Animal Crossing Clock (DSiWare) Review

Wed, 06 May 2009 by Corbie Dillard

Is Animal Crossing Clock a useful DSiWare application, or just an ironic waste of time?

Animal Crossing Clock is the second Animal Crossing-themed application so far for Nintendo's DSi system. Nintendo has carefully put together a clock application and tossed in a bunch of Animal Crossing audio/visual influences to create yet another semi-useless DSi application program. Since the DSi system already has a built-in clock function on its main menu, it would seem that having to launch an entirely new application just to get that same basic functionality would prove to be a bit redundant. Welcome to Animal Crossing Clock, people.

The clock function itself is fairly standard. You can choose to have the clock displayed as either an analog clock or a digital clock displayed on the top screen of your DSi system. Both display the time in hours, minutes, and seconds, and also feature the date and day of the week. While the digital variant is nice enough, it doesn't quite have that 'Animal Crossing' flair the analog clock features.

The clock features a Town Tune that will play at the top of each hour. At this time balloons will also come flying up the top screen of your DSi system. You can choose to use the included tune, or you can even create your own Town Tune that will be played each hour. To do this, you simply click on the Town Tune button on the touchscreen and you will then see a bunch of tiny animal faces displayed on two musical staffs. You merely click on the animal face you wish to change and drag it up and down the musical staff to change the note. Once you're done, you simply click the "Apply" button and it will automatically save your customized tune into memory.

The clock also features an alarm function that allows you set up to three different alarms times. You can even choose from three different alarm sounds, or if you're feeling adventurous, you can import sounds you've created using the DSi Sound function. Each alarm also features a snooze function that can be turned on or off. This allows you to hit the snooze button when the alarm goes off, which will give you an extra five minutes of sleep before the alarm begins sounding again. It's also worth noting that the alarm sounds at whatever volume you set it at no matter what the volume setting on your DSi system currently is set at, so be aware of this when you're in a place where you don't want the alarm suddenly blaring off.

There's certainly plenty of clock and date functions to toy around with, but having to boot up the program each time you want to make use of them seems a bit silly at times. Of course you'll also want to keep your DSi plugged in while leaving the clock program running for long periods of time as it does continue to run the battery down much the same way a game would if you left it going. Granted, the bottom screen will go to sleep after a brief period of inactivity, but the top screen where the clock resides doesn't turn off unless you exit the program or turn off your DSi system. It's not going to do you much good if you use this program as an alarm clock and then your DSi battery runs down before morning arrives.

Conclusion

In the end Animal Crossing Clock proves to be mainly just another chance to cash in on the popularity of the Animal Crossing series and doesn't even manage to provide a very useful tool to go along with it. Sure there are some cute features built into the program that can't be done using the DSi system's built-in clock, but it's still not enough to warrant the price tag, not to mention running your DSi battery down while having your DSi system display a clock function that could be done with absolutely any other clock you have on hand. This application would have been a nice little bonus to the Animal Crossing Calculator, but as a stand-alone package, it's basically a waste of 200 Nintendo Points. Much like Animal Crossing Calculator, this would have been much better as a freebie.

3/10

Scoring Policy

User Comments

1. y2josh 06 May 2009, 10:04 BST

Another reason to be a happy DSLite owner

2. Golgo 06 May 2009, 10:27 BST

10 out of 10 to Corbie for managing to review a clock.

3. Homer Simpson 06 May 2009, 10:48 BST

Haha, yeah definitely. I bet that's a first for you, Corbie?

4. Objection_Blaster 06 May 2009, 12:53 BST

How did he manage to write so much about a clock app? Thanks for taking the job, Corbie. I don't think anyone else wanted it.

5. marktheshark 06 May 2009, 13:04 BST

Great review. Yeah, I actually read all of the review.
So Corbie, where did you get your avatar from?

6. Token Girl 06 May 2009, 13:37 BST

Poor Corbie. What bet did you lose that you had to review both the calculator and the clock?

7. Kawaiipikachu 06 May 2009, 13:54 BST

Well I just figured out Nintendos plan with these so called apps & game excerpts just so they cal fill the DSi shop with plenty of titles so to give the illisoin of the DSiWare being worth it meanwhile the reality is that the DSi is just a stopgap that Nintendo used to buy time to devolope the actual DS successor.

8. breaderer 06 May 2009, 14:16 BST

seriously? who would pay for this?

9. Hardy83 06 May 2009, 15:27 BST

Why Nintendo? Even WiiWare wasn't this much of a disaster at the beginning.

10. Egg miester 06 May 2009, 15:49 BST

being that i really like animal crossing if i had a dsi and points to spare i would get this

11. KnucklesSonic8 06 May 2009, 16:25 BST

At least you can make your own tune but still... $2 is just too much to ask for when the DS already has an Alarm. They're just milking the AC label to hoard more money. >_>

12. SmaMan 06 May 2009, 17:14 BST

I wonder what's next.

Animal Crossing...Ruler. With a protractor as a bonus! No connectivity with the calculator application! Be the first of your casual "gaming" friends to download this one of a kind measurement tool on your DSi!

13. pixelman 06 May 2009, 17:23 BST

OMG this is so awesome! I can spend 200 Nintendo points, boot up my DSi, try to ignore the time on the main screen while finding the AC clock icon, then look at the time! Instead of my wrist.

Epic fail.

14. WarioFan63 06 May 2009, 18:00 BST

I've heard that people in Japan love this kinda stuff so it's not like it was a TOTALLY bad idea.

15. nintendan 06 May 2009, 18:24 BST

yeah i bought it, so what? i use my DS as an alarm clark. and this little app gives me access to all my sound recordings to use as the alarm. and its not like i spent 2$ on it. i used the free 1000 points. now i have 800 left. hopefully they release moving memo soon but they probably won't.

16. City Of Delusion 06 May 2009, 18:24 BST

3/10? Bit high, I think...

17. WolfRamHeart 06 May 2009, 18:41 BST

@SmaMan
No, Animal Crossing protractor would likely be 200 points too.

18. SmaMan 06 May 2009, 19:32 BST

Yeah, you're right. Heck, they probably would make you pay 200 more for Animal Crossing Tape Measure.

19. LEGEND MARIOID 06 May 2009, 19:44 BST

Oh dear. There's a mario version of this too in japan isn't there?! I'll pass!

There's no need to write off dsiware because of this ffs! My radar list includes:
Art Styles Pictopict, Nalaku, Somnium, Hacolife
Pop Solo Plus
Moving Notepad
Mr Driller DSi
Brain Training Express Maths
Brain Training Express Literature
Damacy (I think that's what its called).
Others will be awaiting Mighty Flip Champs...

Need I say more.

20. Cheezy 06 May 2009, 20:14 BST

I guess Nintendo makes too much money that it gives them an excuse not to think for the fans. Why should this cost anything.

21. Bahamut ZERO 06 May 2009, 20:18 BST

What would you give it if it was packed with the calculator?

22. Rocky 06 May 2009, 20:45 BST

I downloaded it. 200 points is nothing, and I can't believe how much complaining is going on over a 200 point download. If you are a fan of Animal Crossing, get the clock, if not, pass on it. I don't understand the Nintendo conspiracy theories over a 200 point download.

23. Twilight Crow 06 May 2009, 20:51 BST

If Nintendo had to get money from these, It SHOULD have been both aps for $2.

24. metakirbyknight 06 May 2009, 21:00 BST

I will buy this.

25. chunky_droid 06 May 2009, 21:10 BST

It could have been justified if the $2 spent was to add extra functionality to the already existing clock and giving it a skin.

Having to boot it up seperately is just silly though. But people will buy it, the genius of Nintendo, lol

26. Corbie 06 May 2009, 21:14 BST

I need to add that you'd probably be better off skipping over the actual score and reading the review when it comes to these apps. It's tough to score them, and I try to give enough information in the review for you to decide if this program is for you or not.

27. mjc0961 06 May 2009, 22:33 BST

Wow. It must suck that you have to keep buying these poor games and apps to write these reviews. But somehow you manage to write very good reviews on things that there doesn't seem to be much to say about. I would have never expected such thorough reviews of a clock and calculator.

28. pie4prez 06 May 2009, 22:58 BST

I would buy this if it changed the skin of the actual DSi clock.

29. Dokenzz 07 May 2009, 03:53 BST

I thought this was going to be a skin on the main menu... meh.

30. catcher82611 07 May 2009, 20:25 BST

Oh Nintendo what have you done!

31. Kid_A 07 May 2009, 22:14 BST

Eff this. The dsi has a calender, too. It's in the dsi camera, for some reason. I might get the calculator, actually. I use the interwebs on my DSi to do homework, and I often use the DSi Sound to either play music when I do homework, or use the voice recorder to practice my pronunciation for spanish class. Having a calculator right there would be nice.

Really, though, these things need to be free. It's not like Nintendo put any work into this, and they're doing okay in the cash department.

32. StarDust 08 May 2009, 11:42 BST

It seems like a pretty useless add-on. Corbie, one question you did not address in your review is what happens when you close the lid to suspend the "app"? Do the clock and alarm still function in suspend mode or does suspend even work at all?

33. Wiiloveit 09 May 2009, 15:18 BST

I'll get the Mario one for the snooze function alone.

34. Ricardo91 14 May 2009, 00:50 BST

Corbie, how you manage to write such detailed reviews for calculators and clocks will never seize to amaze me.

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