Thanks a generous coupon from Amazon, I recently decided to purchase Animal Crossing - City Folk for $45 shipped. Yes, I got the stupid Wii Speak bundle, which quite small actually. First things first, I've not actually had a conversation over Wii Speak yet because Nintendo in their infinite wisdom decided to split up the user base of the game, unlike Mario Kart Wii, which comes with a Wheel. They could've easily charged $60 for the thing and every copy comes with it, because clearly, Animal Crossing - City Folk is not a $50 game.

There are many improvements that could've and should've happened to the Animal Crossing franchise. First being a targeting system. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to point at a tree and shake it down for goodies, but it instead feels the need to give me a splinter to the face. What do I mean by targeting system? When I use the pointer on screen, it should highlight what I'm pointing at, and if I hit A it performs the proper action.

Another thing about the controls, it doesn't feel quite right with the Analog stick, and it doesn't feel quite right without it. With the analog stick, C acts as A and Z acts as B, but without the analog stick, you're stuck using a pointer for movement, and that can get to be a little hairy at times.

Tom Nook is still the biggest asshole in the history of video games. He's just so evil yet so loveable at the same time. Yet he can't keep his shop open at night, like everything else in the game. Which brings me to another thing the series needs, and has needed, stuff to do at night. Where's the 24-7 shop, the night owls? And with the city, I should fully expect some naughty stores, but no, nothing.

I also still can't stand the ability to not map out your own town. You'd think they'd give you the option because right now you have to take what you're given or erase everything and start over. You'd think by moving to a town you'd know what it'd look like and not some stupid cat you just met 5 minutes ago who's trying to seduce you.

And the online is still very flawed. I just wish I could go to random towns, not being able to talk or cut their trees or trample their flowers, and I'd be fine with that. Just open it up a bit more, you know? Even limit typing/talking would be fine too. It doesn't feel like a community.

EDIT - One thing I forgot to mention is that you still can't go to towns your friends are in. Why, I don't know. It seems rather silly, doesn't it?

But it is Animal Crossing. Once you start playing, you are pretty much guaranteed to put a lot of time into it. It always works like that. Always has, always will. The minimum any one person puts into Animal Crossing is a month. I don't think I'm going to put as much time into it as I did for Wild World (where at one point I put in 36 hours straight [Thank you broken ankle!]), but I am enjoying it so far, and fans of the series will too, despite it's lack of innovation/convenience.