Animal Crossing

aka: Animal Crossing: Population - Growing!
Moby ID: 7256
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Description official descriptions

Animal Crossing is an enhanced rerelease of Dōbutsu no Mori +, designed specifically for Western audiences. As such, it replaces all Japanese cultural references and celebrations with ones that would be more familiar to the American, European, and Australian audiences it was released for. This includes such holidays as a Harvest Festival in November, April Fool's Day, and Mother's Day and Father's Day. New items and events were also added.

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Credits (GameCube version)

101 People (99 developers, 2 thanks) · View all

Producer
Director
Character Animation
Character Design
Screen Design
Interior Design
Field Design
Effect Design
Event Design
Design Support
Sound Director
Field BGM
Indoor BGM
Event BGM
Sound Effects Programming
Sound Support
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 65 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 99 ratings with 7 reviews)

The most adult game on gamecube?

The Good
The fact that you basically live. You have a house, you decorate it how you want, you dress how you want, you offend people how you want, you plant flowers where you want. The sheer amount of things that there are to do, boggles the mind. Fishing, shopping, designing clothes, running errands, collecting furniture, the list goes on. Everyday is different, something will always be happening in your town, even when you are not there. There are special events every month, and you'll even get a present on your birthday :)

The Bad
Erm, nowt to be honest, not saying its perfect, but theres nothing about it I don't like

The Bottom Line
This game looks childish, but is very adult. Having said that, children can play it but there are jokes in it, sexual references etc. which adults will be laughing at. This is probably Nintendo at its finest, doing something original, and not really broadcasting it. Unfortunately the fact that its only available in NTSC format (unless you live in australia, the only place you can get a PAL one I believe) means you'll have to import it if you live in Europe, but it is worth it. Buy it! BUY IT NOW!!!!

GameCube · by Tracer__ (11) · 2003

*YAWN*

The Good
Well, the game is certainly interesting near the start of the game. Except for an excruciatingly long question sequence in the start of the game where you basically give a few simple answers that could have just been answered by a menu, you will immediately be interested in the seemingly massive world of Animal Crossing. There seems to be so much to see, get, visit, and earn.

The Bad
After a few days, it gets old, and you lose interest. Who thinks it's fun to just run around, delivering different crap to lame looking animal-things?? Conversations will seem to go on forever, wasting time with pointless and amazingly lame jokes rather than just getting right down to business. Maybe you think it's great to wander around a small town, digging up random crap like dinosaur bones, and going through a long and painful process to identify them, but I don't. The features that this game has with other stuff like the gameboy advance is frankly window dressing. The "island" is not really any different than anything else except the fruit looks different, and the you have a beach house that you can store stuff you can't fit in your other house. Like I said before, conversations go on far too long. They will seem interesting in the beginning, but after a while, you just get sick of hearing the same pointless and idiotic dialogue time after time. The items you can get in this game are all, except for a few exceptions, just ornaments. They don't do anything, unlike the sims, where an item is actually USEFUL. Also, your character is too generic. No stats at all, unlike the sims, makes you feel like you have the same guy you started with 3 days ago.

The Bottom Line
I can't say I'd recommend it unless you have bought every other game, and are bored with those.

GameCube · by James Kirk (150) · 2004

A great game, but you should probably rent it...

The Good
Pretty much everything.

Graphics- Could have been a little better, but they were good for a game of this size.

Gameplay- I don't know why, but it's fun to play...Maybe it's the challenge of paying off debts, getting jobs and doing them, and just having a good time (which isn't all that hard)

Challenge- Not too great...you just kind of live your life, in a video game...

The Bad
I wouldn't buy it...it's just too repetitive. Each and every day, you wake up, get your mail, and wander around town, that's pretty much it. Nothing special to do, except certain days, and that only lasts a few minutes.

The Bottom Line
A good game, at first. You probably shouldn't buy it, though, because nothing new happens, really. A new person moves in, a visitor comes. You talk to them for five minutes and it's done. Just too repetitive.

GameCube · by Paul Brown (16) · 2002

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
I always thought this game was a bit sinister Pseudo_Intellectual (66274) Jan 9, 2009
Animal Crossing Pioneer Joshua J. Slone (4666) Jun 26, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The GameCube version of Animal Crossing appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Don Resetti

If the player resets a certain number of times, Mr Resetti's older brother Don Resetti will appear to lecture the player instead of Mr Resetti. This only happens once.

Fake Reset

If the player resets a certain number of times, Mr Resetti will pretend to delete their town in an attempt to scare them.

K.K. Slider's name

Among the ensemble of animals that populate Animal Crossing there is a dog who welcomes the player on their first play session and gives guitar concerts every Saturday night by the Train Station. The Dalmatian is called Totakeke (or K.K. Slider), an obvious pun to Kasumi Totaka, the game's sound director.

Loading time

With its small size due to being a slight enhancement on the N64 original, Animal Crossing completely loads into memory soon after you start the system. Thus the only load time in the game is when using the memory card or linking with the Game Boy Advance. Once loaded, the game can even be fully played if you remove the disc from the system.

Promotional copy

In early August 2002 Nintendo ran a contest where teams of two told in 50 words or less why they should get free copies of the game. 125 teams of these so-called Animal Crossing Pioneers got copies a month earlier than the general release. This helped to create a big buzz about the game on the Internet, and is also where the "Promotional Copy" disc scan on this site came from.

Tom Nook

The name of your first employer on Animal Crossing, a raccoon named Tom Nook, is a pun on the Japanese word for raccoon, "tanuuki". Fans of Super Mario Bros. 3 might remember the Tanooki suit that resembled a raccoon. Tom Nook clearly owns all the supply lines in town. He owns the only general goods store, controls all real estate, and is the only one who gives out loans. This has led many gamers to dub him as somewhat of a slum lord and a loan shark.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2002 – Should Have Been Online Award (GameCube)
  • The Strong National Museum of Play
    • 2021 – Introduced into the World Video Game Hall of Fame


Info also contributed by JPaterson, ~~, Joshua J. Slone, Jiguryo, Matt Neuteboom and Thomas Dowding.

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Related Games

Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Released 2012 on Nintendo 3DS
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Released 2005 on Nintendo DS, 2015 on Wii U
Animal Crossing: City Folk
Released 2008 on Wii
Animal Crossing Clock
Released 2009 on Nintendo DSi
Animal Football
Released 2003 on PlayStation, 2006 on PlayStation 2
JumpStart Animal Adventures
Released 2002 on Windows, Macintosh
Animal Rivals
Released 2017 on Windows, Xbox One, 2018 on Nintendo Switch
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Released 2017 on iPhone, Android, iPad

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  • MobyGames ID: 7256
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

Additional contributors: Sciere, Juan Pablo Bouquet, Patrick Bregger, Deleted, FatherJack, Harmony♡, Deleted, SoMuchChaotix.

Game added September 21, 2002. Last modified March 7, 2024.