A great game but online has faults...
Animal Crossing is an easy game but you can't really beat it because it's like living a life. You can't beat life! So it's a pretty easy game but it's still very addicting. It's hard to stop playing because there's always stuff to do at different times of the year. For example, certain fish/bugs only come out on certain seasons at certain times so you have to play often to make sure that you don't miss anything. Also, make sure that you play on holidays and on your birthday to join in on the festivities! These are only some of the things that you can do. There are many more but I don't want to ruin everything for you! Overall, I'd give the gameplay a 10/10.
Gameplay: 10/10
In the beginning of the game, you come into your town in a cab. In the cab, the driver asks you many things such as the town where you're going and other things about you. When you get there, you go into the town hall and are shown your house. Your adventure starts there and that's basically the storyline. There isn't really much to it.
Storyline: N/A
The next thing that I'd like to cover are the graphics and sound. I thought that the graphics were pretty impressive for the DS and different colors were used well throughout the game. Along with the graphics, I liked the music a lot too. Every hour, the music changed so there's a variety of music that changes often. I found the tunes catchy and they got stuck in my head often. You can also play music in your house. Just buy a music player from the store! The sound effects were appropriate too. When you fished, you could hear the bobber "plop" in the water and you could hear the fish swim when they took the hook. When fishing, I find that the sound is the most useful part! I'd have to give the graphics, music, and sound effects a 9/10.
Music / Sound: 9/10
The next thing that I'd like to cover is the online play. Unfortunately, this is the biggest problem with the game. When you go onto Wi-Fi and play against your real friends, you could have a great time. However, when playing against people that you don't know, there's always the chance of someone dropping a "seed" in your town. A "seed" is like a virus on a computer and seeds can do damage ranging from hardly anything, to blocking access to buildings, to destroying your whole game card. This is the problem. You always have to be on the lookout for these people and you're taking a risk whenever you let a random person in. You might be thinking "Just don't let random people into your town!" but if your friends don't have this game, who will you let in? If your friends do have this game, you're lucky because you have people to play with who you know are trustworthy. You can then have a fun time playing hide-and-seek, doing fishing competitions, and many other made up games. However, because of the risks that you have to take, I can only give online play a 4.5
Online: 4.5/10
The last things that I'd like to cover are playtime and replayability. First of all, I've had this game for a year and I still play it sometimes. It's a great game! Since there's always something to do, you can always be playing without getting bored. So you'll be entertained for a long time from this game.
Playtime / Replayability: 10/10
Final Recommendation:
This game is a game that you either really like, or don't like. If you like simulation games and the things I talked about above interest you, you'll most likely enjoy this game. However, I wouldn't rent this game because it takes a while to get things going and once you start to really get to play it and get into it, it'll be due back.
If I got this game as a gift, I would definitely keep it. It's definitely worth the $35 (US dollars) that it costs.