Animal Crossing

Platform: Gamecube Developer: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo NA Release date: Sept. 15, 2002 Genre: Communication game Media: 1 optical game disc

History:

Before Animal Crossing hit the states it was popular in Japan as a Nintendo 64 game. The reason it wasn’t brought out in the states was because of the declining sales of the N64 at the time. It made more sense for Nintendo to wait and bring it out for Gamecube. It was released on Gamecube in Japan on December 14, 2001. Nintendo of America had a huge job in translating the thousands of lines of text in the game from Japanese to English. The game was finally ready and released in North America on September 15, 2002.

Overview:

Animal Crossing’s genre is considered to be a “communication game” according to Nintendo. There are no real finishing goals to the game. The only goals in the game are the ones that you set. In the game you play the role of a new character in a new town. You get to choose the gender of your character as well as what they look like before the actual gameplay begins. Animal Crossing takes advantage of the Gamecube’s built-in clock feature to keep track of time. The date and time in your everyday life is the date and time in the game. If it’s 3:00 AM on a cold January morning and you’re in the mood to play, in the game it will be dark and there will probably be snow on the ground. The game also observes holidays.

Gameplay:

Early on in the game you will be introduced to Tom Nook. Your first task is to pay off Tom for the money you bought your house with. He’ll ask you to run around town doing different chores while earning Bells. Bells are Animal Crossing’s monetary system. Running around town will help you get to know your neighbors. Each town usually has around 15 residents that live there. You can interact with your neighbors, trade things with them, write them letters and much more. You can buy your goods at Tom Nook’s store. He sells a lot of furniture and goods you’ll need around town. You can furnish your house and make it feel like home. Your house is expandable when enough Bells are earned. The bigger your house, the more goods will fit in it.

There many things that can be done in the game including fishing, butterfly collecting, digging for treasures, traveling to other towns, planting, furniture collecting and much more. There are a few easter eggs in the game as well. For one thing you are able to play original NES games including some of Nintendo’s great classics. They are awarded by finding rare packages and by using the E-Reader. The games can also be played on the Game Boy Advance when it’s hooked up to the Gamecube during play.

Review:

My favorite element of the game is the randomness of everything. In your town, there are just a few characters out of over 200. Neighbors move in and out all the time so you will get to meet a bunch of them. Each character has a personality all of their own. Some can be funny while others can be rude, creepy and friendly. Their personalities come out really well and you may actually start to grow feelings for your neighbors. How often you interact with your neighbors will have something to do with if they leave your town or not. On top of all the different characters, there are different towns and no two towns are the same. They always have different layouts and usually carry different types of fruits. Fruits from other towns are rare in your town and can be sold for a lot of money. The graphics in the game are a bit blocky and average but the gameplay really makes up for it. The sound and music is simple and elegant and does the job. Overall, it’s the gameplay and re-playability that really shine here. You may want to clear your calendar because you can expect to be addicted to Animal Crossing for a while.

List of NES games available:

• Balloon Fight
• Baseball
• Clu Clu Land
• Clu Clu Land D
• Donkey Kong
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Donkey Kong Jr. Math
• Donkey Kong 3
• Excitebike
• Golf
• Pinball
• Punch-Out!!
• Soccer
• Super Tortimer (Not an original NES game)
• Tennis
• Wario’s Woods

Tools available:

• Axe — 400 bells — used for cutting down trees
• Golden Axe — an axe that never breaks
• Fishing Rod — 500 bells — used to catch fish
• Golden Fishing Rod — catches fish more often
• Net — 500 bells — used to catch bugs
• Golden Net — catches bugs more often
• Shovel — 500 bells — used to dig things up
• Golden Shovel — digs more things