I’m going to try something this year, and we’ll see if I can keep up with it. I’m going to try to play at least one retro game a month, and write at least a short blog post about it. I like collecting retro games (as a hobby, not a professional collector), but with the way life goes, I often don’t get around to playing them often enough. So hopefully this will push me to do that a bit more.

Anyway, this month’s game is Animal Crossing: Wild World.

I played this a whole bunch when it came out, and for years afterwards I believe. Having this kind of game on a portable system at the time was something really special. With so much to do in Animal Crossing, being able to take that with me anywhere was wonderful.

I started revisiting the game before the new year turned, so I’ve spent some time with it again already. I’ve still got my original town, though it’s a weed-ridden mess of course. I’m starting a new town as well on a second copy, and that’s been fun. That’ll be the main way I’m playing for now, but I’m glad to have my original town to look back on.

I am reminded of some of the quality of life changes the series has experienced since this entry. The big one is villagers being able to move whenever they want. In my original town, for example, I don’t recognize any of my neighbours at this point. This also means too easily losing your favourite pals.

My wife and I decided to play and visit each other’s towns to exchange fruits and other items, but for some reason her DS Lite was showing a flashing red battery indicator when we tried to connect. So she tried to play the game on her 3DS instead, but for some reason this was incorrectly set to a date in 2011. This meant an accidental 16 year jump on her Wild World game, which resulted in her favourite villager leaving. We orchestrated a rescue mission by making sure he moved over to my game and then, after clearing a spot for him, moving him back safely to her town. Maybe I’ll write down some of those details on my blog for future reference in another post. You can read more about my wife’s feelings on this situation and the series overall in her blog post.

Besides such tragedies, I’ve had a really nice time revisiting the game. It’s still a cozy time walking around and talking to my neighbours, checking the shops, and doing little tasks. Plus, cleaning a town of weeds is kind of satisfying at the end of the day, so that wasn’t so bad. Also, I still get a silly kick out of giving my villagers fun things to say, so I haven’t grown out of that I suppose.

Having someone to share the game with is also a lovely time. Multiplayer has been an element of the series since the beginning, and certainly that blew up with the latest entry, New Horizons. But there’s something quaint about sitting together with two DS systems and running around each other’s towns, changing items, and yeah, being able to save villagers from the void.

I love this series, it’s been a joy to revisit this game, and I’m going to keep up with it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a single red turnip to water.