Rating the changes: GameCube Version vs Wild World (Part 1)

[Alolan_Apples]

Since it is Old School Animal Week (and since I want to continue with the change rating system), today’s entry is about the changes between the GameCube Version and Wild World. Five Years Ago, I written an entry about the changes between the GameCube Version and Wild World. But that was only a brief summary between both games. This is an extensive blog entry using the rating system between both games. In fact, this is where I came up with the rating system, but it was different to what I had posted here. Today’s blog entry is about changes, and tomorrow is about the similarities. Since there are a lot of changes, I won’t describe every change, but instead put a summary of what I like and what I don’t like in each section.

Data, Travel, and Creation:

The biggest advantage of Wild World compared to the GameCube Version is that I can play on the go, in hotels and in cars. But that is rather a hardware feature, not a software feature. But for everything else, Wild World suffers for being a much smaller game while it wins for having Wi-Fi and ability to talk to other players. As for character creation, it has slightly improved since we don’t have to do chores as a tutorial while we are given a map at the beginning.

• Controls:
  • Score: 0
  • Significance: 3
• Saving your game anywhere:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• Resetti:
  • Score: -2
  • Significance: 2
• Taxi instead of Train:
  • Score: -1
  • Significance: 2
• Town Map at beginning:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• Nook’s Chores:
  • Score: +1
  • Significance: 2
• Hosting and visiting:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• Wi-Fi:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• No Island:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 3
• Moving to another town:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 2
• Overall Score: +1.000

Environmental Changes:

Due to data limitations, there were a few changes with the outdoors. I like the removal of the acre system, the removal of big bushes, and the fact we can see the sky, but this is definitely where the GameCube Version is better (including the fact that the dock in the big lake was removed).

• Smaller Towns:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 3
• One Level of Elevation:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 3
• Smooth Transitioning:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 3
• Hourly Music:
  • Score: -2
  • Significance: 1
• Big Lake Changes:
  • Score: -2
  • Significance: 1
• No Wooden Bridges:
  • Score: -1
  • Significance: 1
• Changing Weather:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 1
• Pitfalls:
  • Score: -1
  • Significance: 1
• No Bushes:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 1
• Sky View:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 2
• Overall Score: -0.400

Items and Customization:

The GameCube Version may be better for having more items (as well as slot machines and journals), but Wild World has more features. And it has new themes that would make the GameCube Version feel inferior. Just two themes (Robo Series and Mush Series) made Wild World’s theme listing significantly better.

• New Themes:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• No Holiday Themes:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 3
• New Items:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 2
• NES Games:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 2
• New Clothes:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• Actual Lamps:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 1
• Bigger Houses:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• No Basement:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 2
• Hairstyles:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• No Balloons:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 1
• Overall Score: +0.600

Town Community:

The changes in the facilities are a mixed bag. While the GameCube Version feels less organized, Wild World was interesting as the Dump, Wishing Well, and Post Office (along with the Bulletin Board) were merged into the Town Hall, Police Station and Train Station were merged into the Town Gates, and Tom Nook’s Store and the Able Sisters were put next to each other. Strangely enough, New Leaf did the opposite by separating features into different facilities (including Tom Nook’s Store becoming Nook’s Homes, the Gardening Store, Timmy and Tommy’s Store, and the Re-Tail). At the same time, every facility has improved. For instance, the Able Sisters now sells clothes. This is not only good for the Able Sisters since they are finally selling something, but it’s also good for Tom Nook’s Store as it saves room for more furniture.

• Able Sister’s Sells Clothes:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• Town Hall:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• Villager Limit is 8:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 3
• Town Gates:
  • Score: -1
  • Significance: 2
• Museum Changes:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 2
• Observatory and Café:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 2
• Fossil Identification:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 3
• Perfect Town:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 2
• Town Flag:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 2
• Facility Music:
  • Score: -1
  • Significance: 1
• Overall Score: +1.200

Activities and Events:

The last set of features I like to rate is the activities and events of the game. Stuff like gardening, fishing, bug hunting, villager chat, and holidays.

• New Tools:
  • Score: +1
  • Significance: 2
• More Fish:
  • Score: +3
  • Significance: 2
• More Bugs:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 2
• Flower Changes:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 3
• Redd sells counterfeits:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 3
• Red Turnips:
  • Score: +1
  • Significance: 2
• K.K. in the Café:
  • Score: 0
  • Significance: 1
• Holidays:
  • Score: -3
  • Significance: 3
• Chatting with Villagers:
  • Score: +2
  • Significance: 3
• Shooting down balloons:
  • Score: 0
  • Significance: 2
• Overall Score: +0.500

Conclusion:

The final score for all the changes is +0.580. What this means is that according to the rating system, Wild World is overall a better game than the GameCube Version. It’s just not that better. Not every change is documented. I’m just choosing what I’m more interested into evaluating. What Wild World did right was that they introduced new features, new items, made you save your game anywhere, and added improvements to some stuff (like additional attractions to the Museum, TV channels, lamps you can toggle on and off, and Able Sisters selling clothes). What I didn’t like are the holidays, the removal of the island, the nixing of NES games, journals, and slot machines, Redd selling counterfeit paintings, and the environmental changes discussed in this entry.