Are you all ready for another fanswag giveaway? Our latest game up for grabs is Animal Crossing: City Folk. We're running this giveaway starting today and ending Sunday, December 21st at 11:59pm ET. The winner will be selected the following day via random drawing. To enter, simply tell us what your favorite activity in Animal Crossing is. Do you love to fish? Dig for fossils? Catch bugs? Tell us!

One lucky reader will walk away with a copy of Animal Crossing: City Folk ($50). Of course, we've got a couple of rules. For one, you have to be at least 18 years of age and a current and legal resident of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec). Also, you may only enter once per day. Before entering, make sure you read the official rules right here, too!

Best of luck to you all and thanks for reading!

Nintendo of Australia took a shortcut with their release of Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS: it's a direct copy of the US version -- "ESRB rating and all," as Vooks says. That shortcut has come back to haunt them with the release of Let's Go to the City.

Vooks' Daniel Vuckovic attempted to use the DS Suitcase to transfer his Wild World catalog and character to the new game. Instead of a catalog loaded with playroom furniture and Mario accessories, he was presented with this error message, as well as a similar one on the DS.

This is significant for two reasons that we can think of: first, it's definitive proof that the DS Suitcase is region-locked. If your copy of Wild World is imported, the gates to your Wii town are firmly closed. Second, it means that Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City is basically missing a feature in Australia. Nintendo is just having terrible luck with this DS Suitcase thing!

Update: Nintendo has issued an official statement. Head past the break to read it.

Nintendo is, famously, very politically correct where Animal Crossing is concerned. In the games, any festivals or holidays with even a hint of religious overtones are quietly repackaged: Easter becomes "Bunny Day," Christmas is "The Night that Jingle Comes to Town," and so forth. This keenness to be inclusive and totally inoffensive means Animal Crossing: Wild World was the last game we expected to spew racist terminology.

Because that's what it's done ... albeit accidentally. If you've played an Animal Crossing title before, you'll know that you can teach your fellow villagers words, which they'll then use to greet you. Naturally, this is open to player abuse, as you can enter cuss words and other rude terms -- something that not even Nintendo is above doing.

MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo recently received a copy of Wild World from Nintendo, so he could test the Wii/DS transfer feature in City Folk. The copy had been played before, because it was full of rare, unlocked items, but those weren't the only secrets the cart held. As he started chatting to his village's animals, Totilo suddenly found himself being racially abused by a sheep called Baabara. "How are you, N---a?" is just one greeting he received from the woolly fascist. Whoops!

Maybe triple-check the next batch of press-only carts you send out, Nintendo? Now if you'll excuse us, we're off to phone the Daily Mail.

A pre-played version of 2005's Animal Crossing: Wild World for DS, sent out to media outlets to encourage connectivity with the recent Animal Crossing release for Wii, contains at least one shocking addition, reports MTV Multiplayer. Importing the saved data from the DS cartridge sent by Nintendo into Animal Crossing: City Folk introduces a host of changes into the game, including one, suddenly no longer E-rated character, Baabara, who now greets players with: "How are you, Ñ---á?" [edited; original creator added diacritics]

To clarify, this generally offensive slang term (preceded by another potentially offensive phrase above it) is not included in the retail release of the game. Rather, whomever Nintendo employed to play the version of Wild World sent to press with all of the game's items unlocked, purposely "trained" the Baabara character to use the term. Further, introducing this kind of offensive content into a new copy of the game, from a stranger via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, is nearly impossible. To import content from another game cartridge over the internet requires two users to first exchange their unique 16-digit codes before they are able to share data. In other words, your kids are safe -- unless they or their "friends" are the creators of such content.

What MTV Multiplayer and other outlets have discovered is an isolated matter. Still, since the media serves as a filter through which you receive your news about Nintendo products, Nintendo clearly needs to work harder to prevent the kind of incident highlighted here from happening again. Also, an apology would be nice ...

Update: And here's that apology ... "We regret that an offensive phrase was included without our knowledge via a wireless function that allows user-generated catchphrases to spread virally from one game to the next," said Nintendo in a statement sent to us. The company is asking that the 14 affected copies it mailed out to the media be returned. The full statement is posted after the break.

[Note: As this post contains sensitive material, this is just a friendly reminder to keep the comments clean -- or face the perma-banhammer. Thank you.]

The release of Animal Crossing: City Folk on the Wii has probably thrown some old-school Animal Crossing devotees back into the daily routine of pulling weeds, digging up fossils, and fishing until Nookington's closes. But while we had to be reindoctrinated by City Folk, it occurs to us that there may be some model citizens out there still doing their civic duty in Wild World -- or even the original.

If you've been keeping up with a previous Animal Crossing, how long has your stay been? And how often do you check in?


[Wallpaper found on the official website]

Update: The staff is no longer in the Game Night chat. Thanks to everyone that showed up and if we missed you, see you next week!

With the release of Animal Crossing: City Folk this week, we're anxious to visit your towns and hang out! Of course, we're not just playing that, as there's a large catalog of online-compatible games on the DS and Wii to choose from. Won't you join us? It's very simple and you can find all of the info you need past the break.

Hope to see you there tonight! Oh, and seeing as how next week is Thanksgiving, you should know that we won't be holding Game Night then.

Update: The staff is no longer in the Game Night chat. Thanks to everyone that showed up and if we missed you, see you next week!

With the release of Animal Crossing: City Folk this week, we're anxious to visit your towns and hang out! Of course, we're not just playing that, as there's a large catalog of online-compatible games on the DS and Wii to choose from. Won't you join us? It's very simple and you can find all of the info you need past the break.

Hope to see you there tonight!

The latest trailer for the rapidly approaching Animal Crossing: City Folk offers a look at the process of migrating your DS Animal Crossing: Wild World character into City Folk. You may not be able to keep your house or your possessions, but migration allows you to maintain your character's appearance and Tom Nook shop catalog. If you want, you could probably recreate your DS house as soon as you got the money.

Head to the link for a second, longer trailer which shows the DS-Wii move in more detail, including the specific steps for moving your character.

For many, Animal Crossing: City Folk looks a lot like the original GameCube game, both from a presentation standpoint and included features. Sure, Animal Crossing: City Folk has some new stuff, but none of it is really that innovative or indicative of the franchise going into any kind of new direction. It's basically the equivalent to treading water. But, it turns out that popular opinion may not be justified, as some new details regarding the game can be found in the upcoming issue of Nintendo Power.

First of all, those of you who spent time with Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS, you can transfer your avatar over to the new game. Another cool DS-to-Wii feature will allow you to "take your travel data and download it to your DS." We've no idea what that will entail exactly, but it sounds promising.

As for the Wii game, the holiday-themed events will be returning. Jingle the Reindeer will be back for Toy Day and a new character, Zipper T. Bunny, will make an appearance for Bunny Day. Sound promising!

We believe it was Rob Zombie's kid brother Spider One who said "One by one they will be hand chosen, now this is what it's like when worlds collide." Could Spider have actually been peering into the future to write about LesbianGeek's labor of love that plops the Battlestar Galactica universe squarely into Animal Crossing Wild World.

A geekgasm, you say? Too early in the morning for something as nerdtastic as watching Starbuck and Season 3 mustache-enabled Adama pose with their Tom Nook-brand goods? Maybe. But it's Friday, so we're living out here on the edge.

Nintendo is an odd company. While we won't argue the merits of doing something like this, we will argue that Nintendo could've used some new games. Confused? So are we, so let's break it down.

Basically, Nintendo is conducting an hour-long "beginner's class" with Animal Crossing: Wild World and Nintendogs, in the hopes that they can show people how great their really old games are. In all seriousness, we imagine the classes will mostly revolve around introducing the device to skeptical folks, as well as the ease of using the stylus on the touch-screen. It all takes place at ACMI, Screen Pit Room, Federation Square, Flinders Street Melbourne, so if you're anywhere near there this Thursday between 6:00pm – 7:00pm, show up and take some pictures.

Then send those pictures to us!

At once? Then click the play button on the video above. But, be warned that this is ... well, it's weird.

Frankly, we don't understand why someone would do this. Sure, we want to hear every K.K. Slider song too, but we don't want to listen to them all at once.

[Via Go Nintendo]

Why, we'd recognise those Norman Lamont eyebrows a mile off! This is either:

1. The actual reason that Photoshop exists.
2. The best use of a marker pen and a dog ever.*
3. The cheapest (yet also the most brilliant) cosplay we've seen this side of, um, Dr. Kawashima.

It could possibly be all three -- we're just not sure. Somebody get this animal a guitar already.

* Don't draw on your pets, kids. It's not cool.

Of all the characters in Animal Crossing Wild World, we always felt closest to guitar-wielding dog and Roost regular K. K. Slider. It could be his tuneful, oddly wistful singing voice, or even his social awareness, but we know one thing: we now look forward to each and every Saturday night, when K.K. comes to town to entertain us, his adoring fans.

Now we can pay tribute with our heads, thanks to this fine K.K. Slider hat, which has been lovingly crafted by Etsy user Penguinotic from white fleece and felt. The $20 price tag means that it will cost you about $20 more than K.K.'s music, but we think there's just enough of the northern winter left to justify this.

[Thanks, Simca!]