I’m reading the game review by 1UP with cartoons, posted on Amazon. It looks funny, but I wouldn’t have any friends to visit in the game. Is there a way to play with other online people you don’t know yet?
I googled Animal Crossings and saw the insane number of AC web communities! NM. 
Since you sound like a casual gamer, I recommend:
Elite Beat Agents - A rhythm game you play on your touch screen, where you control an FBI-type squad who help people out of bizarre predicaments by dancing. Yes.
Professor Layton - Instead of trying to integrate the puzzles into the story like most adventure games, it just unashamedly throws them at you with no pretense or apology. A refreshing approach. Also, the game is beautiful.
N+ - A fun little platformer that’s easy to pick up and play. You’ll die a lot, but dying horrible deaths is half the fun. You can try the Flash game it was based on to see if you’d like it (N+ has totally new levels so it’s not just a port of the Flash version).
Hotel Dusk - If you like point-and-click adventure games, you need to get this. If you’ve never played a point-and-click adventure game, you should still give it a try. The only time I wouldn’t recommend it is if you hate adventure games and wish death on their makers. It’s got an intriguing plot, memorable characters and a beautiful art style.
I don’t recommend:
Puzzle Quest - I found it kind of dull and repetitive, and the AI is really… lucky.
Phoenix Wright - I expected to like this series and played through 1 1/2 games before realising I just wasn’t going to get into it. There is no real strategy involved in the increasingly long and arduous courtroom sequences, you just read the witness statements and then read them again while pressing them on everything they say (rather than… using some kind of strategy) because you never know where the tiny discrepancy is going to be hidden. Plus most of the characters are really annoying.
Animal Crossing… twitch
I finally kicked that addiction a while back. Oh sure, it looks boring. No way you could get addicted to a game that largely consists of paying off your mortgage, right?
You are incorrect. It will be a day, maybe two, before you’re whipping out your DS to make sure that you water your flowers and to see what your neighbors are up to. And that’s just the beginning.
Anyway, my #1 DS recommendation remains Elite Beat Agents. It’s one of the finest games for any console I have ever played. Every minute of it is a delight, and I find myself going back to play it regularly even after having owned it for two years now.
The DS has what might very well be the finest library of software of any video game console. Ever. There’s lots of gold out there.
Agree 100%. It amazes me that hardly any reviewers pick up on this- they’re too busy praising the “laugh-out-loud” dialogue. How about “repetitive, juvenile and irritating” dialogue instead?
I think that because so many DS games are aimed at children, or have a ‘kiddie’ aesthetic, any game that has a semblance of adult themes gets praised like it’s a Bergman movie.
That said, overall I enjoyed the first Phoenix Wright game. I’m also 1 1/2 games into the series, so perhaps my and your frustration is due to a flat spot in the series at that point. The case involving the murder in the Kurain Channeling Chamber was particularly arbitrary and illogical, IMO. The reviews for the third game in the series are better, so I might skip ahead to that one.