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Animal Crossing (video game)

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Animal Crossing
File:Acbox.jpg
Developer(s)Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Designer(s)Shigeru Miyamoto
Katsuya Eguchi
Hisashi Nogami
Takashi Tezuka
Platform(s)GameCube
Release14 December 2001 (JP) (+)

15 September 2002 (NA)
27 June 2003 (JP) (e+)
17 October 2003 (AU)

24 September 2004 (EU)
Genre(s)Life simulation game
Role-playing game
Communication Adventure
Mode(s)Single player

Animal Crossing, known as Dōbutsu no Mori (どうぶつの森) or Forest of Animals in Japan, is a life simulation video game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube and it was a Nintendo GameCube Players' Choice. It was released in Japan on December 14, 2001; North America on September 15, 2002; Australia on October 17, 2003; and Europe on September 24, 2004. The Japanese version lacks e-Reader support, a feature found in the North American and Australian versions. A version of Animal Crossing was released in Japan with e-Reader support on June 27, 2003.

Animal Crossing is an enhanced remake of Animal Forest for the Nintendo 64, released a year before only in Japan.[1] Animal Crossing was released in the United States on September 15 2002, where it was a critical and popular success.[2]

A Nintendo DS sequel, Animal Crossing: Wild World was released in December 2005.

Gameplay

Animal Crossing has been dubbed a "communication game" by Nintendo, but has been rated as an Action game. It is an open-ended game, where a player can live a separate life with no preset plot or mandatory tasks. There are, however, certain tasks which players can choose to complete, and goals they can choose to achieve. The game is played out in real-time - observing days, weeks, months, and even years - using the GameCube's internal clock. There are many actual events and holidays spanning the year, including Independence Day, Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, among others. Other regular activities such as early morning fitness classes and fishing tournaments are included in the game as well. Some players purposely adjust the clock to skip forward or backward in time, a practice known as "time traveling." Other players use cheat codes.

House Improvements

The main and most obvious goal of the game is to increase the size of the player's house. This house serves as the repository for furniture and other items bought or acquired during the course of the game. It can be customized in a number of ways, including roof color, furniture, what music (if any) plays when a player enters the house, wallpaper and flooring. House expansions grant the player a larger house, and thus more space to store items or more decorative flexibility.

Tom Nook, a tanuki in the Japanese version and a raccoon in the American and European version, runs the local store. At the beginning of the game, he gives the player their first house with a mortgage of about 19,800 Bells (the currency used in the game). The house is comically small, furnished only with wallpaper, flooring, a box, a journal, and a radio. Upon paying off the entire debt, part of which is done through a part-time job to Tom Nook, the player is 'offered' to expand the house. In actuality, the house is upgraded even if you say no. This cycle repeats itself 4 times with the mortgage significantly increasing each time.

Though Tom Nook is more than willing to sell furniture and other items to fill a house, there are many other ways to acquire furnishings. A trip to the town dump may yield items that were unwanted by someone else and are thus free. The police station has a lost and found department run by Officer Booker, who will allow anyone to claim any item that has ended up there. Other villagers that live nearby may need favors and will reward the player for their help. Players can even obtain new furniture items by shaking trees until a piece of furniture falls from one. The downside to tree shaking, however, is that bees may come out instead. If this happens, a player must run into the nearest house or building, or else they will be stung. However, there is an upside; if the player has a net, they can catch the bees and sell them to Nook or donate them to the museum.

Villagers

The Animal Crossing village initially contains a handful of villagers, and others will move in or out depending on the player's actions. All of the villagers are animals, hence the game's name, and each has their own small home that the player can visit. There are many possible interactions between the player and the villagers. These include talking, trading furniture and other objects, completing tasks for rewards, and writing letters. Villagers will also interact with each other. There are roughly 200 villagers, but no more than fifteen can ever live in a town at once. Each villager also has a catch phrase that they use regularly, often relating to the type of animal they are. For example, a cow might say, "moo-la-la" or "how now". These phrases can be changed at times if the villager asks the player to do so. Villagers can also often pick up their neighbors' catch phrase. When characters go in their house and go to sleep, players can't visit the villagers or go in their houses. Some villagers sleep early and wake early, and some villagers go to bed just as the sun is coming up. A villager's sleep schedule depends on their personality. There are six personality types in the game: three male (grump, doofus, athlete) and three female (snob, valley girl, sweetie). A villager's personality not only determines when they sleep, but it also determines most of their behavior, especially their interactive behavior with the user-created characters.

If the player doesn't interact with individual villagers on a regular basis, they are likely to leave the village. The village also has a level of attractiveness that depends on certain parameters that are never explicitly described to the player, but hints are given to the player by a spirit living in the village fountain. A high level of attractiveness will draw new animals to live in the village.

Nintendo Entertainment System games

Nearly two dozen NES games are available to collect in Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing is packaged with a memory card that gives the player two games. Others are acquired in various ways. The games available are:

Japanese Exclusives:

The other games in the differing versions are exactly the same, totalling exactly 19 games in all GCN versions.

There are four NES games often referred to as the "Forbidden Four" that can only be obtained by using an Action Replay cheat device or an e-Reader. Ice Climber and Mario Bros. are available through both hardware devices, while Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda are only available by using an Action Replay and Power Link. Previously, this was referred to as the "Forbidden Five", as Punch-Out!! was only available by means of Action Replay until the European release, when the Nintendo of Europe website for Animal Crossing offered a code similar to the ones needed for Clu Clu Land D, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, and Soccer on the American website for Animal Crossing. The code worked for U.S. copies as well. These codes were the only way of obtaining the five games.

Advance Play is when the player links his or her Game Boy Advance to his or her GameCube to download the NES game to the handheld temporarily. This is not available for games that were originally produced for the Famicom Disk System, such as Clu Clu Land D and The Legend of Zelda. It is also not available for especially large games such as Punch-Out!! and Wario's Woods that would not fit into the GBA's RAM. All other games can be played on Advance Play, but they are slightly stretched on the Game Boy's display (as in PocketNES) and are limited to one player.

Extra NES Games (decoration only):

  • Super Tortimer
  • NES Console

Common Bugs

DUMMY

File:Image1.jpeg
A picture of the DUMMY item (the white triangle)

Around Winter, villagers will start to make igloos around town. Sometimes villagers will make bets with the player. If a villager asks the player to pick a bag and they are able to buy the item inside, the villager may give an item to the player titled "DUMMY". It is a white triangle that has the word "dummy" written on it in katakana. It can only be obtained in this manner and it counts as furniture. The "DUMMY" is worth no HRA points. If the item is dropped on the ground, the player can only pick it back up with a shovel. Players will know this has happened if the item resembles a fishing lure. This item is generally acquired through the Igloo event in winter.

Missing Face

File:Image2.jpeg
Missing Face Screenshot

A person's character has one of eight pairs of eyes selected when a player starts the game based on the answers they give Rover to certain questions. However, if people leave their village, save their game to a second memory card, and start the first game again, without the second memory card, their character will have no eyes nor mouth textures. This is because their character's eye and mouth texture data has been stored on the second card, so the game, located on the first memory card, does not know what the textures are, resulting in the "missing face." This does not affect game play, however, as people can play normally with no face texture. It has been theorized to remind the players to save with the Gyroid and remember their memory cards. This can also occur if the player resets the console without saving in another person's town. Players will also lose all of the items in their inventory and their money if this happens. However, if the game is fast-forwarded to the next day, the player's original facial textures will become intact once more.

It should also be noted that in the game, the villager Coco, a rabbit, bears a face resembling the "missing face". There's no doubt that this character is an in-joke provided by the developers, especially after the release of the Nintendo DS version of the game which contains the same character. In the new version, characters give players their pictures. Coco's picture is inscribed "I'm feeling kind of blank today.", jokingly implying that she is, in fact, missing her face.

Grab Bag

If the player uses the memory card that comes with the game there will be a letter from Nintendo and a present. The present will be a Grab bag that has Japanese letters on it like DUMMY. Open it to get a background music and two NES games.

Multiplayer

There are several types of multiplayer game play in Animal Crossing.

In the first, up to four players can create their own houses in a single village. No two players can play at the same time, but by taking turns they can each affect the village in their own ways, communicate with each other via the town board and mail, and share in the experiences of the village.

In the second, two players can play NES games together. All that this requires is two controllers and a compatible NES game (keep in mind that not all of the NES games have the two-player option). Once the controllers are in the players are able to select the NES game they want to play. Once the game is started, players can select the two-player option and start playing multiplayer.

A third type of multiplayer play consists of trading items with another player using a system of codes. By specifying the name of another player and the name of their village, a player can "trade" an item, generating a code which the other player can input to retrieve the item. Also, a well known easier way to trade items is to simply travel to a friend's town and drop the item the player wants to give them. This prevents the loss of the item code which must be memorized or written down.

Traveling

Animal Crossing has a traveling system that allows one character to visit a friend's village. This system is quite simple, but does require an additional memory card with Animal Crossing game data, and at least 3 blocks of memory open in order to save "travel data".

Players go to the train station and tell the porter that they'd like to take a trip. The train will arrive and they climb aboard. This saves "travel data" on the other memory card. Players then arrive at the other town.

No two towns are alike, so players will probably want to stop by the Police Station to get a map of the town they are visiting. Players can meet new villagers, shop at Nook's (which will have different stock), shop at the Able Sisters (which may have different patterns) and do almost anything else that they can do in their own town. There are only a few things visitors can't do, and they all center around the idea that the character is visiting another town, which means that the character doesn't have the same privileges and doesn't receive the same services that they would in their own town. For example, another town's Nook won't travel to paint a roof, and so players can't buy paint in another town.

There are many advantages to visiting another town and having players visit yours. A different town may have different fruit (each town has a "native fruit") and players can pick fruit and plant fruit trees in their town. Players may also be able to find items that are rare in their town very easily in another town. Also, having a visitor buy something at Nook's shop is the only way to get Tom Nook's final expansion, Nookingtons.

Moving Residents

After visiting another town, villagers may move to the visited town. If the visited town has a full fifteen villagers, this will prompt someone from the visited town to move away.

Villagers do move even if none of the user-created characters travel to another town. If a memory card for another town is in the second slot in the Game Cube, when a villager leaves, they may move to the other town instead of just moving out.

Item Trading

To trade items with a friend, it is simplest to just drop the item outdoors in one's friend's town. For items that can't be dropped, it is possible to put them in the gyroid and offer them for sale. When visitors come to town, they can stop by the gyroid and buy fish, bugs, balloons or other items that can't be dropped outdoors.

Animal Crossing also has a popular Offline Item Send & Receive feature. Through the use of codes customized by Player and Town name, players can transfer certain items to each other.

Tropical Island

In Animal Crossing, each town has its own tropical island. It can be accessed by plugging in a Game Boy Advance with a GameCube Link Cable and going to the southeastern part of town where the dock is. Players will meet a friendly old Sea Turtle named Kapp'n (a pun on 'kappa', a turtle-shaped imp from Japanese mythology) there, waiting inside a tiny little row boat. Kapp'n is as generous as the other residents of the town, and will ferry players across to the island for free, while singing bizarre sea-shanties and making his trademark ribald, inappropriate remarks. Arriving at the island one will see a new animal roaming the tiny island and can become friends with him/her. The island has a new type of fruit, coconuts, that can be knocked down and taken back to town to be planted there. Players can also decorate a small communal beach house and fish at the shores. By staying there for a long period of time, (only when it's sunny, not raining.) players will get a tan.

Characters

Main article: List of Animal Crossing characters
  • Blathers: Blathers is the curator of the local museum. He is quite ashamed that his museum has no exhibits, so Blathers trusts the player to donate fish, bugs, fossils and paintings to the museum. He has an awful habit of talking too much, hence his name. Insects (especially cockroaches) creep him out, oddly enough, and he loves goldfish.
  • Copper: Officer Copper is in charge of monitoring who comes to town, and notifies players of special events in town and their location. Officer Copper will also let players know exactly how many things are in the police station. He is also a member of B.I.P., which stands for "Busting Illegal Parkers", which explains his grudge against Gracie. He also suspects Katrina of being an alias, and perhaps suspects her fortune-telling occupation of being a front. He seems to be the more active of the two, seeing that he wakes up at 7:00am after July 25 to host the village in aerobics.
  • Gracie: Gracie is a snobby giraffe who comes to the town in a showy convertible, presumably to sell her designer clothes. However, her car is filthy from driving to the town, and in order for the player to obtain a piece of her exclusive clothing, he/she must clean the car as fast as they can. After the cleaning, Gracie will do one of three things: give you an exclusive piece for cleaning it in a timely manner, give you a normal piece of clothing if you did an average job, or not give you anything at all if you didn't clean her car that well.
  • Gulliver: A sailor who washes up on the shore of the town from time to time. If the player finds him unconscious on the shore, he/she must wake him up. Once doing so, the seagull will give you a rare piece of furniture.
  • Kapp'n: Kapp'n is a kappa that appears when the player connects their Game Boy Advance to their GameCube. Once the systems are connected, Kapp'n will appear at the docks and offer to take the player to an island. If he or she says yes, he or she will get in his boat and will soon arrive at an island.
  • Porter: The (seemingly) unnamed monkey who works at the train station. When players talk to the porter, he will make sure that they get on board the train safely and will wait for them at the station in the village they are visiting. He was a half-cameo appearance in Yusef Hamed's "K.K. Story" song.
  • Redd: Redd is the owner of a black market called "Crazy Redd's Furniture Emporium". Although Redd sells rare items like paintings, he sells fairly common items at sky-high prices, which explains his title of "Crazy" Redd.
  • Rover: Rover is a cat who will sit next to players on the train. When they move in to their new town, he will ask odd questions which will determine their gender, clothes and appearance. Since he is almost always on the train, it is possible that he does not have a home and lives on the train.
An image of Totakeke (a.k.a K.K. Slider)
  • Saharah: A camel who is famous for her excellent carpet designs. Comes to town seeking to trade her carpets for average carpets and a payment of 3,000 bells. The carpet designs are used in coordination with Wendell's wallpaper designs.
  • Tom Nook (たぬきち): A raccoon (or tanuki in the Japanese version) who is the local shopkeeper. Once players pay off their mortgage, he will rebuild the players' house, build a basement, and, if the players have the biggest house in the game, he will build a statue of the player in front of the train station. If players spend a certain amount of bells at Nook's Cranny, Tom Nook will expand his store, giving him more space for more items. He was a half-cameo appearance was in "K.K. Story" song by Yusef Hamed.
  • Tortimer: Mayor Tortimer is a tortoise who hosts many events and holidays at the wishing well. Talking to the mayor allows the player to have a long conversation, but he will give away rare models.
  • Totakeke: Totakeke is a musician who plays music in front of the train station every Saturday night, from 8:00 to midnight. After players listen to Totakeke's music, he hands out a tape recording which they can play on a radio back at their house. On stage, Totakeke is known as "K.K. Slider". His cameo appearance was in Yusef Hamed's song "K.K. Story".
  • Wisp: A timid ghost who comes out to town at night between midnight and four in the morning. If you encounter him, he will ask if you can help him find the five parts of a ghost he lost. If you succeed, he will offer to give you money, a rare item, or eliminate all present weeds from your town.
  • Wendell: A large traveling walrus who comes to town seeking fish to eat. If you give him a fish, he will give you a rare wallpaper design. The wallpaper designs are used in coordination with Saharah's carpet designs.
  • The villagers: ranging from a wide variety of animal species and personality types. For male animals, there are three, generally described as "Athletic," "Moody," and "Forgetful", and for female animals, there are also three, generally described as "Sweet," "Peppy," and "Snobby." The "Athletes" usually talk about working out. "Moody" guys and "Snobs" usually insult players. The "Forgetful" ones can be described as sleepy and hungry. "Peppy" animals like gambling games and are usually friendly. And the "Sweet" animals usually compliment players and trade things.

Using the Game Boy Advance

Game Boy Advance connectivity can play a role in Animal Crossing for those who own one. To link the two, one needs a Game Boy Advance-GameCube cable.

The island

When the two systems are linked, Kapp'n can be found at the dock and will row the player to the island, where a villager has taken up residence. The player can give the villager items in return for money and other commodities. Also on the island are coconut trees, and this is the only place they can be found. It is always summer on the island, and only summer fish and insects can be caught there. When the player leaves the island, he or she can choose the option of transferring the island to his or her Game Boy Advance and interact with the islander as a minigame for in-game rewards. There is also a way to get to the island without using a Game Boy Advance, but this requires an Action Replay or Game Shark game modifying system. It allows you to press the Z button on the GameCube controller and jump in the air. A glitch allows you to jump into the beach water, and simply walk to the island.

e-Reader compatibility

Animal Crossing is compatible with the e-Reader. One can use e-Reader cards to get new items, including NES games, a new town tune, or a shirt design. Totaka's song plays when scanning certain cards.[3]

Trivia

  • Seeing as the Australian version of Animal Crossing is a direct port of the American NTSC Animal Crossing, it is impossible to get Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda via Action Replay, due to region-coding.
  • Since the game is smaller than the GameCube's 40 MB RAM, the disc can be removed while being played and still be fully functional because the game is completely loaded into the RAM.
  • In the game Super Smash Bros. Melee, various trophies in the game have Animal Crossing characters. However, Super Smash Bros. Melee was released in 2001, while Animal Crossing was released the following year in 2002. Instead of the month/year template, those certain trophies are marked "Future Release". These trophies include Tom Nook, Mr. Resetti, and Totakeke.
  • Animal Crossing was named the #7 best game of all time on the Gamecube by X-Play on G4TV.
  • The song "K.K. Blues" sounds a lot like the lose music in Mario Kart:Double Dash.
  • The infamous Totaka's Song can be found in this game. To hear the song enter the request "K.K. Song" from K.K. Slider between 8pm and midnight on Saturday nights. You will also receive an aircheck to listen to in your house.

Notes and references

  1. ^ Nintendo (2001). "どうぶつの森(Animal Forest)". Retrieved 2006-10-18.
  2. ^ IGN (2002). "IGN Review". Retrieved 2006-11-03.
  3. ^ Totaka AC e-reader - Totaka's song in e-reader.
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