Does Animal Crossing work better on handheld or home console?

[JCnator]

At this point, given the game's tendency to encourage you playing on a constant daily basis, it would be very foolish to release a mainline Animal Crossing game on a console where the gameplay is always tethered to the already non-portable TV. Even if the vast majority of American gamers would rather play games in their home rather than in the public, portable gaming is not only the most inexpensive way to play video games, but it also let you play literally anywhere you are without much restriction, including the bathrooms.

Had the technology hit its ceiling for home consoles, portable technical specs might eventually catch up with it and render pretty much every home console obsolete, especially if a console merges the portable and home console aspects into one. And Animal Crossing would benefit a lot from its increased exposure.

It's worth noting that Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii is already an underwhelming game to begin with, especially that the new features weren't adding much to the overall gaming experience and felt tacked-on a port of the wildly popular technologically limited Wild World. These issues aren't helping players to be compelled playing it for long and is already completely outshined by the 3DS installment.

The only Animal Crossing for GameCube released in North America might be worth playing to see how far the franchise has come up to the latest along with its increased emphasis on the single-player content, but it stills ultimately pales in comparison to New Leaf. The lack of proper multiplayer function, clunky keyboard usage, dated N64 graphics, limited customization and being a home console game in first place are noticeable enough to proved that it hasn't aged well. Nor will Wild World, City Folk and eventually New Leaf when a new entry comes out.

 

[coderp]

To date, there have only been 2 console versions of Animal Crossing. As far as I have seen, the consoles were slightly updated versions of the previous game.

The handheld games have consistently brought many new features and updates, while the console versions tweaked them. Unfortunately, City Folk brought a bad reputation to the consoles altogether. With the frustratingly difficult controls, it became widely known as the least popular game in the series. However, this has little to do with the gameplay itself, but the control mechanisms.

I believe that if Nintendo developed a game for a console with updated gameplay as well as with understandable controls, it would be just as popular as the rest of the games, excluding City Folk.

 

[LOLUMAD?]

handheld of course! I love play AC on road trips and etc.

 

[TheGreatBrain]

I liked wild world but I hated that everything was so small. I much prefered playing ac on my wii I was thrilled when they came out with a ds xl. It's obviously not as big as playing on the t.v. but it's not so bad with the xl. I love the convenience of using a hand held. I can take it anywhere.

 

[jvgsjeff]

Definitely home consoles. They can support things like USB keyboards so you don't have to use an awful on-screen keyboard, you get better graphics and sound, play on a much larger screen, you can use a regular controller, etc. If there's a problem with one of your buttons, you can get a new controller without having to replace your whole system. So far, the portable versions haven't supported voice chat or multi-level towns either. And if you want to record videos for Youtube, it's much easier and cheaper to get a capture device that works with any home system than it is to modify your 3DS (and even then, it would only work on one specific system).

 

[Zandy]

I have always felt that Animal Crossing is better on handheld devices since the release of Animal Crossing: City Folk.

When the first Gamecube AC games came out - handheld consoles weren't that good in terms of the beautiful aesthetics and quality that home consoles had an advantage with (at the time). When ACWW game out, it was a huge success because of Nintendo DS had much better graphics and capabilities than the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance. What Nintendo did was set the bar way too high for the release of AC:CF in my opinion, because that seems to be one of the least favoured AC game because people were so much more inclined to handheld consoles and AC:CF didn't offer enough to succeed the expectations of loyal AC players.

Overall, I'd much rather see a new handheld AC game than a home console AC game.

 

[tui]

I've never played the GC game, but the sole reason alone that I could never get anywhere with playing City Folk is because of the fact that it is on console. I bought it pretty soon after it came out in the UK and could never really play it because by the time I got home from school, other people in my family wanted to watch the television at that time which always held priority over the Wii, and to be honest I've only really touched it a couple of times since I initially brought it because of how inconvenient it was, and how the controls were so awkward and unsuited to the game mechanics.

So yes, I believe it does work better on handhelds, although in that respect I've only and now only play Wild World since I never got a 3DS since at the time they came out I was really too old to ask for one as a present, and now I buy all my own clothes and are getting ready to pay for a car, insurance, driving lessons etc. I'm never going to have the cash to buy one, but if I ever did, I'd much prefer the next game to be on handheld.

 

[PrincessSara]

personally, I would prefer them to always be on home consoles.... I was infinitely disappointed City Folk used only motion controls though because it made it so I can't play - I *HATE* motion controls.
that said now that Nintendo is in the era of motion controls and silly giant tablet sized controllers, I probably won't be buying a Wii U/the next animal crossing unless it's on 3DS (and no I have zero desire to get HHD, its far from what an animal crossing game is and is just Nintendo trying to make money not please the fans.)

 

[radioloves]

I chose handheld because, you can bring it anywhere you would like and if the screen isn't big enough you could sync it to your computer screen or so. Though the console isn't bad at all, I find that it's kind of strictly in the same area to play and it seems less flexible sometimes, I've played with both handheld and console all not bad, but prefer handheld xD

 

[Belle of Pripyat]

I won't play Animal Crossing (or anything else, to be honest) unless it's a handheld game.

 

[mayortash]

I much prefer a handheld game. I feel like AC didn't translate as well to the Wii. The graphics were great though.

 

[broadwaythecat]

From my experience, handheld, playing City Life on the Wii was a disaster. Playing on handheld is a lot simpler and fun

 

[thecheese103]

I think handheld, New Leaf specifically, is preferable. However, when we eventually do get an Animal Crossing U, I feel that the gamepad's design is perfectly suited for Animal Crossing. It'd be perfect for having an inventory/the other current menus and more, and you could even have your inventory open at all times, although personally I think that's something we should already be able to have.

I guess the best way of putting it is that, my answer is handheld, but I fully expect console to take over when we get our next console-bound installment!

 

[Sweetley]

I prefer more the handheld. It's just more relaxed for me to play Animal Crossing on a handheld then on a
Wii for example. I remember, that I have some problems with the control in City Folk, which was for a long
time just irritating. Also I realized, that I spent more time in the handheld games (so Wild World and New
Leaf), as in the GC and Wii games.

 

[glow]

Handheld- the game is meant to be something you take with you. Hence play coins and Streetpass, and it just makes the game so much more interactive and fun IMO. as much as I want a game for the Wii U I know that it wouldn't fully replace ACNL because I can take it with me anywhere.

 

[Mars Adept]

I know this is going to be surprising, but consoles. The gamecube version and CF always kinda seemed to provide more, for me, at least. NL never provided a great online or offline experience like CF did. With home consoles, amazing graphics, the best online experience possible, ledges, Wisp, large towns, and much more add to the AC playtime.

I never liked NL due to all the changes it made, which is one of the reasons I chose home consoles.

The reason why certain villagers aren't appearing in newer titles and AC is what it is today is all thanks to WW's limitations.

This is why we need home console AC games. Sure, inserting the disk is annoying, but the modern technology of digital copies of games can fix that.

 

[Red Cat]

I don't see how Animal Crossing is any different than any other game when it comes to console vs. handheld. Handheld games in general have the advantage of being portable and more private, but consoles have better graphics and you get to play on a larger screen. If the Gamecube version had been released on the GBA instead, the series may have not taken off as we know it because the game likely would have been much worse due to the limitations of the GBA. City Folk wasn't bad because of the Wii (the only real problem was that you could only make one town per Wii), it was bad because it was basically a port from Wild World and it was not a very well designed game. New Leaf is the most recent version and it just happens to be on the 3DS, but Nintendo could probably make a better game for the Wii-U if they wanted to. The next game will probably be a console game (either the Wii-U or whatever Nintendo moves on to if the Wii-U goes belly-up) and a lot of people will likely change their opinions if it isn't done poorly like City Folk.

- - - Post Merge - - -

Sure, inserting the disk is annoying, but the modern technology of digital copies of games can fix that.

I'm extremely careful whenever I put in or take out my ACNL cartridge because I could lose my entire town if I accidentally damage it. I could smash my City Folk disk with a hammer and just buy another, so that's another reason why I like consoles.

 

[Mars Adept]

I'm extremely careful whenever I put in or take out my ACNL cartridge because I could lose my entire town if I accidentally damage it. I could smash my City Folk disk with a hammer and just buy another, so that's another reason why I like consoles.

I totally agree. A couple days ago, I accidentally tripped on my 2DS's charger while it was plugged into the system, the system dropped, and my WW game froze while loading the town. I was so lucky nothing bad happened to it ( save corrupted, cartridge broken, etc. ) .

This is another reason why I like the console versions better.

 

[rass]

I way prefer handheld, I got city folk not long ago (Christmas lol) And I don't like playing on the wii, I like the game, just not the wii as much because I don't like using the wii remote and I don't have a gamecube controller or anything like that. It's not that different, it's just I prefer handhelds more since it's portable and a console is not portable. If I had a gamecube controller I'd probably vote console, though still probably not as it's still not portable.

 

[Mars Adept]

Actually you can't use a gamecube controller for City Folk but you can use a nunchuck accessory with the wiimote, honestly I'm ok with using the wiimote for most things in CF except for moving, making patterns, and maybe a few other minor things.

Maybe if NL was more like CF I would prefer handhelds, but I can't seem to enjoy it as much as WW or CF.