Everything from fish, to bugs, to fossils, to holidays were re-designed with an international, multicultural market in mind. Ooo, baby baby it’s a Wild WorldĮven though the game had started small and local, Animal Crossing’s success was global, so when it came time to make a sequel Eguchi made sure to change things around for as broad a demographic as possible. The game was a hit, and dominance over the debt simulator genre had been established, so it was time for a proper sequel. The game was even released on the iQue Player in China in 2006, so perhaps Europeans should count themselves they didn’t have to wait until after that launch to play. The game was well received, but more interestingly the Japanese portion of Nintendo were so impressed with Nintendo of America’s additions that they decided to take all the new content from the western release (plus a bit extra) and release yet another version of the game called Dōbutsu no Mori e+ a year before the European release. ![]() ![]() Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTubeĪnimal Crossing launched in North America less than a year following its Japanese counterpart on the 16th September 2002, although Europeans had to wait a further two years to get their first taste of animal-forest life. The original game was very Japan-centric when it came to annual festivals, but adding in things like Toy Day (Christmas) and Halloween (Halloween) helped to make the game more recognisable and relatable to a western audience. Not only did they translate everything, but they also decided to add in other things such as new holidays. The success of the game caught the interest of some other Nintendo employees outside Japan, and despite the mountains of dialogue and text that had to be localised, Nintendo of America set about making what most of you reading will recognise as Animal Crossing for the GameCube, with its classic tagline ‘Population: Growing!’ that still gets ignored to this day. Still, it’s hard to stay mad while playing Animal Crossing. Suffice it to say if you bought the N64 original and then saw this less than 9 months later, you’d probably feel a bit miffed. The GameCube version also came with a selection of new stuff as well, much of which has remained throughout the entire series, including Tortimer, Kapp’n, the Able Sisters, and the Museum. The fact that the GameCube actually had a clock in it made fabricating discs easier (and cheaper) than producing more cartridges for the ageing, older Nintendo 64, even if the upgraded game still looked very much like an N64 title. This initial release on N64 launched in Japan on the 14th April 2001, but it wasn’t long until a new and improved version called Dōbutsu no Mori+ released for GameCube in December of the same year. Whilst it worked for the most part, relying on such a solution meant that should the battery run out there’d be no way for the game to track the time when you weren’t playing, which is a significant issue given that that was one of the biggest features. Therefore, Nintendo did the only sensible thing and stuck a clock inside the game cartridge. There was an issue with this however, as the game relies heavily on a real-time clock, which the 64DD offered but the N64 lacked. Unfortunately, the expansion was a commercial disaster and after countless delays and other problems, Nintendo decided to slap it in a cartridge instead. The game was originally planned to be released for the 64DD, an add-on which sat under the N64 and took advantage of rewritable, whizzy, spinny discs that could hold a lot more data than a cartridge. Joining forces with the ever-excellent Takashi Tezuka, Eguchi began the series with Dōbutsu no Mori, a Japan-exclusive game for the N64 which roughly translates to ‘Animal Forest’ in English. I wondered for a long time if there would be a way to recreate that feeling, and that was the impetus behind the original Animal Crossing. In doing so, I realised that being close to them – being able to spend time with them, talk to them, play with them – was such a great, important thing. Animal Crossing features three themes: family, friendship, and community, but the reason I wanted to investigate them was a result of being so lonely when I arrived in Kyoto when I moved there I left my family and friends behind.
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