My poor, poor DS

I lent my girlfriend back in Chicago my DS until spring break when she's coming out to California. It was pretty tough letting go of her, and I don't mean my girlfriend (just kidding honey....heh heh...heh). She's more than a little obsessed with Animal Crossing: Wild World, one of the most popular DS titles. Its a good game I must admit and I've clocked my fair share of hours into the living, breathing town me and my beautiful girl named "texas".

If you haven't heard of Animal Crossing: Wild World, its a game that strives to break out of genres. In reality, I would liken it to Neopets (ew), the Sims, and Viva Pinata. In other words, there isn't a specific plot to the game, instead you are rewarded for the amount of time you spend buying, selling, upgrading, and generally being a capitalist bastard. The basic premise is this: you live in a town where there are a variety of tasks to do in order to keep everyone happy, most of which will make you money to spend on cool stuff for your house. In turn, that cool stuff will get you better "HRA" points which probably...eventually...get you something?

I still don't know, but that's part of the beauty of the game. You never really quite know all the in's and out's, which is something that can be good or bad. OCD gamers might find this game frustrating for exactly that reason, but I assure you the money aspect will give you enough to worry about. A quick illustration of my point: The other day I walked into the local Texas furniture shop and saw a rare "Throne" item worth 800,000 bells. That, as many might know, is a lot of bells. I still don't have that much so unfortunately, I wasn't able to purchase it. That sucks balls because THATS A SUPER RARE ITEM AND I REALLY FUCKING NEED IT.

Any who, I don't have the patience this instant for a full review, so instead I'll type up a little something for those who've already played the game...which is basically my few suggestions for any further DS Animal Crossing titles.

1. Hot switching equipment. I shouldn't have to go into my inventory every time I need a tool. So what if the DS has a limited number of buttons, the shoulder buttons are both unused at this point and would be perfect for some hot-swapping items like the fishing pole, axe, and shovel.
2. Greater control over character appearance. I know about haircuts, so don't start with me. Basically, eye color, hair color. How hard could that be. Everything *about* the features can be changed by the initial starting question that Kapp'n asks you, but colors should be changeable.
3. On character storage should be upgradeable, even if at great cost. Two item tabs would be great, especially if you worked hard to earn it.
4. Nitpicking, but a better set of true mini games with awards would be nice. It seems to me so far that the mini games included in AC:WW have avoided needing any real skill in order to succeed at. Thats why I'm nitpicking, because I think this game is probably for kids...but fuck them I love collecting as much as those little bastards.
   

There you go, four things that stick out I'd love to see changed, which has to be a record. Most games are upwards of a baker's dozen. Otherwise the game is exactly what I feel it should be. I haven't played other versions, but some aspects of Animal Crossing, unfortunately, seem to be begging a guide book. I refuse to give in right now, but at some point I'm going to want to know how much I'm missing. This, I reckon, is unfortunate. It's nice when games drop more hints for you to figure out even the subtle nuances on your own, instead of depending on word of mouth which is essentially filtered down guidebook knowledge.

Thats all for now playas.