As someone who has played both Animal Crossing for the GameCube and Animal Crossing: Wild World, I was very excited at the prospects of a new game when Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City was released this past November, 2008. I read the reviews and read the hype and based on those was looking forward to a game that could incorporate the best of both worlds, so to speak. I couldn't see how this game could possibly disappoint any previous Animal Crossing player or how it could fail to endear itself to tens of thousands of new players. When release day rolled around, I was as excited as any kid on Christmas morning! My husband even drove me the twenty-five miles to town that morning just so I could buy the game! As I started playing, it was a great experience, but after a few weeks, the faults began to surface. To begin with, the villager pictures feature, which was so popular in Wild World, had been completely removed, as were villager hobbies and birthday parties. In Wild World, these features go far in creating a simulated intimacy between the player character and their neighbors that seems almost real. Giving a neighbor an item to help them further their hobby gives the feeling of helping a friend accomplish something. The pictures are received only by putting real effort into developing a good relationship with the villager. And as funny as it may seem, there's nothing like being able to celebrate a favorite neighbor's birthday with them, and contrary to what the Prima game guide says in one of their numerous errors, there is no option of even giving a villager a gift on their birthday. Without these features, City Folk is a much more shallow game than its predecessor, and there is seemingly very little reason for developing good friendships with the villagers. (I say seemingly, because there are perks to building friendships, but they don't contain the depth they did in Wild World.) Now don't get me wrong--I'm not saying Animal Crossing: City Folk/Let's Go to the City isn't a game worth playing. On its own, it does have many merits. The map is much larger than the Wild World map and more villagers can live in a town at the same time. The city is a fun place to visit from time to time and the stores there are a nice treat and I just can't say enough good about the Happy Room Academy finally having a face, even if it is Lyle--at least he's not pestering me every week about insurance! The museum, my all-time favorite feature, has been remodeled a bit and expanded to include new exhibits in the form of more fossils, fish, bugs and paintings. And Brewster at The Roost even provides gyroid storage after you get to know him a bit! I could live without the real life holidays, which involve much running all over town for hours on end, and conflict with real holiday family gatherings, but having the ability to connect with other players over wi-fi and partake in region specific holidays back and forth between different countries is awesome! And of course one thing we all love is the ease of switching between tools. There's no more going into the pockets and dragging tools manually for switching--instead, just a simple press of the D-pad toggles between any tools in the pockets. This is a completely awesome feature! I also think it's great that this version of Animal Crossing seems to have been designed with more casual type players in mind, in that villagers aren't as quick to leave as they were in Wild World, and instead of just packing up, at which point you either have to say good-bye or try to talk them into unpacking, tend to meander around the village talking about moving for a few days before their final decision is made. It's also wonderful that flowers can be watered on a daily basis and never wilt, so that if a person isn't going to be able to play for a few days they can make sure to water all their flowers and not risk them dying. Then there's the added bonus that Redd no longer has a single day to visit your town, but instead has set up shop in the city where he carries the same stock for a week. Sadly, though, for all of its shininess, Animal Crossing: City Folk/Let's Go to the City has a single huge flaw, the likes of which remind me much of a zit right on the end of someone's nose. At first you don't notice it, but then it festers and it just grows worse and worse, which is exactly what this feature does. I'll just come right out and say it in two simple words: ANIMAL TRACKS! Either this was just an extremely bad idea or it was never fully tested after implementation, possibly even both, but this single feature turns otherwise lovely towns in City Folk/Let's Go to the City into barren wastelands or huge mud pits, depending on the player's viewpoint. Either way, the result after a few weeks of playing is not only disgusting to look at and extremely depressing, but brings certain elements of gameplay to a screeching halt. I could go on here explaining just how bad this feature really is, but I'm now going to turn this over to one of my player characters, Juju, so anyone reading this can see it from her viewpoint. Before I go, however, I would like to say, it seems to me that either this feature wasn't fully tested under normal play conditions because if it had been, I'm sure the testers would have seen the problems with it right away. The majority of the damage doesn't come in a single player town that is loaded once per day, but instead happens in a town with multiple players, or a single player who loads multiple times per day. Many people have reported this issue to Nintendo in every format available and every single time the only solutions that are offered are: plant trees and flowers because they help grass to grow (look at Juju's test results to see exactly how effective this is), load the game only once per day (How does this work in multi-player households, and if the game was intended to only be loaded once per day, why does the game accommodate up to four players?), don't run in your town (Why should it be acceptable to run in buildings and not outside? This seems backward to me, and although damage occurs faster while running, it still happens ridiculously fast while walking), don't wi-fi with friends (Wii Speak, the microphone used for verbal communication during wi-fi sessions, was developed for Animal Crossing: City Folk/Let's Go to the City for exactly this use, and now they're telling people not to wi-fi?). It seems to me we're being sold up the river here. We purchased a game and expected it to perform as advertised. It doesn't, so now the manufacturer of the game is telling us to play it in a way that is inconsistent with playing every Animal Crossing game that has ever been released, and completely inconsistent with this version, which time and again has been marketed as a game that is very open ended which can be played at the player's own pace. The problem is, unless a person's pace is on par with Tortimer the mayor, their town will very shortly turn into a giant mud pit or desert. The Animal Tracks feature needs to be fixed, or completely removed all together. Frankly, I wouldn't mind going for the latter after all the headache it has caused us. Now, I'll turn you over to Juju. Juju's problems with the Animal Tracks "feature". (Juju's essay is followed by a set of pictures taking during her testing of decay and regeneration of snow.) This video was posted on YouTube by Josh of WiiFolder.com in an effort to let more people know about his online petition in hopes of getting Nintendo to realize the varied problems caused by the Animal Tracks feature. If you think something needs to be done about the Animal Tracks feature: Sound off at Nintendo's official tech forum this thread.