http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ Semi daily fourhman.com newspost. en-us joe@fourhman.com 2006-10-31T22:55:04-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/10/blanca-5-the-escape-claus.html Let's start things off with something totally abstract. At least this is different, compared to all the variations of "anime cat" that you always get. Hal of Russell5, you're a born outsider. It's tough to tell when a face was made by somebody who just didn't care, or by a five year old. I hate insulting five year olds, but this is crappy. DEEj of Rodill, I can't get behind this. 1167@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-10-31T22:55:04-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/10/finally-something-to-do.html ATTENTION ALL PLAYERS WHO HAVE GIVEN UP: Assuming you didn't just time travel to this week already, we're in the middle of the Acorn Festival. This week is Wild World's only attempt to mimic the fun and timely "mini-games" that graced the major holidays back on the GameCube version. Every day, you can find acorns littering the ground around a randomized selection of your non-fruit trees (hope you still have some!) Scoop them all up - dump the rotten ones - and give them to Cornimer, who is hanging out by the Town Hall where you usually find Tortimer. SUSPICIOUS? As you give him more and more acorns, Cornimer will yield items from the Mush furniture series, which is cooler than it sounds. In an unlikely break from Animal Crossing tradition, the Mush items are given out in a specific, non-random order. It's as if somebody on the AC:WW development team suddenly grew a pair and decided to sneak in something accessibly fun. I bet Iwata was pissed when he found out. 1155@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-10-11T22:55:24-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/09/the-six-common-types-of-lousy-animal-crossing-cheats.html As this forum link shows, there are plenty of mistakes, mixups and outright lies inside the official Wild World Player's Guide (thanks for the link, Logan!). But the internet probably sucks harder... because of the sheer amount of misleading, confusing, manufactured information out there. At least the Player's Guide looks nice. After hours of painstaking effort researching un-monitored garbage gaming sites like Neoseeker, Games Radar and Total Video Games, I have identified the Six Common Types of Fake Animal Crossing Cheats. 1129@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-09-11T00:06:14-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/09/nine-short-stories-about-animal-crossing.html 1. This is me and Maya, who lives in Sweden. Like, the real Sweden, not just some ACWW town named Sweden. I'm pretty sure that's the farthest global reach I've experienced in Wild World. I gave her a Green Pipe and 1UP Mushroom for a Black Lucky Cat and a Gold Lucky Cat, so it was a fruitful trip for both. I've also met a fellow from the UK (again, the real UK) who claims that Nintendo gave out different special Mario furniture over there, among them the Mario Mural and the Bullet Bill. Awesome! 2. Almost immediately after I complained about it last time, Nintendo has started sending out WiFi letters much more frequently. It's like somebody at Nintendo woke up and started pushing buttons again. We haven't received anything rare, but at least it is something. The letters seem typically to be attached to a holiday... like August's fireworks night, the Bug Catching Contest, or Labor Day. 1120@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-09-04T13:54:50-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/08/weed-world.html I've pretty much resigned myself to only playing on Thursday nights with the gate open... and some weeks not even that happens. I no longer talk to villagers, and I've stopped caring about weeds. Both my personal relationships and my landscaping are in disrepair. I'm more or less done with Wild World. Which is sad, considering that I haven't even played the game for a full year yet. Haven't seen all the bugs and fish. But like I've said repeatedly, Nintendo did a lousy job of keeping the game relevant over time, resulting in a game far less compelling than the GameCube original (which, admittedly, generated more traction out of the sheer novelty of it all). Crappy holidays, meager WiFi capabilities, soul-crushing randomness, slow-to-no online community building. So why do I still anticipate the Wii edition with the heat of a thousand suns, given no outstanding proof that Nintendo has learned anything from the experience? That's the fanboy in me. 1098@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-08-08T19:03:07-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/07/surprise-it-worked.html Although I was planning to get to Toys R Us on Sunday to try out the ACWW download thing, I decided that, for once, I did not want to be the first guy in the door asking all the tough questions. Like when they didn't bother to put Metroid Prime out for sale, or when they asked me to tell the aisle clerk to put Pokemon Pinball on the racks or the time they bungled my Double Dash bonus disk pre-order, or tried to sell Pokemon Channel for $50, or when they barely participated in LeafGreen/FireRed Trade and Battle Day... and don't forget how they all but buried the original DS launch. These guys are great. So we went Monday night. Give them a day to have somebody else be the insistent asshole. On the way there, I was mentally preparing myself for dejection. "They're not going to have this," I said in the parking lot as we strapped Clark into the Ergo carrier. "They don't even have a Download Station." The only small hope I held came from this week's sales flyer, which mentioned a "free Animal Crossing download" in small print. Of course, a sales flyer doesn't have to mean jack at the local level. I did not stop at the customer service desk, although it did occur to me that they might have hidden the Download Station there so that they could answer questions about it. I went straight for the video game section. Going up the game aisles (no R'Zone at this store, just old school flip tags), nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The best I could find was a promo to get some terrible ATV game for free with your DS purchase. So I circled around to the glass case zone, where they have been putting all the really expensive equipment since the 32X launch. And there it was. One corner of the glass case held the Download Station and was covered in signage. Happy! But, this being MY Toys R Us, the poor thing is exposed to the elements; the secret white case was cracked open for all to see. It's not especially classy to display an old fat DS with DOS text on the screen, but I guess my TRU enjoys taking the mystery out of life. As do I. There's going to be some pretty substantial spoilers coming up, so you might want to back out now if you enjoy MEGATON surprises and have faith that your TRU will have some kind of clue that this is happening. 1090@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-07-25T23:00:08-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/07/new-gifts-coming-still-peeved.html Finally, an answer to the question of When Will We Get More Secret ACWW Stuff? At Toys R Us, in an ill-conceived and under-promoted and all around Far Too Late good idea. Ever since the spring ticked by with very little free WiFi gifting by Nintendo, I've been consumed with the notion that Nintendo just does not care about living up to the game's promise. At every turn, they screw it up. You can only have eight patterns (and then one character shows up trying to get you to use his pre-made designs). You're maxed at four emotions. Tool usage is cumbersome. The holiday schedule is boring and unrewarding. The Player's Guide is embarassingly devoid of actual information. Item distribution (via travelling vendors) is even more random than in the GameCube version. The Flower Fest is distressingly unfathomable. There is almost nothing to do during online multiplayer except obnoxious one-line no-scrollback chat. 1086@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-07-22T00:11:56-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/05/blanca-4-the-last-stand.html Fair enough. A bit harsh for my tastes, not as cute as best befits an Animal Crossing character. Perhaps Gaily of Rivendal has had a vision of the Next Gen Animal Crossing? 1028@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-05-12T22:37:09-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/04/sometimes-i-dont-know-why-i-play-anymore.html So the Flower Fest was a complete bust. Let me give you two truths about Animal Crossing: Wild World. 1.) If it involves tools, it sucks. 2.) If it involves a holiday, it sucks. The Flower Fest involves both, so it doubly sucks. I planted a million flowers around my mansion, organized by species so as to promote natural hybriding. I used my Golden Watering Can every day. I lost to Queenie, who had eight flowers, no hybrids, and considered moving out of the village mid-week. So no Flower Trophy for me. And when's the next time I can get a Flower Trophy? At next year's Flower Fest. And what did the game teach me about growing a better garden? Absolutely nothing. 1019@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-04-27T19:28:51-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/04/lies-about-the-flower-fest.html I usually find time for a little AC:WW every weekday morning around 9am. On a few mornings, I've noticed a small flock of white birds that takes to the sky as soon as my character steps outside the door. This adds to the Goofy vs. Pluto puzzle begun in the first Animal Crossing: we have animals that are "people" and animals that are animals. The most blatant example was the frog. You can catch "animal" frogs in the ponds, yet you can have "people" frogs living in your town. Then there's the birdcage item, but I always saw the bird inside as a toy, not an actual bird. But this flock of doves heralding the dawn makes me wonder. The Flower Fest is on now, where you're supposed to grow a magnificent garden by week's end. Then Tortimer judges which villager has the best garden and hands out a flower trophy. You'd think Nook would jack up the price of seeds this week. Here's something that pissed me off. Check out the promise in this email I received from Nintendo: "Gardening tips galore in the official player's guide!" 1006@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-04-03T20:56:36-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/03/blanca-the-third.html Lizzie (from the town of Fantasy) gives us this I-Just-Ran-Into-Tammy-Fay face. It actually looked better on Blanca than it does flat, which is the opposite of the ways things usually work 984@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-03-01T22:19:05-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/02/i-miss-the-hinanyago.html Last week was a nonstop parade of visitors. Adamsvil welcomed - and I hope I don't forget anyone - Stephen, Rachel, bik, Matti, Biff, Eli, Marci, Taylor and Cameron. I'm sure I forgot somebody. Tonight, I shut it down around 9pm because my battery was dying. The picture is from tonight, when I briefly enjoyed an All-Girl Open Gate Night: Lilly, Cameron and Marci. I'm still fielding friend requests... so the unfortunate truth is that I have to cycle out names to meet new people. As Cutter informed me, if I drop your name from my Friend List but you still have me on yours... then you can SEE my open town but you can't enter it. That's actually a bit rude, Nintendo. So anyway, if you can't get in, that might be the reason. I'm keeping track of every code, so it might just take another email in a few weeks to get you back in. Just trying to get everybody a shot at it. 978@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-02-23T23:21:32-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/02/long-entry-with-lots-of-complaining.html There's spoiler material here, so watch out. Although, as you'll see, it ain't much. I received my Wild World Player's Guide this week, my free gift for another year of Nintendo Power. It has lots of great pictures, a hip HGTV kind of layout... but the more I paged through it, the more pissed off it made me. Because it doesn't explain much of anything about how the game actually works. As I said previously, Nintendo remains dead-set against anybody knowing anything about Animal Crossing. Even the strategy guide has to stay spoiler-free. Now, I'm not asking for a complete watchmaker's detail. I don't expect to see every single dialogue tree or an explanation of how the game generates town visitors. But when I pick up a strategy guide, I expect certain layers of game strata to be exposed. I want some secrets revealed, some thorough discussions. And I expect it all to be correct, because that's the chief advantage to buying something official like this as opposed to dredging the internet for info. (Plus the in-theme layout and imagery.) 967@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-02-10T00:42:05-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/02/fossils-done.html I finished off the fossils section of the Museum tonight. 52 fossils in just under two months. If everybody's town generates 1-3 fossils a day, and if everybody is as diligent as I am in digging them up, then I would expect that a lot of Day One Wild Worlders have a full or nearly full Museum right about now. The last fossil I needed was a Trilobite. 962@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-02-04T00:43:22-05:00 http://www.fourhman.com/blog/archive/2006/01/the-inevitable-haxxoring.html This entry is dedicated to Snake, pictured at right. I always wanted him in my GameCube town but never saw him. He did briefly live in my DS town, and I was grateful for the short time we spent together. Had I bothered to visit him every day, maybe I would have seen him packing and urged him not to move. But I did not, and so now there is a sheep living where Snake's dojo once stood. 955@http://www.fourhman.com/blog/ AC Wild World Diary 2006-01-27T01:14:45-05:00