Wild about Animal Crossing Wild World

I got my Animal Crossing game bundled with the DS back in March, and have not played any other game. Animal Crossing is a great game for kids or women. My husband thinks it is boring because there is no boss to conquer. For me it is perfectly joyful fun. The only drawback was that there is very little information in the book that came with the game. I played a little and pretty much got stuck and quit playing for awhile.

Then one day I ventured out on the web and found a bunch of websites devoted to Animal Crossing. Some have message boards where you can communicate with other Animal Crossing fans and exchange codes to visit each others towns. I will try to give you an overview of the game from what I have learned so far.

The Town
When you start your game for the first time you get to pick the name of your town, as well as a name for your character. Each Animal Crossing town starts out with basically the same things but in different places. The Town consist of your house, Tom Nooks Store, The Museum, The Town Hall, 6-8 neighbors houses complete with neighbors, A gate to visit other towns or allow others to visit yours. A river, The ocean, trees, flowers, weeds, butterflies and other various bugs.

Your House
When you start the game you will have a small house with two rooms. One upstairs and one downstairs. The upstairs room is the place where you save your game and adjust a few settings via the telephone in that room. The downstairs room is empty when you start but you can buy flooring, wallpaper, and furniture to fill your room. Your room will fill up quickly and you will find yourself wanting more room(s)

When you venture out of your room to Tom Nooks store he will give you info about paying your mortgage. When you pay off your mortgage Tom Nook will offer you either a bigger room or an extra room. This happens a few times and ultimately you end up with a large downstairs room, a smaller upstairs room(besides the upstairs room for saving your game), and 3 rooms off the large downstairs room. It will take you a lot of time to pay off your mortgages but you will find yourself motivated so that you can get more rooms.

Your house comes with a mailbox outside and occasionally you will get mail from other townspeople, or Mom, or a committee that will periodically rate your house.

Clothing and Accessories
There is a clothing shop next to Tom Nooks. You can buy clothes, hats and glasses here, for an unlimited amount of fashion choices. You can also make your own patterns to put on clothing and umbrellas. The designs can also be put on the ground outside.

Fishing
Use your fishing pole to catch fish in the ponds, rivers, or the ocean in your town. You can get big bucks for some of them, or you can donate them to Blathers at the museum.

Flowers
You can buy flowers at Tom Nooks. Plant them around your town to improve the environment. Try planting them next to each other to get hybrids that are not available for sale at the store. To get a hybrid you have to plant like flowers next to each other. For instance if you plant a yellow pansy next to a red pansy you might get an orange pansy growing next to it or somewhere else in your town.

Occasionally you will find dandelions which will eventually turn to puffs which you can pick and blow the seeds or keep them. I have not noticed that blowing the seeds creates any more but it is fun to do. The more flowers you have the better for the environment and don't forget to water them if they turn brown because they will come back to life the following day. If you do not visit your town for a day your flowers will begin to die. If a week or more passes you will probably lose even more flowers. Besides that if you do not visit your town for awhile it will become overgrown with weeds which you will have to pull.

The Store(Tom Nooks)
When you start Tom Nook will have some jobs for you to do to get started. Go visit The store first to find out what you need to do. As you play the game you will find that occasionally Tom Nook upgrades his store. This happens a few times based on the amount of money (bells) that you have used to buy and sell items in his store. The very last upgrade requires someone to visit your town through wifi or ds connection. Then you will get the largest store (Nookingtons) complete with an upstairs and a beauty shop where you can get your hair done in different styles and colors.

The Museum
The Museum is the place to donate fish butterflies and fossils. There is also a coffee shop in the museum and a place where you can draw constellations for your night sky.

Town Hall
Go to the town hall to send mail, pay your mortgage, save money in the bank, check the environment, donate money to boondocks, check the lost and found for items...etc.

Tools
shovel - If you see an x on the ground dig it up. You might find a fossil or some other surprise. Dig holes and dig out stumps. Hit rocks some give money. Get two shovels and bury one. Dig it up the next day and you get the golden shovel. Bury money with the golden shovel and you will create a money tree that will pay three money bags. Use your regular or gold shovel to bury fruit to grow fruit trees.

slingshot - The slingshot is used to shoot presents out of the sky. It is said that one goes over every ten minutes but I have not found that to be the case.

Axe - use your axe to cut down trees. The axe will eventually wear out and you will need to buy a new one. I am not sure how you get the golden axe but I believe that when you do it will not break like the regular one.

Fishing Pole - Catch fish in the rivers or ocean. Cast out and reel in with the A button. You have to wait until you see a fish then cast out near the fish' head. The fish has to be facing the lure and then he will swim toward it. When the fish hits wait...he will hit a few times then when you hear a splash that is the time to reel in. You can sell your fish to Tom Nook or give them to the museum.

Watering Can - Use the watering can to water your flowers that have turned brown and the next day they will be revived.

Net - Use your net to catch bugs and butterflies(with the A button) You can donate them to the museum or sell them to Tom Nook

Environment If you go to the town hall and talk to the character that is to the left of the desk. One choice is environment. There you can learn how well you are doing with your town. When you have enough trees and flowers they will tell you that your town is perfect. After you get your town perfect and keep it that way for ten days you will get the golden watering can.

vising other towns through the wifi connection
If you have a friend with a DS you can connect through the DS to DS connection, or if they are not nearby and you both have a wireless internet connection you can visit each other's towns through the wifi connection. If you do not know anyone with a DS Animal Crossing game you can find someone at any number of websites devoted to the game.

To visit another town or open your gates for visitors first you have to put the names, towns and friend codes of your friends on your game. To do this touch the icon at the top right of your screen and touch the little heart icon. This is the place to add friends.

To find your friend code you go to the top of the playing field to find a cave. Inside the cave is your gate. To get your friend code go to the character to the right and one of the options will be to get your friend code.

If you plan to use the wifi connection you will have to set that up also by talking to the character in the cave to the right of the gate. One of the selections will be to set up wifi connection. Click on that and set up your connection according to your wireless connection(I found this to be easy)

Once you have someone on your list that you want to visit go to the character to the right of your gate again and ask him either to open your gate or let you out. Follow the directions for DS to DS or wifi connection and have fun.