I totally figured this would happen; an underwhelming upgrade to the series. One of my close friends and I always discuss this title and how it is Nintendo's one series with a ridiculous amount of unrealized potential. To see this series just stagnate on its third iteration is a damn shame.

Fourth iteration, even.

IGN had similar impressions, but they said they were shocked by total lack of motions.
Fishing still with buttons, you don't swing the mote to chop down trees,  and rearranging you house is just as clumsy as before. Small things you naturally EXPECT for wiigame. I mean they could use the twilight princess style of fishing and make it more worthwhile than just press A at the right time.

The city aspect seemed cool at first, but when I did some research it basically is the 'island' from the Cube game.

I am very disappointed in the graphics, I know Animal Crossing has its own unique style, however they really could of had its style and yet up the ante with refined textures and such.

I also heard while you can have 4 people in a town online, if ONE decides to disconnect than everyone is thrown out. So he/she just doesn't pop out they ruin the experience for everyone else.

Lets just hope this demo isn't a good sample of the entire content and when you actually get the real game that it will have many more changes and upgrades to the gameplay. I'm guessing November release for this game ( did they say ) so that should give them more time to mix things up.

If Nintendo doesn't get its crap together than EA's own Mysims might give it a serious run for its money.

It's more of a cylinder really.  Just picking nits ;)

Also this game sounds terrible.  Animal Crossing is one of my favorite games of all time, and seeing the series stand still pains me.  I'm not sure I can support this level of laziness and pure ineptitude from Nintendo.  There's so much potential but all Nintendo sees is easy money.

God, I sound like Ian, but it's true.  If this is all we're getting it's inexcusable and shameful.

I'll admit this: I tired quickly of Animal Crossing: Wild World on DS. Underwhelmton total.

But I really can't rule City Folk out. I'm still completely addicted to this style of game, and it may experience the same generational swings from me that Pokemon saw. I ditched Pokemon Gold/Silver fast... then I got super addicted to Ruby/Sapphire. Maybe City Life will follow the same pattern with me. In fact, I hope it does.

Not me. I loved Wild World, and it made me realize how perfect this series is for hand held offerings. That said, I'm pretty disappointed about City Folk so far. I can respect that the graphics aren't great for example, but given the level present it makes it seem silly not just to make another for the DS, especially since not a whole lot of new things are being brought to the table and playing this title exclusively from home how now seems restrictive to me.

MySims already gave AC a serious run for its money, and MySims Kingdom looks like it'll further expand upon that.

I have a buddy who loved AC but MySims completely annihilated any love he once had for the game. I only watched him play it but it looked pretty fun, though more oriented on building and social relationships with other sims and lacks the multiplayer.

But Nintendo should probably realize that EA is gunning for this type of franchise.

I likely won't be picking this up, since I've no desire to pay that fucking raccoon 50 million bells just so I can wind up in the same boredom as before.

I actually like the franchise, but Nintendo is going to have to work at it to earn my money and add something new. I agree that AC is the Nintendo franchise with the most untapped potential, just ahead of a pokemon MMO.

I actually hold a completely opposite stance from you based on the only two AC games I've played. I really dig the AC vibe when I can relax at home. But with the DS, I'm often trying to sneak in gametime 5 or 10 minutes at a time in weird players where I can't fully let my guard down. AC is a game I play from a bed, couch, or big comfy chair for an hour or two. *sighs happily*

Well I love the AC series so I'm getting this even if it is not fresh, then again I'm also getting MySims!

All I was expecting from the this was more characters, with a variety of personality types, more things to do and different furniture. I basically got all I was expecting. I wasn't expecting half the crazy stuff other people were, most of the ideas I have seen posted on how people would "improve" the Animal Crossing formula were horrible.

The most common request I saw was something along the lines of: The ability to visit friends' towns even if they're not online.

How fucking stupid do you have to be to want something like this? Pretty fucking stupid is the answer. I can't actually see any advantages to this. If anyone wants to list some, go ahead.

Another one I have seen a bit is the addition to real-time weather. No. Stop being retarded. How is that a good idea? Again I want a list of reasons this would be a good idea and I'll weigh it up against my list of reasons it's stupid.

Oh and the MySims comparison? MySims is an Animal Crossing without a soul. One of the great things about Animal Crossing is the amount a personality all the animals have, MySims has none of this. It's generic, it's bland and it's boring.

Unrestricted vandalism! Muwhahahaha!

When I play Animal Crossing after a while I get severe claustrophobia.  The town is tiny, and it pisses me off that it's not getting any bigger.  Traveling to another town is primarily just a way to explore somewhere else so you don't go crazy.  You can also meet new characters, shop for different furniture, harvest different fruit (or sell your local fruit), buy and sell turnips for different prices, get multiple KK songs, and find more fossils.  Plus it would be fun to post patterns so you can surprise your friends with obscenities and pictures of boobs.  You can bury presents and then leave them a board message giving them hints where it is.  Hell, you can set up a huge treasure/scavenger hunt for them without having to worry about them seeing you do it.  That would be a great surprise for a friend, and you wouldn't have to say "okay stay in the corner I'm setting up a treasure hunt."  That would suck.

In Animal Crossing GC you could put a friend's memory card in slot B and visit his town, and obviously this remained single player.  This is essentially the same thing.  Sure, the GC method has the added advantage of the other person potentially being in the same room, but who wants to be the jerk who forces your friend to watch you play AC?

Those ideas are fine in theory, but it's the lack of control that's an issue. I don't want to come back into my town after a couple of days and find all my trees chopped down, my fruit stolen, penis signs everywhere, all the good items gone from Nook's and find garbage all over the place. The issue isn't that this stuff can be done, the issue is all this stuff can be done without any involvement or control from the player.

There's a level of trust that just can't be achieved for this idea to work.

You could always leave the gate closed so no one could get in, or leave a list of approved guests with the cops, or even get laws passed in your town to limit what outsiders can do without getting thrown out, possibly even with access tiers for different people depending on how much you trust them.  That way, you could let trustworthy friends have access to your town whenever they like, limit jerks to activities that benefit you such as trading items, and define limits for everyone in between.  Known troublemakers could even have the cops frisk them at the gate and confiscate destructive items.

Exactly, it all comes down to how Nintendo wanted to implement it. Passing laws is seriously a genius idea for online and could go quite a long way in making the online experience more full.

The online and multiplayer is going to make the game for me.

I can tolerate doing the same song a dance as long as the game offers a  lot more options and features in the online and multiplayer areas.

So far, things are looking good with the WiiSpeak feature, but I need more details.

I can't think of anything more soulless than villagers with 5-6 personality types who repeat most of what they say all the time.

I remember how badly this was made apparent when I spoke to one villager with the "spaced out" personality who gave me a line, then I went and spoke to another one of the same type who gave me the EXACT same line, mere seconds apart.

I don't honestly even like MySims (never even played it myself) but it's clear that EA is coming after the same market and it wouldn't hurt Nintendo to innovate a little in the AC series.

All I want from the game is SOMETHING to do with other players which isn't trading items. Something, ANYTHING which actually involves other human players in my town where we can do stuff together, like hunt tarantulas together or play soccer or egg the houses of animals we don't like...something, ANYTHING to justify the game even having multiplayer because there isn't any justification for it right now.

I know visiting a friend's town while they're there is cute and all, and being able to drop crap on the ground instead of generating an item code is handy, none of it actually enhances the gameplay over previous iterations of the franchise.

As it stands, the game is basically a collect-a-thon in the same vein as Pokemon, just that it happens over a more prolonged period of time.