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Xbox X|SWe've documented 27 accessibility features for Animal Crossing: City Folk, including Large Subtitles, Large Text, Guaranteed Progress, Low Pressure and No Quick Reactions. Its accessibility is strongest in Controls and Reading but it also has features in Visual, Getting Started, Navigation, Audio and Communication to reduce unintended barriers.
This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.
Our accessibility examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Animal Crossing: City Folk accessibility 6 months ago.
Accessibility Notes
You can only save manually from certain locations.
There is no difficulty setting but the game is designed to help you get started with lots of tips and advice. You don’t get punished for doing things wrong and you can ignore aspects of the game that are too challenging. Because the game is so open-ended, there is rarely any clear guidance, beyond the tutorial, on your objectives. Visuals are generally bright and quite large, however, because the game is tied to the real-world clock, playing at night turns the visuals darker and harder to see.
Text is all very large and high in contrast, and dialogue is captioned, with text size sometimes altered to reflect the speaker's tone. There is an in-game map which features all points of interest clearly marked with different colours and icons.
In addition to writing letters to other players, when you're together with someone else you can use the Wii remote microphone to talk to one another.
Game Details
Release Date: 16/11/2008, updated in 2008
Out Now: Wii
Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds
Players: 1 (4 online)
Genres: Collecting, Role-Play, Simulation (Communication, Creative, Point-and-Click and Sequencing)
Accessibility: 27 features
Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon, Day and Night, Open World, Persistant World and Weather
Developer: Nintendo (@Nintendo)
Costs: Purchase cost
Controls
We've documented 6 accessibility features for Controls in Animal Crossing: City Folk which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.
Gamepad
Can play with the following:
Multiple Buttons & Single Stick: Can play with multiple buttons and a stick.
Motion
Games that can be played with different sorts of motion controllers.
Motion Pointing: Can use the orientation of the gamepad to move a cursor-target around the screen like a mouse.
Motion Gesture: Can motion with the controller to direct an in-game action. This can be a one-to-one motion for analogue sword or camera movement. It can also be a simple shake to trigger a one-off action. This is sometimes known as Waggle or Shake controls, as popularised by the Wii.
Button Combinations
Specific button operation required to play
Holding Down Buttons Optional: Holding down buttons for prolonged periods (a second or more) is not required or can be switched to toggling the action on and off. This is in addition to the movement stick/button which is not considered a hold for this purpose.
Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional: Quick, repeated button pressing (more than 2 times a second) is not required, can be skipped or switched to holding a button to trigger a repeated action.
No Simultaneous Buttons: Only one button or key required at a time, in addition to direction stick(s).
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls
If you want to play Animal Crossing: City Folk, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale (12 Controls Features)
- Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (9 Controls Features)
- Slime Rancher 2 (8 Controls Features)
- Paradise Marsh (8 Controls Features)
Difficulty
We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Difficulty in Animal Crossing: City Folk which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play. The following games are similar to Animal Crossing: City Folk, and offer accessibility features for Difficulty:
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale (2 Difficulty Features)
- Slime Rancher 2 (1 Difficulty Feature)
- Slime Rancher (1 Difficulty Feature)
Getting Started
We've documented 5 accessibility features for Getting Started in Animal Crossing: City Folk which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.
Assistance Getting Starting
These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.
Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.
Reaction-Time Not Critical: Individual game actions don’t need quick reactions, or there are settings to lower the requirement for quick reactions. This means you don't need to quickly press a button in response to an on-screen prompt, target a fast-moving target or skillfully complete a scenario against the clock.
Low Pressure: Game tasks aren't time-limited or there's a low-pressure mode. This avoids the pressure of being put on the clock for overarching missions, or failing tasks because you didn't reach a destination in time.
No Jump Scares: No sudden loud noises or popping-up scary visuals that unexpectedly appear without warning, or the option to disable them.
Assistance For Progressing
These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.
Guaranteed Progress With God Mode: There is no fail state for any game level, where you lose progress or have to start again. Or there are options to make failing impossible: infinite health or lives, unlimited time. Sometimes called God Mode or Unfailable.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started
If you want to play Animal Crossing: City Folk, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:
- The Garden Path (7 Getting Started Features)
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale (7 Getting Started Features)
- Garden Story (7 Getting Started Features)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons (7 Getting Started Features)
Reading
We've documented 6 accessibility features for Reading in Animal Crossing: City Folk which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.
Reading Level
How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.
Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.
Text Visibility
Large Clear Text: All essential text is large and clear or can be adjusted to be. The general text used throughout the game in menus, instructions and other key information (excluding subtitles that are assessed separately) is at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height on landscape screens and at least 1/40 height on portrait screens. We base this on the full line-height, including the space above and below the letters.
High Contrast Text: Text colour contrasts to the background or can be adjusted to be. The text in menus, instructions and other information is presented in high contrast with a solid background.
Subtitles
Large Clear Subtitles: Subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast. They are at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height of a landscape screen and at least 1/40 height on portrait screens, or can be adjusted to be. We base this on the full line-height, including the space above and below the letters. Considered separately from the general text of the game, the subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast.
All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game): All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to hear spoken dialogue or narrative to play the game.
Captions
Speaker Indicator and their Tone: Textual captions indicate who is speaking and their tone (or there is only ever one person speaking). This can also be indicated visually in the game with character icons or character expressions with text in speech bubbles next to the person speaking.
Navigation
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Navigation in Animal Crossing: City Folk which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.
Head-Up Display
Game Map: View a map of the game world during play, with the landscape, points of interest and missions highlighted throughout the entire game. This enables the orientation of the player and the world, confirming a direction of movement and the location of destinations or points of exploration.
Menu Navigation
Digital Menu Navigation: Menu choices with Gamepad can be made without using an analogue stick to guide a cursor to a selection. For example, using D-Pad, buttons or the Stick to change menu selection in a single action.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation
If you want to play Animal Crossing: City Folk, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:
- My Time At Portia (6 Navigation Features)
- Seabeard (5 Navigation Features)
- Paradise Marsh (5 Navigation Features)
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale (5 Navigation Features)
Visual
We've documented 6 accessibility features for Visual in Animal Crossing: City Folk which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.
Contrast
Medium Contrast: Game uses generally well contrasting and bright visuals, or has a slider to make this the case.
Visual Distractions
No Screen Shake: No screen shake effect or it is included but it can be disabled. This includes the absence of screen shake for dramatic effect as well as to indicate hits on a target.
No Busy Backgrounds: No distracting backgrounds or you can make them static or blank. This includes the absence of other movement elements in the background that might distract or confuse the action. Where foreground contrast is high, this includes games with some movement in the background that doesn't make it overly difficult to distinguish what is happening.
Audio Cues for Visual Events
Audio Cues for Visual Events: Audio is provided to indicate visual events. Game events or progress highlighted by visual icons, effects or animations are also accompanied by audio to signify that progress. This is useful for blind players.
Motion Sickness Friendly
Motion Sickness Friendly: Doesn't have 3D movement elements that may trigger motion sickness, like motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision. Or includes the ability to disable motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision effects.
Colour Options
Colour Blind Friendly: Game doesn’t rely on colour or can switch to colour blind friendly mode with double coding or similar way to avoid colour dependance.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual
If you want to play Animal Crossing: City Folk, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:
- Pokémon Sleep (7 Visual Features)
- Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (7 Visual Features)
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale (7 Visual Features)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons (7 Visual Features)
Audio
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Audio in Animal Crossing: City Folk which deals with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.
Play Without Hearing
Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio
If you want to play Animal Crossing: City Folk, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:
- Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (3 Audio Features)
- Paradise Marsh (3 Audio Features)
- Moonglow Bay (3 Audio Features)
- Dave the Diver (2 Audio Features)
Communication
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Communication in Animal Crossing: City Folk which deals with how you can communicate with other players in the game and what options are available to customise and control this interaction.
Player-to-Player Online Communication
This is how players communicate with each other in online games. This can be to plan strategy, chat as they play or co-ordinate resources.
Voice Chat: Chat to other players on your team or friends list by speaking with headset.
System Accessibility Settings
In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:
Nintendo Wii
The Wii has a few helpful settings, like disable rumble, but you have to use gesture controls for most games and the system menu.
Read more about system accessibility settings.
Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Ben Kendall
