported "Per person" has seen an increase of 6 Hours 9 Minutes, from what was reported in May 2011.
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| Wouldn't K.K. Slider be good in Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U? He could have a guitar "smash" special move. |
How was the game received by critics and customers though? The game has a "professional" critic review score average of 73.54%, based on 48 reviews on GameRankings.com. Its customer review score average is currently an 82.70%, based on 288 reviews from Amazon.com for both the regular and Nintendo Selects listings of the game.
Caffeinated Thoughts
I have said before that I purchased Animal Crossing: City Folk because the bundle that included the Wii Speak microphone was discounted when I did, and I wanted the Wii Speak peripheral to use for The Conduit's online multiplayer. I didn't think I would really enjoy Animal Crossing very much, but was really surprised by it.
If Animal Crossing: New Leaf is anything like Animal Crossing: City Folk on the Wii, then it should provide you with many, many hours of game-play fun. You have the option to buy the 3DS game either in a digital format, or you can purchase a physical copy of it. There was even a recent post and discussion about this, Animal Crossing - the Digital Push, by a guy that doesn't complete very many games.
If you haven't seen anything on Animal Crossing: New Leaf, here's the launch trailer for the game:
While the digital version might make sense for some, if you base your expected average play time with the new 3DS game, off of the Wii version's reported data, getting a physical copy might make more sense. Why? Looking again at the average time City Folk has been played per session, it's nearly 2 hours per session. I doubt I would care about having another game in my 3DS, if I'm dedicating so much time on one like Animal Crossing. This is the type of game, from my experience with it, that can take over your system and not leave the disc drive/cartridge slot for weeks at a time.
We haven't played Animal Crossing on the Wii in a while, and as of now it's in retirement on our game shelf, but Mrs. Coffee does get interested in it randomly, so I never know when it's coming back out of retirement. Also, if you saw the image captions above, it's because Nintendo revealed a new Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U character from the Animal Crossing games today in their E3 Nintendo Direct. I think K.K. Slider, Tom Nook, and even Brewster could be very interesting and fun characters for Super Smash Bros., and knowing how Nintendo is doing DLC in some games now, perhaps Super Smash Bros. will get DLC characters after it releases?
The Nintendo DS game released in 2005, and while the Wii released in 2006, City Folk wasn't released on it until 2008. So, if you're only a Wii/Wii U owner interested in the series, buying City Folk now might make sense when looking at the series' release history. Seeing how much Animal Crossing: City Folk has been played and enjoyed by Wii owners though, makes me wonder if Nintendo will release an Animal Crossing Wii U title, sooner than later.
If you're interested in winning The Humble Bundle 8 games, as mentioned in the data image above, simply like this post on Facebook, HERE, to get an entry!
Questions
Are you a Nintendo 3DS owner that has perhaps recently purchased Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the system? If you had never played the series before, what do you think about it?
If you own Animal Crossing: City Folk are you still playing it, or has it been retired to your video game shelf?
You can see Animal Crossing related games and products to buy from Amazon.com linked below:
