Note: Zenywolf played the Animal Crossing demo that was available at the Nintendo booth on the last day of the Digital Life Convention in New York City. Zeny got there very early in the morning and tells us he was able to play for roughly 45 minutes. Zeny wrote down various things on a notepad as he played. Questions can be directed to him though the Animal Crossing Forums. We know that the demo differs from the actual game in that it is not a complete version of Animal Crossing: Wild World. That is to say, various features could not be accessed, and because this is a demo and the game was still categorized as in development, game material is still subject to change. Thus, this article should be understood as an account of the demo play only.

Okay, I got to play AC:WW at the Digital Life show today! Here's what I found!

Cherries grew in my town! The second time I played, I had oranges.

You do not start in a dark room like in the original -- instead, an animal starts walking around the village and will ask you "Want to play?" A menu will appear with "Play, Tag Mode, Other". I have no idea what Tag Mode is... it said I needed a bottled message.

When the game starts, you're in a taxi on a rainy day in first person perspective. You see the front of the car and the back of Kapp'n's head! He will ask you a few questions like Rover did in the original game.

First he asks you about the rainy day, nothing much... then he asks you for your name, *insert name dialog*.

Then he says "Odd name, are ye fond of it?" you can respond "Yo it's burly" or "it's cute" or "wait that's not it!" I chose "Yo it's burly", and he replied "That's a strong name for a boy!" and you can say "Right on!" or "I'm a girl".

Then he asks you where you're heading, and you tell him the town name, *insert town name dialog*.

Then he asks "Are ye joking?" And that'll give you the chance to change your mind about the name.

Then -- listen! This is important, it determines where your house is! He asks you why you want to move, and then a list of locations appear! The list is "The beach", "town hall", "shopping", "the border", or "the museum". Your house will be placed near the location you choose.

After that's done, you get driven to town hall and you are greeted by Pelly who is the Town Hall/Post Office clerk (they're both in the same building!). She asks you a question and teaches you how to use your map and where your house is. The bulletin board is in front of the Town Hall.

When you get home, you'll notice theres no gyroid by your house. When you go inside you already have two floors by default! And theres no light bulb -- there's a candle. Upstairs you have a bed and a phone (I didn't see a diary). The phone is to change options and invite Rover to your town (I'm serious). When you go to sleep you can record your data and stuff. You may now SAVE wherever you want by pressing Start and clicking "Save and quit". There will be no animal to tell you goodbye (so sad...).

When you get outta your home, the ever-so-loved Nook appears! He tells you the price of the home and tells you can pay it off little by little! Also, I only had to do one job, planting the flowers. Then I was free! Hopefully in the final version you won't have to work full time.

The Able Sisters are right next to Nook's store. Sable is still shy, Mable is still cheerful. The Salon wasn't in the demo.

The big hole in the cliff leads to the gate, and the two guards have names -- Booker and Copper, yay! Copper is in charge of the Wi-Fi and friend code stuff, while Booker does the help/info for you stuff.

There are only 3 villagers when you start.

No cliffs, all grass and sand and rivers, no lake either. The town has multiple bridges, and there's no dump -- there's a recycle bin at town hall instead. The map is the same except with no grids and is pixelated (and you can access it from the item screen). Each item has a specific category it goes into -- you can hold a TON of items now!* When you access the item screen, the action switches to the top screen, and you see your character with one arm in the air waiting for you to finish what you're doing. There's new background music (Nook's theme is more catchy!) and the title screen music is the one from the Nintendo video clips.

One of the villagers told me (and I also read on a sign) that it was possible to make hybrid plants...

Each museum section has two rooms and look different... sorta. The paintings have velvet ropes now and the aquarium has big tanks with one huge one in the back.

The caf� is downstairs of the museum and the caf� man sells coffee for 200 bells, his name is Brewster.

Upstairs is Blathers' sister Celeste. She has the same sleeping problem. When you talk to her you can tell her "You're cute!" (I tried this option--man, her reaction was funny. She got all nervous and said "You're teasing me, right? How about you look at the telescope instead?"), "I want to see the telescope" or "Nothing". She will allow you to make constellations as well as view stars.

You can buy medicine for bee stings at Nook's.

Ah! They have new expressions such as putting their hands on their hips and closing their eyes like know-it-alls! Nook does it the most... some of the old expressions are replaced, like a bubble with "..." above their head when they think, instead of the gear turning.

Okay, that's it for now! I'll update later if I can! Remember, this was just a demo -- all info is subject to change!

* 10-30-05: Zeny is referring to the menu bar at the top of the inventory, as seen in many of the screenshots. When he was playing the game, he was unable to catch any fish or bugs and assumed that these panels were item pockets, and not display tabs (such as the ones that exist in Animal Crossing for GCN). After speaking to Zeny, he acknowledges that he isn't quite sure about what this might be. This is understandable, since he had a limited amount of time to play. Curiously, the menu bar seems to have a heart icon in some screens, but not in others.