Animal Crossing DS details News

Animal Crossing: Wild World may not be out for a little while in Europe, but with the US version due to hit on December 4th it's probably fair to guess that plenty of you will be playing it soon.

So, first of all, there's good news on that front: you needn't worry about your American version not hooking up to Nintendo's online service from this country or indeed any other. We have it on top authority that it's all fine - there's no new region protection specific to online DS games.

And, in more good news, Japanese website Nintendo Inside reports that it's very good indeed. Or at least, that they enjoyed playing it during a recent demonstration at the brilliantly named Toys R Us Carnival in Japan.

According to details translated by Kotaku, the 1-4 player game is very similar to the GameCube Animal Crossing, but the touch-pad interface complements the existing design very nicely. Chat mode will use Wi-Fi, and in the wired network demonstration at the Carnival, players were able to invite their neighbours over to inspect their villages. Sounds good to us.

As you probably remember from past items, it's also possible for up to four people to live together in the same village, even the same house, using just one cartridge.

The game's due out in Europe in Q1 2006, and we'll be letting you know what we think of it hopefully in the near future.