Wii's Animal Crossing: City Folk announced with WiiSpeak compatibility

Voice chat to groups of people in-game with "community microphone"

15 July 2008 23:21 GMT / By Verity Burns

Nintendo has announced Animal Crossing for Wii, which will include compatibility with the new WiiSpeak peripheral, a "community microphone" that will allow players to talk to one another in-game.

Animal Crossing: City Folk is, in itself, pretty similar to other versions when it comes to the basic idea of the game - go about your daily life in-game, building your community, chatting to neighbours or just while away the day fishing and shopping. The game moves in real time, so you can go trick or treating when it's Halloween, or exchange gifts at Christmas time. Pretty clever stuff really.

However, if you’re in the mood for something a little faster paced, you can take a bus to a new urban city area that’s unique to Animal Crossing: City Folk. There you can catch a show at the theatre, get your hair done at the salon or make your own clothes at the tailor's shop, which you may just catch the animals wearing later...

Up to four people can help you build and customise your little community, and you can invite up to three friends to have a nose around your town using the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.

As for the new WiiSpeak microphone, it will be used to help players chat to one another. And it won't just be one-to-one, any players in the same room on the game will be able to chat among one another - the microphone simply sits on top of the sensor bar and picks up the conversation of everyone in the room.

The game will be available from November 16th, but the WiiSpeak accessory will be sold separately for $29.99 (around £15).