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Giftpia - The New Animal Crossing?

Posted by simoniker on from the those-wacky-nintendo-chaps dept.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out that IGN Cube have hands-on impressions of Nintendo's latest 'communication game', Giftpia. This seemingly odd but addictive mushroom-chomping title is directed by Square veterans, and IGN ventures that "Giftpia may be billed as an RPG, but it's really more of an adventure.. there are no stats beyond your health meter, no random battles.. in a sense, Giftpia borrows a lot from Nintendo's Animal Crossing." Hopefully this'll include Animal Crossing's compulsiveness, as well as its saccharin-sweet style - in any case, the Japanese version of Giftpia is already released, and IGN mentions that "..shown off in English at this year's E3, Giftpia is almost guaranteed to see a US release."

3 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. Hopefully... by lightspawn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You won't need to buy hundreds of cards, a scanner, gameboy, and link cable to fully enjoy the game (like animal crossing, or animal forest+ as it was called in Japan).

    Isn't anybody else bothered by this? When I buy a game, I want it to be stand alone. No pokemon red/blue, no GCN/GBA, no cards to scan, nothing. Extra stages as downloads are fine but don't put them online just to say the game has online features like Sega did, and make sure they STAY online.

    1. Re:Hopefully... by d3kk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I never played Animal Crossing, but I did play Pokemon Red/Silver/Saphire. It's not necessary at all to buy cards, the scanner, or a link cable to get a lot out of the game. Sure, it's frustrating sometimes not being able to get that elusive trade-only pokemon, but there's still tons to do and many ways to win without it. I think it's good on Nintendo's part to do things like that for the hardcore gamers who want a little something extra and can afford it. If they didn't, we'd all be sitting here saying, "Wouldn't that be cool if..?"

    2. Re:Hopefully... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Sometimes they do it right. GBA/GCN link functionality can be really cool when it enhances a game. Things like madden playcalling come to mind (if that happens). I gotta say I was pretty dissapointed in the Metroid link capability. Basically, you just have to prove to your Gamecube that you own a GBA and a copy of Metroid Fusion. Once the save's been made you don't need the GBA to play the original Metroid. "Look Mr. GCN, I bought your little brother! Now let me play those extra parts of that game I paid for!"