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Animal Crossing DS new info

ziran

Member
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taken from nintendo europe VIP. an interview with Katsuya Eguchi – Producer of Animal Crossing DS, and Takashi Tezuka, General Manager of the EAD Software Designing Department (the team responsible for the game).

in single player mode
many new aspects to be discovered eg:
- new characters
- new furniture
- buildings have changed
- museum has a second floor with a different kind of exhibition. first floor has a coffee shop where K.K. Slider plays
- Tom Nook's department store is much bigger and has a beauty salon where you can customise your hair

online multiplayer mode
- visitors will come to the host’s town, so the session will take place in the time zone of the host
- the host can hide several presents and three visitors can come into that town and start a scavenger hunt, there are more new features like this
- no plans for downloadable content at the moment
Katsuya Eguchi said:
“As for the difference between playing with friends at home or over the Internet, the point of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is to bring people, who are normally very far away, closer, so that it feels as if you were playing together in the same room. Of course, when you are playing the game by yourself, you can go fishing – but if you’re playing with someone else, both of you can go fishing and you can perhaps create your own rules for a fishing competition, like ‘Let’s play for 10 minutes and see who catches the most fish.’ This is exactly the kind of communication that is so important to the game: establishing rules, negotiating, and coming to an agreement. You can go and play tag, or hide and seek, and it allows the two players to kind of customise the environment, the situation that they’re going to be playing, which allows for a lot of different gaming experiences.”
E3 Movie - amazing music! :)

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Ranger X

Member
“As for the difference between playing with friends at home or over the Internet, the point of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is to bring people, who are normally very far away, closer, so that it feels as if you were playing together in the same room. Of course, when you are playing the game by yourself, you can go fishing – but if you’re playing with someone else, both of you can go fishing and you can perhaps create your own rules for a fishing competition, like ‘Let’s play for 10 minutes and see who catches the most fish.’ This is exactly the kind of communication that is so important to the game: establishing rules, negotiating, and coming to an agreement. You can go and play tag, or hide and seek, and it allows the two players to kind of customise the environment, the situation that they’re going to be playing, which allows for a lot of different gaming experiences.”


Sorry to start this with a bad comment but...
I doesn't sound like a bit sequel. I would have wished for this game to have more content and actual stuff to do. "Let's make an open game (too much open) and people are going to create they own games within it". Jeez, when i buy a game, i expect it to be a game, not to try to find something to do and create my own fun. How hard is to create little fishing tournaments for instance?
 

ikalugar

Member
There were fishing tourneys as well as many other events in the first one, I'm sure they will be in this. I think he is just talking about things you could do with online, the events were a big part of the game.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
The GCN didn't have load times either. You could actually take the disc out after you started playing and never needed it again. :p

but yeah, I can't wait. even funnier is that I never cared about the NES games. So everything I loved is still in. :)
 

Unison

Member
I am glad to see Bob the cat is back. :D

The new Nintendo Power says there will be a lot of new animals too, though.
 
wow, i've never seen that e3 video before, but the new 3d perspective is crazy. the play-area seems to be on this tiny little globe. does that mean instead of being locked into an area by hills in the environment, the player can run all the way round and double back on himself? (maybe this has been confirmed already and i dont know about it?)

anyway, very cool.
 

Jeff-DSA

Member
Every DS owner should be excited for this game, even Drinky. My wife is going to freak out between this and Nintendogs, it's a good thing I got her her own DS.
 

Minotauro

Finds Purchase on Dog Nutz
Did they actually add some gameplay this time? Honestly, how long can you spend pulling weeds, chopping down trees, and fishing? Seriously, this "game" is a simulation of the most menial of real life tasks.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it for awhile but it got old very quickly.
 

sammy

Member
“As for the difference between playing with friends at home or over the Internet, the point of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is to bring people, who are normally very far away, closer, so that it feels as if you were playing together in the same room. Of course, when you are playing the game by yourself, you can go fishing – but if you’re playing with someone else, both of you can go fishing and you can perhaps create your own rules for a fishing competition, like ‘Let’s play for 10 minutes and see who catches the most fish.’ This is exactly the kind of communication that is so important to the game: establishing rules, negotiating, and coming to an agreement. You can go and play tag, or hide and seek, and it allows the two players to kind of customise the environment, the situation that they’re going to be playing, which allows for a lot of different gaming experiences.”

I really like what he's going for ---- Once again, to actually enjoy AC you basically have to be a creative person and not just be satiated by 'rules' that the game defines as conflict ... You get to be a kid and 'unplay' AC just as well as you can 'play' it.

This is the biggest reason why AC always turned so many veteran gamers away --- The lack of defined goals.
But at the same time it attracted so many 'non-gamey' people .... the reward for something as simple as hitting another character with a net is very great, because the game presents it as you 'choosing' to do it.

At E3 we were having a blast with this game (4 people in a town) --- we actually started playing 'tag' - digging holes at the ends of bridges to buy some time.
--- going into a house and having your characters sit and just 'chat' even felt great.

The game really lets you be a kid - and unfortunately, many gamers have lost that sense of creativity.
 

NWO

Member
Don't know if this is all true or not but I haven't seen these details posted yet. Can anybody else confirm these?

http://www.anothercodelabs.co.uk/index.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1120515221

- You travel into the game in a car, and travel around in said car.
- The train station is gone, it's now a 'main gate', guarded by the police dogs from the original Animal Crossing (Booker and Copper). Talking to Copper (the one that wanders outside the police station in the original) lets you go to other towns (either via local wireless connection or WiFi), check for lost items, change the flag or get some kind of hint.
- To visit other peoples' towns over WiFi you have to know the name of the destination town. To avoid strangers appearing in random towns, players create a friends list. Friends can be added manually or by clicking an option when using wireless local mode. You can visit the town of anybody on your friends list providing that they are online and their copy of the game uses the same alphabet.
- Real life holidays are now gone and are replaced with Animal Crossing specific ones, to make the game more compatible for online play.
- You cannot leave your town without making sure all guests are gone. You cannot get into towns that do not have their owner in them, and they cannot get into yours while you are offline or visiting another town.
- You can control your character with either the D-Pad or the stylus.
- The top screen is used for the sky to show weather effects, the mail pelican, balloons, stars (which can be connected into your own constellations), etc.
- Players can alter the game time without altering the DS system time. This means you can play the game's days when it is night in real life, for example.
- The menu is split into distinct groups: briefcase (holds up to 15 items and 10 letters and shows your money, you can customise your character's appearance here), drawing board (design your own cap, home, art, shirt, umbrella, rug, or wallpaper), fish table (fish you've caught), insect table (insects you've caught), communication box (communicate with others in real time - a chat program), map (can show town buildings and houses seperately) and escape (goes back to the main game screen).
- Tom Nook's shop may now be on two floors, with a salon upstairs. A point system used to get discounts will also be in place - get 300 points (amassed with multiple purchases) and you become a 'member' and get further discounts.
- The post office and town hall may now be integrated into one.
- The largest house in the demo played had two floors, but it's said to feature much larger houses.
- Multiple characters can enter a single house at the same time.
- Players can now apparently choose where they want their house in the town.
- Four players can play using the same card, living in the same house. As you make your house bigger, you can give players seperate rooms.
- Full camera control is available inside your house.
- A telephone is in the house - perhaps this is used to 'call' other DS' or for communication with the other inhabitants of your town.
- Storage will be easier - fridges, cupboards or other furniture that can store items can hold 90 items (stored in 6 different compartments, 15 items in each).
- A feature where somebody can draw something in Pictochat then send it directly to a bulletin board in somebody's town is being considered.
- Animal Island is most likely omitted, and NES games are definitely out.
- There may be a character who appears that requires that the player draws them a face, such as in the first game. However, this one will be saved and may randomly visit others' (off your friends list?) towns telling them about you.
- Players can interact with each other better than they would with non-playable characters and can kick sand at each other, and perhaps host fishing tournaments, play tag, etc.
 

ziran

Member
sammy said:
I really like what he's going for ---- Once again, to actually enjoy AC you basically have to be a creative person and not just be satiated by 'rules' that the game defines as conflict ... You get to be a kid and 'unplay' AC just as well as you can 'play' it.

This is the biggest reason why AC always turned so many veteran gamers away --- The lack of defined goals.
But at the same time it attracted so many 'non-gamey' people .... the reward for something as simple as hitting another character with a net is very great, because the game presents it as you 'choosing' to do it.

At E3 we were having a blast with this game (4 people in a town) --- we actually started playing 'tag' - digging holes at the ends of bridges to buy some time.
--- going into a house and having your characters sit and just 'chat' even felt great.

The game really lets you be a kid - and unfortunately, many gamers have lost that sense of creativity.
interesting points, and i completely agree. ac ds sounds very much like a game where you use it [to create] as much as you play it.

really looking forward to playing it, online sounds like a blast! :D
 

Zeo

Banned
sammy said:
I really like what he's going for ---- Once again, to actually enjoy AC you basically have to be a creative person and not just be satiated by 'rules' that the game defines as conflict ... You get to be a kid and 'unplay' AC just as well as you can 'play' it.

This is the biggest reason why AC always turned so many veteran gamers away --- The lack of defined goals.
But at the same time it attracted so many 'non-gamey' people .... the reward for something as simple as hitting another character with a net is very great, because the game presents it as you 'choosing' to do it.

At E3 we were having a blast with this game (4 people in a town) --- we actually started playing 'tag' - digging holes at the ends of bridges to buy some time.
--- going into a house and having your characters sit and just 'chat' even felt great.

The game really lets you be a kid - and unfortunately, many gamers have lost that sense of creativity.

I don't think anyone has summed up AC so nicely before.
 

Mallrat83

Banned
sammy said:
I really like what he's going for ---- Once again, to actually enjoy AC you basically have to be a creative person and not just be satiated by 'rules' that the game defines as conflict ... You get to be a kid and 'unplay' AC just as well as you can 'play' it.

This is the biggest reason why AC always turned so many veteran gamers away --- The lack of defined goals.
But at the same time it attracted so many 'non-gamey' people .... the reward for something as simple as hitting another character with a net is very great, because the game presents it as you 'choosing' to do it.

At E3 we were having a blast with this game (4 people in a town) --- we actually started playing 'tag' - digging holes at the ends of bridges to buy some time.
--- going into a house and having your characters sit and just 'chat' even felt great.

The game really lets you be a kid - and unfortunately, many gamers have lost that sense of creativity.
I'm liking that tag idea. Sounds like it could be an interesting multiplayer game. Nintendo should include it and expand on it even further.
 

Minotauro

Finds Purchase on Dog Nutz
sammy said:
I really like what he's going for ---- Once again, to actually enjoy AC you basically have to be a creative person and not just be satiated by 'rules' that the game defines as conflict ... You get to be a kid and 'unplay' AC just as well as you can 'play' it.

This is the biggest reason why AC always turned so many veteran gamers away --- The lack of defined goals.
But at the same time it attracted so many 'non-gamey' people .... the reward for something as simple as hitting another character with a net is very great, because the game presents it as you 'choosing' to do it.

At E3 we were having a blast with this game (4 people in a town) --- we actually started playing 'tag' - digging holes at the ends of bridges to buy some time.
--- going into a house and having your characters sit and just 'chat' even felt great.

The game really lets you be a kid - and unfortunately, many gamers have lost that sense of creativity.

I think this is just an excuse for shoddy game design and a lack of variety. What's to stop you from creating your own goals in any other game? I'm sure I could come up with a million activities in San Andreas that are more compelling than playing tag. I don't really need to though since the game itself has such great gameplay variety.

It sounds like you're describing emergent gameplay but I really don't think it's something you can apply to AC because it's just so limited.
 

Mallrat83

Banned
Minotauro said:
I think this is just an excuse for shoddy game design and a lack of variety. What's to stop you from creating your own goals in any other game? I'm sure I could come up with a million activities in San Andreas that are more compelling than playing tag. I don't really need to though since the game itself has such great gameplay variety.

It sounds like you're describing emergent gameplay but I really don't think it's something you can apply to AC because it's just so limited.
Fuck San Andreas. Fuck it up its stupid ass. No, but seriously, there is no other game out there with the calming effect of Animal Crossing. Pychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and what not should keep copies of this game in their offices.
 

Zeo

Banned
Minotauro said:
I think this is just an excuse for shoddy game design and a lack of variety. What's to stop you from creating your own goals in any other game? I'm sure I could come up with a million activities in San Andreas that are more compelling than playing tag. I don't really need to though since the game itself has such great gameplay variety.

It sounds like you're describing emergent gameplay but I really don't think it's something you can apply to AC because it's just so limited.

Nope, it's not an excuse. GTA has the same idea around it, but that's not the point of GTA. The point of Animal Crossing is to give players the ability to just make of it what they will. That's why the GC AC is so addicting and played by people today.

And I think you're being a little ignorant. You'd be surprised at how flat out fun something as simple as tag in a virtual world can be.
 

Minotauro

Finds Purchase on Dog Nutz
Zeo said:
Nope, it's not an excuse. GTA has the same idea around it, but that's not the point of GTA. The point of Animal Crossing is to give players the ability to just make of it what they will. That's why the GC AC is so addicting and played by people today.

Eh, whatever you get out of it I guess. I found it somewhat charming for awhile until I realized the only reason I was playing was to buy wallpaper for a virtual house. Shit, I don't even like buying wallpaper in real life.

Oh, and people still play it? I mean, aside from checking in every few months to pick weeds?

Zeo said:
And I think you're being a little ignorant. You'd be surprised at how flat out fun something as simple as tag in a virtual world can be.

You're right, I would be surprised...very, very surprised. What does virtual tag have over real tag? Aside from getting to play out perverse furry fantasies with cartoon wolves I mean?
 

Minotauro

Finds Purchase on Dog Nutz
Mallrat83 said:
No, but seriously, there is no other game out there with the calming effect of Animal Crossing. Pychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and what not should keep copies of this game in their offices.

<shrug> I guess you and I play games for different reasons. Personally, I've never wanted to play a game because I found it "calming."
 

Speevy

Banned
I've played everything worth playing on the Xbox and Gamecube. AC rocks. PLEASE don't turn this into another Animal Crossing debate.
 

Mallrat83

Banned
Minotauro said:
<shrug> I guess you and I play games for different reasons. Personally, I've never wanted to play a game because I found it "calming."
Never huh? That's too bad. You're missing out on a lot of great "calming" games that do wonders for stress and shit. Or maybe you've never had stress before either?
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Don't a lot of people say that they like GTA because you can do whatever you want and still have fun?

It's the same concept with AC, except there's no big plot, there's no ultimate objective in AC, and there's a higher emphasis based on character interaction.

What makes the free-form gameplay in AC and GTA different is the setting

GTA's free-form gameplay takes place in big cities, and focuses on violence and tension-building situations.

AC's free-form gameplay takes place in small villages and focuses on relaxing, peaceful activities, like digging for fossils or fishing.

But both GTA and AC encourage the users to entertain themselves creatively within the game's limits. And both do an excellent job at doing so.
 
I can appreciate the concept of AC, but I played this game at E3 and felt that the controls and gameplay possibilities were very limited, which in turn limits the kinds of activities you can create for yourself and friends online. The typing system is also excruciatingly slow; the game needs to include online voice chat support to work well.
 
haha, I restarted play AC on gamecube a week ago and yesterday my friend came over to my town and started saying "Wow the animals in your town are butt ugly" then he saw the gorilla (he doesnt have the gorilla in his town) and started laughing out loud "MONKEY!!" and took out his net and bashed the gorilla on the head while saying "MONKEY! MONKEY!" and I was laughing so hard.


and I think that being two guys in the same town will amplify this sort of random rediculous behavior that's so fun. The tag idea is good and also some hide and go seek would work well.
 

Nester

Member
norinrad21 said:
so what Nintendo is saying is, you can actually play AC with a friend all the way in Japan if you live in europe?

I would hope so, but it almost doesn't sound like it from this line in NWO's post:

- To visit other peoples' towns over WiFi you have to know the name of the destination town. To avoid strangers appearing in random towns, players create a friends list. Friends can be added manually or by clicking an option when using wireless local mode. You can visit the town of anybody on your friends list providing that they are online and their copy of the game uses the same alphabet.
 
norinrad21 said:
so what Nintendo is saying is, you can actually play AC with a friend all the way in Japan if you live in europe?
if you have the japanese version. The two users need to have versions that use the same alphabets.
 
Dear Nintendo

....thanks for making me buy the same game twice just to be able to play friends at the other side of the ocean, thanks a lot.


Regards,
Your life long sheep
 

blahness

Member
i hope this feature is true

"- Four players can play using the same card, living in the same house. As you make your house bigger, you can give players seperate rooms."

though i may end up having to buy another copy of the game because im sure my wife will steal mine
 

Ruzbeh

Banned
Johnny Nighttrain said:
Aren't you the guy who's supposed to find that out?

I haven't heard anything VoIP in any DS game what-so-ever. Which is a shame. VoIP would be hawt. Edit: Except for the DSpeak.
 

sammy

Member
Minotauro said:
I think this is just an excuse for shoddy game design and a lack of variety. What's to stop you from creating your own goals in any other game? I'm sure I could come up with a million activities in San Andreas that are more compelling than playing tag. I don't really need to though since the game itself has such great gameplay variety.

It sounds like you're describing emergent gameplay but I really don't think it's something you can apply to AC because it's just so limited.


Don't think anyone's comparing/contrasting what AC to GTA here and saying GTA or AC wins out in the end --- but yea, I'm sure you could come up with a million activities in GTA:SA that are more compelling for you --- but we aren't talking about you, we're talking about other people that are very attracted to the simple idea of 'tag' ....
- simple ideas of painting your own clothes, getting a haircut, connecting your own star constelations, decorating your house, making signs, catching seosonal life, etc., etc., etc.

And yea i agree, AC isn't in any way emergent-gameplay ---- 'emergent-gameplay' is just some silly little ambiguouse buzzword that helps developers feel more intellectual when presenting their *crazy unique game idea - that's gonna change the world* pitch to suits ........... and i sallute them for it :D --- but yea, that's not what AC is about.

To put it as cheesy as possible AC is very much an 'open-canvas' ......

There are plenty of games you can 'unplay' to develop your own creative activities.. (physics based games work really well)
- Ever get all 16 friends/foes to come together on a "truce tea-party" invite on a ranked Halo2 map??? ----- I have, and it was without a doubt, the most rewarding thing that game ever gave to me (untill someone finds a rocket-launcher)
- Ever get your friend to read "From whom the Bell Tolls" on the mic to see everyone come together in a circle for a storybook-session.

There's tons of games to unplay ---- AC is just one of the few devoted to this idea that's built from the ground-up with creativity in mind.
 
olimario said:
It aired right after the lush MP3 video and right before you're a lying ass.
oh you're totally right. im sorry, slipped my mind.

now if you'll excuse me, im gonna go lay down some more since im such a "lying ass"
 

maharg

idspispopd
borghe said:
The GCN didn't have load times either. You could actually take the disc out after you started playing and never needed it again. :p

It had to load when the season changed. Yes, I actually found this out by experiencing it.
 

maharg

idspispopd
well I did that too (after the game got boring), but the first time it was actually at the time. My gamecube was on all the time. It's nothing special though. If you stay outside the season never changes, it's only when you're coming outside that it does.
 

sammy

Member
It's strange that they have a way to toggle the 'internal clock' from the cartrige rather than the DS. (info from that other AC-thread)

I wonder if there'll be some 'time-machine' device or something ..... also the exclusion of traditional holidays is big - i wonder how they'll make up for this with the AC holidays they're adding.
 
norinrad21 said:
Dear Nintendo

....thanks for making me buy the same game twice just to be able to play friends at the other side of the ocean, thanks a lot.


Regards,
Your life long sheep


It's not likely, but maybe it'll be as simple as changing the default language in your DS settings? (Yeah, I know, it's probably a matter of only English being available in the US release, Japanese in the Japanese release, and so forth. One can always hope, though.)

It's a shame they won't let you take the extra step of adding foreign friends (that buy their copy in a region with a different character set). With globalized holidays and the friends list system, making sure multiple alphabets can work simultaneously just seems like a small extra step with a big benefit.
 
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