LO1 - Game Analysis - Animal Crossing: Wild World

Animal Crossing: Wild World - Nintendo DS

Genre

Animal Crossing: Wild World is an open-ended social simulation game. It allows the player to interact with many various fictional anthropomorphic animals. Other popular games in this genre include The Sims franchise.

Narrative

As an open-ended game, the story is mainly up to the player to decide. The main aspects that the game plays on are talking to characters, collecting items and engaging in the events that take place in the game. Because there is no set storyline, the gameplay allows the player to, in effect, do whatever they want. You can choose to go about playing the game however you like. As a social simulation game, one of the main aims of the game is to become friends with all of the characters in the game.

The story of the game appeals to the target audience because it keeps them engaged by allowing them to make their own choices.

Production process

The game was first announced in 2004, and was released in Japan on November 23^rd 2005, and in Europe on March 31^st 2006. The game was announced to prominently utilize the Nintendo DS’ touch screen feature.

The characters move around in a town, but the appearance of the game makes it look as if the world is very round, giving the impression of the whole town being a “world”. The player is able to make the character walk or run around the gameplay area.

Characterisation

The characters are cute-looking animals that are appealing to the target audience. They are appealing because they appear innocent and friendly to the player. This characterisation is conventional of the genre because social simulation is supposed to engage the player in socialising with the characters.

None of the characters are especially strong, however some have stronger storylines than others. Characters such as shopkeepers, museum curators and the mayor that appear in every game have a deeper back-story than the general townspeople, who are different in each game.

Gameplay

The main challenges of the game are to speak to people, collect items and the  apparent main goal is for the player to make their town the “perfect town”. Ways to do this include keeping on top of weeds, planting trees and planting flowers.

This engages the player as it motivates them to continue playing each day to see what the game has to offer. The gameplay engages with the narrative when a character can ask the players to run errands for them. If the player helps the character, they effectively move on in the game.

The gameplay changes constantly, bringing something new every day. The shops are stocked with new items, there might be post, there might be a new post on the billboard at the town hall, and resident characters are able to move in or out of the town at will. The player has to be kept almost constantly interested in the game to get the most out of it.

Target audience

I think the target audience for this game are mainly children, between the ages of six and twelve. It’s an innocent game that does a lot to try and keep the player engaged. The anthropomorphic animals seem appealing to girls in particular. The innocent language of the characters, the cute noises and relaxing music all give the impression of a target audience of children. However, it’s difficult to keep up with if the player takes some time not playing it, and it can be hard for the player to catch up.

Platform

This particular game is only available for the Nintendo DS platform, however, it is only one game within a range, which began with Animal Forest for Nintendo 64 and the latest edition being Animal Crossing: New Leaf for Nintendo 3DS.