Animal Crossing Wild World is a game where you live your daily life living in your ficticious town. There's never any real specific goal in the game, you just do whatever you want: pull weeds, go fishing, talk to neighbors, collect fossils, catch bugs, water plants, grow trees, buy furniture, sell fruits, write letters, and design your own clothing. That's not to say that's all you can do, but it's certainly enough to get us started.

AC:WW runs on real time. So turning on the game at 9am in the morning means that you'll be in your town at 9am in the game. This gives the game some depth because only certain events happen on certain days of the month, or certain hours of the day, so don't expect to go shopping for clothes at midnight.

What I've decided about AC:WW is that it is so obvious it's much more of a handheld game. Take it with you anywhere and turn it on at any time. One of the largest limitations of the Gamecube original was that you have time carved out to play it during certain events. Sure I want to see what New Years Day looks like when it counts down to zero, but my family is watching the real countdown on TV. I'd love to get Christmas presents, but I don't want to have to play it in front of my family. Having this be a handheld is perfect because you can just have it on beside you for these events or sneak off and play it for a few minutes when needed.

I can't say the game makes great use of the dual screen fuctionality, but it certainly makes it seem like the touchpen was created specifically for this game. Another large complaint I had about the original Gamecube version was that you had to clunk around your items with your D-pad, and painfully type long letters by navigating around the keyboard with a cursor. Now you just tap the screen. Touch the keyboard to write letters, drag and drop items into Tom Nook's slots to sell items. Tap on friends in the distance to wave to them.

What's nice is that you can play the entire game with the touchpen, or play it completely with the normal buttons. It's completely up to you. I find a mix of the two is best. For instance, it's easier for me to run with the D-Pad than point where I want to go, and it's easier for me to make selections by tapping the screen than moving my cursor option by option.

As for new things in the game, there's plenty - in fact it's every single item from the original, plus tons of new items they've created. This is both good and bad for me, because although it's fun to collect the Lovely Furniture Series - I can't help but think, "Oh boy, I'm collecting it... again." But at the same time I'm sure I would miss an old item if it wasn't there.

The touch pen makes it so much easier to write letters than trying it with a clunky controller.

Yes, you still go fishing, you still catch bugs, you still plant flowers - it's all still there. But there are plenty of new features:

Water wilting flowers with your watering can. Shoot down the floating balloons bearing presents with your slingshot. Create constellations in the night sky. Get a new hair style at the barbershop. Write messages in a bottle and send them out in the ocean. Accessorize not only your shirt, but your also your hats, helmets, glasses, and masks. Buy a cup of coffee at The Roost. Pay your insurance agent for protection. Buy a painting from Crazy Redd's Black Market.... but it could be a counterfeit....

So yeah, there's a lot of new stuff. For Animal Crossing veterans, there's a little bit of wonder that's lost simply because you already know you can do certain things that you're suppose to figure out on your own. Only a couple of things have been taken out and/or replaced. Instead of the garbage dump there's now a recycling bin, and instead of the Police Station and Train Station there's the town gates. The town gates allow you to leave your town and visit a friend's or invite friends to come over and hang out.

Unlike what I originally thought it would be, the online community is not open. You don't enter a room and find some random person's town to go in. You have to have their information and Friend Code, and they have to have yours. Only then can you see each other and hang out. It's nice heading over to other people's towns because you'll often get random people's messages in bottles and Blanca the wandering cat. A Constellation of yours will join theirs and sometimes their neighbor will move to your town. Its a fun experience to hang out with people. In fact, I've had some funny experiences online. Let's see - I've played hide and go seek - I've had a fishing competition - and I've even been payed to pull someone's weeds for them. It was a pretty sweet deal - but it did take me a full hour. Hmm... aren't there more important things I should be doing?

My only gripe with online play is that it regularly lags on me. It's probably just my school network, but I've had far too many occasions where I've bought something cool from someone else only to have it disconnect me and not save my data. Thankfully, the game at leasts automatically saves before you connect online, so that if it screws up, you only lost whatever you were doing in someone else's place.

The reason this game is so addicting is simple - it forces you to wait to do things. You can't sit and play 6 hours straight in a day - because you can only do certain things once a day and you've got to wait until tomorrow. Paying off your mortgage to your house is the main objective, but there's so many things to collect - it never feels like you're done. But at the same time it's bad because eventually - it never feels like you're done - and it only feels like there's nothing new to do. But I suppose any game that can keep you playing for months on end is an unusually awesome amount of replay value.

Verdict: Oh it's fun, cute, and addicting. Give it a go.