









We've documented 21 accessibility features for Animal Crossing: Wild World, including Guaranteed Progress, Low Pressure, No Quick Reactions, No Button Combos and No Repeated Pressing. Its accessibility is strongest in Getting Started and Visual but it also has features in Controls, Reading, Navigation and Audio 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: Wild World accessibility 16 months ago.
Accessibility Notes
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.
In addition to the main controls using the DS buttons, you also need to use the touchscreen to perform some actions, which requires some accuracy. You can also optionally use the touchscreen to move rather than the d-pad. On the Wii U virtual console version, you can use the joystick to move. The touchscreen also means some menus are designed to be navigated this way and not with buttons.
Text is all high in contrast, but can be hard to read on the small DS screen, and is marginally less than 1/20th the height of the screen. This also applies to the subtitles. there is a map with different points of interest and locations highlighted with different colours and icons, so it doesn't rely on colour alone.
Game Details
Release Date: 23/11/2005, updated in 2016
Out Now: DS and Wii U
Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds
Players: 1-4 (4 online)
Genres: Collecting, Narrative, Simulation (Adventure, Communication, Role-Play and Sequencing)
Accessibility: 21 features
Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon, Day and Night, Open World, Persistant World and Weather
Developer: Nintendo (@Nintendo)
Costs: Purchase cost
Controls
We've documented 4 accessibility features for Controls in Animal Crossing: Wild World 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.
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: Wild World, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:
- Pine Hearts (11 Controls Features)
- Coral Island (9 Controls Features)
- Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (9 Controls Features)
- Stardew Valley (9 Controls Features)
Difficulty
We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Difficulty in Animal Crossing: Wild World 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: Wild World, and offer accessibility features for Difficulty:
- Pine Hearts (2 Difficulty Features)
- Slime Rancher 2 (1 Difficulty Feature)
- Slime Rancher (1 Difficulty Feature)
Getting Started
We've documented 6 accessibility features for Getting Started in Animal Crossing: Wild World 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.
Save Progress Anytime: The game automatically saves progress or you can save any time. This doesn’t mean you never lose progress, but it does mean you can stop whenever you want (without having to get to a save point) without losing progress.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started
If you want to play Animal Crossing: Wild World, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:
- Pine Hearts (10 Getting Started Features)
- The Garden Path (7 Getting Started Features)
- Garden Story (7 Getting Started Features)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons (7 Getting Started Features)
Reading
We've documented 4 accessibility features for Reading in Animal Crossing: Wild World 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
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
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: Textual captions indicate who is speaking (or there is only ever one person speaking). This can also be indicated visually in the game with character icons or placing text in speech bubbles next to the person speaking.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading
If you want to play Animal Crossing: Wild World, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:
- Pine Hearts (6 Reading Features)
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf (6 Reading Features)
- Animal Crossing: City Folk (6 Reading Features)
- Apico (6 Reading Features)
Navigation
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Navigation in Animal Crossing: Wild World which deals 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.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation
If you want to play Animal Crossing: Wild World, 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)
- Pine Hearts (4 Navigation Features)
Visual
We've documented 5 accessibility features for Visual in Animal Crossing: Wild World 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 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: Wild World, 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)
- Moonglow Bay (7 Visual Features)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons (7 Visual Features)
Audio
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Audio in Animal Crossing: Wild World 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: Wild World, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:
- Pine Hearts (3 Audio Features)
- Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (3 Audio Features)
- Paradise Marsh (3 Audio Features)
- Moonglow Bay (3 Audio Features)
Communication
We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Communication in Animal Crossing: Wild World which deal with how you can communicate with other players in the game and what options are available to customise and control this interaction. The following games are similar to Animal Crossing: Wild World, and offer accessibility features for Communication:
- Pine Hearts (1 Communication Feature)
- Animal Crossing: City Folk (1 Communication Feature)
- Animal Crossing (1 Communication Feature)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons (1 Communication Feature)
System Accessibility Settings
In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:
Nintendo Wii U
The Wii U has some limited settings, such as disabling rumble and selecting mono audio.
Read more about system accessibility settings.
Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Ben Kendall