City Folk did not feel particularly inspired. It was basically a HD Wild World with a small panel of new features, not like the progression of Gamecube to Wild World.
One, it wasn't HD, two, it also took features from GameCube's version and added them back in after taking them out of Wild World- real world holidays (Wild World doesn't have Halloween, Bunny Day- Easter, Toy Day- Christmas, etc), also, the layout of the town totally replicates the original- cliffs and a second layer of the town don't exist in Wild World, only the original, and City Folk. Plus, Kapp'n stopped appearing in Wild World after the 4th and final person moved into the same house. Also, just as in the original, all 4 players lived in separate houses, in Wild World they all shared a house- made it easier to pay off using 4 players than just one, but still.
I'm able to answer this question having played all 4 NA versions- still to this day, and can tell you why City Folk is my least favorite of the group. One, you need to have this with you if you ever plan to live in the real world and not miss time-sensitive events. Sure, you can change the clock to make up for it, but I'm truly devoted to the game and it's real life time setting. I never changed my GameCube clock originally, and never will for any system today. When Daylight Saving Time hits, I change the game's clock since an hour isn't going to matter to 99.9% of GC's games. If you want to time travel to make up for a missed event, and convince yourself it's not "time traveling" despite the game's clock not matching what the time on your phone has, be my guest, but for me, my game time will always match my phone's time, it's one of the reasons I fell in love with this game in 2002.
So, when a shop closes, and I'm not home in time to make it, too bad, just like real life, I miss it- that's what I love about e+ though, I can bang on Tanukichi's (Nook's) door, and get him up to do some shopping and selling! Now, you'll say that e+ is a console, yeah, it is, but I can't always be home to play it, so sometimes I do miss out on timed events, but oh well, just like life. I've never missed an event in either Wild World nor New Leaf- gee, could it be the handheld is always with me? Why, yes, it IS always with me! I'm not saying I hate the consoles because of the clock, but the clock certainly gives the handhelds a bigger advantage.
So, getting into why City Folk is low. First, as mentioned above, it's a mix of the first 2 games, but not only that, it's literally a mix of the first 2 games with about 10% new content! I mean literally you start off again working for Nook, it's like Nintendo, I did this in Animal Crossing, I did this in Wild World, and I'm doing it AGAIN in City Folk? There are some nice new features like getting the gold axe simply by luck when you throw in a regular one, and the addition of silver tools were also nice since the first two it was either regular or gold. The next reason I didn't care for City Folk is because just like they fell in love with the touch screen on the DS making all the action happen using it, they repeated that same idea with the Wii-mote's pointer. It's like did they know how difficult typing already was with the touching, and not care? Geez, I hated trying to type on it- thankfully it had those pre-registered sentences!
The City was great, but like others say you have to listen to a rambling Kapp'n. You could have just visited periodically, but you needed to go frequent enough to see online stuff, see Phineas, change your shoes with a "shine" by Kicks, and get all the emotions from Shrunk. Nook's the main store like he was in the prior 2, so you'll need to see him everyday no matter what, so they left him in the town- thankfully, that's a pain listening to Kapp'n rambling!
The final thing I absolutely hated were the freaking cliffs! I was done with them in Wild World, I could go all the way up, and all the way down, and not have to search for a ramp to get to the next level! It's similar in New Leaf if you don't mind skipping the beach. I love that about New Leaf, no having to make paths for both the river AND a ramp to get to the next level. However, New Leaf doesn't have a clear boundary, just like Wild World, where north and south are, so burying cedars you don't know exactly where the cutoff is that the cliffs gave you. Cliffs aside, the real time, non-time travel, home-only puts all the console games behind the 8 ball as it is, but if they would have added some cooler features (or returned some of e+ features), then it'd probably be higher to me than it was.
