I picked this up yesterday, digging up an old gift card and wanting to spend the winter months curled up with a bunch of fuzzy animals in a happy little forest town where I can be a fashion designer and gossip and decorate my home and and and
Well, seriously not much has changed but the graphics are by no means terrible, the sound is a huge improvement over garbage that was WW's sound, (though no new music.. just redone versions of WW songs. sad, I liked GC's music better.), and the town is not a huge lot filled with dirt and a couple patches of grass as it was in WW.
The rolling view, which I hated in WW, is actually pleasant on a big TV and when it's not split over two screens. The animals' interactions and personalities seem a bit more fleshed out (though it's been one day, so I can't really say that at this point). Controls are very well implemented and the experience overall feels a lot less clunky than WW did.
I can't say much about the city yet. When they first announced the game I was very skeptical about this aspect, being that it mostly just replaces the random NPC visits with an area where you can just see any of them whenever you want. However after visiting I can say that I definitely enjoy this addition. I'm not entirely sure how this is going to affect how I play in the long term, but even just the fact that it is a change of scenery is very refreshing.
And overall, animal crossing is largely an atmospheric, mood-centered experience. You cannot really talk about the game until you've played it. The graphics are definitely enjoyable when you're actually playing the game. It's pretty much the good things of the first two games mashed together with a few new additions, so if you couldn't stand the experience in those, by all means avoid this title. If you have found enjoyment in animal crossing in the past, you know why you will enjoy this one. That is to say, if you like animal crossing, there is really no reason you should avoid this iteration. It is, in my opinion, the best of the three.