Population Growing or City Folk?

[Greggy]

Since I "accidentally" deleted my New Leaf town and I've only played New Leaf myself. New Leaf made me like Animal Crossing a lot, but, I think there's still something missing and I want to play some older games to see if they're just charming or even more. Should I pick Population Growing or City folk? Can you tell me the differences between both games or even tell me if it's better than New Leaf or not? I don't care about paths and accessibility to qr codes, since town customization stressed me out in New Leaf with all that path placing and camper/plot resetting. Also, I don't really mind online interactions since I will likely emulate the game.

 

[Soda Fox]

This might be nostalgia, but I prefer Population Growing. Sure, City Folk has more items, objectively better graphics, hair styles, online play and "the city", but I think Population had a lot better events and was simply more charming and addictive.

In particular, I love the morning exercises in the summer time for Population and I also really liked when Katrina would give you a "love fortune" because animals of the opposite sex would want to talk to you and, if you were on a ledge they couldn't get up, would get really sad and defeated. I also felt the cranky and snooty characters were pleasantly unpleasant (like their personality type suggests) while City Folk sort of watered down the personality types. And New Leaf definitely made the crankies and snooties waaaay too nice, imo.

Plus, Population has really catchy music that, even though I haven't played more than briefly in over 10 years, still gets suck in my head sometimes and I find myself humming.

 

[namiieco]

I prefer City Folk because I'm all about those graphics

 

[Mothership]

City Folk has a really, really horrible problem with grass wear. If you play the game the way it's meant to be played your town will quickly become a mudhole. If you do as Nintendo suggested and place paths that you always walk on, never step on the grass, and never load a character more than once per day you'll keep your grass a lot longer. But you won't have as much fun that way.

Villagers in City Folk are much more boring than those in other AC games. Villagers in City Folk will literally stand in the same spot staring at nothing for hours at a time. Conversations with them are very limited as they begin to repeat things quickly.

The Game Cube AC is such a joy to play! The villagers are fun to interact with and their personalities are much more developed than those in newer games. Plus...no grass wear at all, so you can run as much as you want to.

 

[Greggy]

Thanks for the insights, guys! While I want a city feature like City Folk, the way you guys describe Population Growing makes me like it more now than City Folk. Also, I heard about the morning aerobics in City Folk and it sounds amazing! How's the festivals in Population Growing? Fun and interactive?

 

[Greggy]

Okay. So, I've given Population Growing a shot today and it was AMAZING. It's been my first day but I've felt like I'm already into the game's setting and mood. Lobo is in my first playthrough and I had him in New Leaf, made me wish he was legitimately cranky like he was in Population Growing. Also I loved how the Villagers save your game. Much more variety.

 

[Ray-ACP]

Definitely PG, I grew up on it and everything was better, city folk was like a poor version of wild world, had no dialogue and the animals kept repeating themselves. PG had 3 tier towns, way more holidays, massive acre towns, nes games, the ability to ask animals if they needed help (plus I thought it had the best music). I liked city folk but once the online was gone, it essentially died. As the game itself had no substance.

 

[Taz]

I like City Folk better mostly because in Population Growing the weeds spawn in so quickly even after a week or two and because I grew up on City Folk. But besides that you should get Population Growing since its a classic.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

Population Growing, being the GameCube Version. I call it ACGC since it was on the GameCube.

I prefer the GameCube Version over City Folk. I don't really like City Folk to be honest. The GC version at least has no rafflesias, grass decay, motion controls, or less interesting conversations. But if you were used to playing the newer games, the GameCube Version is going to feel really painful when playing it due to the limitations of the time.

 

[furbyq]

Completely agree with what Apple said above. Population Growing is a magical game but there are a ton of features that are in Wild World and beyond that are missing from it. It may still be interesting to see where the series started, though.

 

[abbydoll]

Population Growing for sure. I never got in City Folk, much. The interaction with the villagers sucked. It seemed like they only had a few pieces of dialogue, and they would repeat what they said all the time. In Population Growing, the villagers seemed more alive. They actually gave you tasks to do for them and they rambled on forever about all sorts of things. And the Crankies were actually cranky and the Snooties were actually snooty. I loved it.

 

[MayorJudyOfZootopia]

city folk was my first AC Game

 

[Relly]

I'd say Population growing personally. It's a bit slower and less to do but it's better than city folk.

 

[siv]

I did love CF's graphics and wi-fi, but the grass deterioration and animal dialogue repetition was just a huge turnoff.
GameCube had its problems, but I love the feeling of it more, like the music and the homely atmosphere.
[and it had Sven in it ]
It isn't a nostalgia thing, I actually played WW then CF then GC then NL.

 

[alesha]

What is population growing? Am I going to get hate now?

 

[postit]

it's the gcn version

 

[alesha]

Oh, thanks!

 

[Greggy]

Thanks for the opinions! I saw City Folk's physical copy being sold in my local gaming store, but unfortunately I don't want to buy Nintendo Wii just for it. I'm still playing Population Growing and I'm getting the hang of the things lately. My main gripe is that Blathers doesn't assess fossils like what he does in New Leaf and I have to send mail to get fossils identified.

 

[Rabirin]

Population growing. As much as i'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to change your hairstyle, I prefer population growing much much more to city folk. Purely because for one, the dialogue. The dialogue is more varied and they won't say the same thing over and over in one sitting. The dialogue is also more relentless and for that reason it's hilarious. The villagers don't hold back and they feel more anthropomorphic which is a key feature of animal crossing imo. They're also much crazier with what they say and always make up elaborate stories that'll never get boring. Rather than talking about a boring scenario they had when they didn't save.

Secondly, I hate how the Wii remote was incorporated into game and it's a pain having to outstretch your arm for long periods of time so that you can make your way around town. I think the gamecube controller is much more easier to use and less finicky.

Thirdly, population growing has a lot more events. It may not have the best graphics, but the events are what sold the game to me in the first place and villager interaction and events are two of my favourite things in the series. It's a life stimulation, so it's only fair that there's a fair amount of events to keep you busy throughout the year.

This is just my opinion though.

 

[Videoguy612]

Population Growing by ALOT!!