Animal Crossing

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Animal Crossing
The Animal Crossing logo
Genre(s)	Life simulation
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo

Animal Crossing, known in Japan as Dōbutsu no Mori, is a video game series developed by Nintendo, in which the player lives his/her own virtual life in a village populated with anthropomorphic animals. The game takes place in real time, reflecting the current time of day and season. The individual games have been widely praised for their uniqueness and innovative nature,^[1][2][3] which has led to the series becoming one of Nintendo's leading franchises. As of January 2010, over 15,000,000 units of games from the Animal Crossing series have been sold.^[4]

[edit] Common elements

[edit] Gameplay

A life simulation game, Animal Crossing players move into a village at the beginning of the game, and live there indefinitely. They can socialize with the other town residents and perform various activities such as fishing, bug catching, collecting items and working for Tom Nook's shop to pay back their house loan, expand it, and furnish or decorate it. Time in the game is synchronized with that of the real world using the system's clock.

[edit] Collecting

The player can collect small animals such as bugs and fish, and is rewarded with more powerful, golden-colored versions of the tools used to catch the animals once all of a certain type are found. Both fish and insects can be donated to the museum, kept in the house as a decoration, or sold to shopkeeper Tom Nook. The game keeps record of which insects and fish the player has caught. Also collectible are fossils and clay figures known as "gyroids", resembling Japanese artifacts known as haniwa.

[edit] Tools

A net can be purchased to catch insects, most of which can be found during the summer. They can be located based on their distinctive noises, or through careful inspection of trees and flowers. Catching fish requires a fishing pole, and certain fish live only in certain bodies of water, with some fish only able to be found in the rain or at certain times of the day and year.

To dig up fossils, the player must use a shovel. Initially, fossils unearthed are unidentified. In Animal Crossing, the player must send by mail to the Farway Museum to identify the fossil; in Wild World and City Folk, the player instead asks the museum curator, Blathers, to identify it. Once identified, fossils can be sold to Tom Nook, donated to the museum or displayed in the player's house. Gyroids resemble clay figures, and are found in ground cracks, usually after it has rained in the game. Gyroids make various sounds at intervals determined by the music the player has chosen to play in his or her house. In the GameCube version of the game, a player can sell items, save progress and perform other actions via a gyroid stationed at the player's house. In City Folk, the player may store gyroids with Brewster, the coffeemaker at The Roost, once they develop a bond with him.

Players can purchase an axe to cut down unwanted trees, but the axe will eventually break after enough uses. A golden axe is awarded to players in Animal Crossing who beautify the town by following the Wishing Well's instructions consistently long enough. In Wild World, however, the player must do the "red turnip trade" and follow a series of other trades with other special visitors such as K.K. Slider, Saharah, Tom Nook, Crazy Redd, and Pascal to obtain the Golden Axe. In City Folk, the silver axe is introduced as a slightly inferior counterpart to the golden axe. Both axes may be obtained randomly from the goddess Serena once the player has a fountain built in his or her town.

[edit] Items

Pitfalls are an item that, upon burial, cause all who step over them to fall into pits where they were buried. Pitfalls can be obtained by talking to villagers, digging them up or looking in the lost and found (located at the Police Station in Animal Crossing and with gatekeeper Booker in Wild World). In Animal Crossing, non-villager NPCs are not affected by pitfalls. The name of the item was changed from "pitfall" to "pitfall seed" in Wild World.

Occasionally, a balloon will float by the player in the air, carrying along a present for the player. In Animal Crossing, the player must follow the drifting present until it gets caught in a tree. In Wild World and City Folk, the player can use a slingshot to pop it. In City Folk, these balloons may carry regular Tom Nook's items, or rare Mario- themed items.

In addition to pitfalls, furniture, clothes and tools, one may dig up a fossil. These items stay in a generic, unidentified form until the player sends it away in Animal Crossing or shows it to Blathers the owl in Wild World. After identification, fossil sprites will be the piece of the animal it represents, such as a Tyrannosaurus head or fossilized Footprint. Fossils are very valuable, with the rarer ones fetching several thousand Bells.

Dozens of varieties of fish and insects can be caught as well.

[edit] Clothes

Players may design patterns at the village tailor shop, the Able Sisters, run by sister hedgehogs Mabel and Sable Able. These patterns can be used for wallpaper, flooring, umbrellas, and shirts. In Animal Crossing, the player can use the pattern on the door of their house. Players can also use the Game Boy Advance, hooked up to the Nintendo GameCube with a GCN-GBA link cable, to design for free. After a player designs patterns, they can put up to eight of them on display at the tailor shop: four as shirts, and four as umbrellas. In Wild World, all eight patterns are displayed as shirts. Displaying patterns allows the other villagers to wear them. If players put up signs of those patterns around town, they become more popular. Mabel tells the player the most popular shirt and umbrella patterns if asked.^{[clarification needed]} Also, in Wild World, there are eight starter designs on display in the Able sisters' shop, all made by players in a town called atown. In City Folk, players may edit designs without the Able Sisters for free. However, a new variety of patterns, Pro Designs, can be made for 350 Bells at the Able Sisters' shop. Pro Designs allow the player to edit the front and back of a shirt, as well as the left and right sleeves individually.

If the player's character is a boy, he wears a horned helmet. If the player's character is a girl, she wears a cone-styled hat. instead choosing a hairstyle in the hair salon at Nookington's. In City Folk, a player can use the face of a Mii as a "mask", which precludes wearing any headgear, or get a hairstyle in the city at Shampoodles.

[edit] House

Once a player finishes Tom Nook's chores, the Happy Room Academy ("HRA") begins judging the interior design of the player's house. Judging takes place every other day in Animal Crossing and every Sunday in Wild World and City Folk. If the player changes their interior since the previous inspection, the HRA sends the player a letter informing them of their rating. The HRA judges the first and second floors of a player's house according to a point system. On earning certain numbers of points, the player receives prizes. In City Folk, the player can sign up for the Happy Room Academy in an office in the city.

Certain furniture items in the game have the properties of Feng Shui. If certain colored items are placed on specific sides of the player's house, the player has an increased chance of finding Bells, rare items or both. The use of Feng Shui will also result in a higher Happy Room Academy score. Other items, such as trophies and items received on holidays, provide good luck in money and items regardless of placement or color. The setup is: Orange in the north for better luck with finding money and items. Red in the east for better luck with items. Yellow in the west for better luck with money. Green in the south for better luck with money and items.

[edit] Shopping

In Animal Crossing, the primary method of obtaining new items is by purchasing them from Tom Nook's shop. When players begin their adventure, the store is an understocked, tiny shack-like building, called Nook's Cranny. As players progress through the game, Tom Nook expands his store at intervals, making it larger and increasing the daily inventory.

Thousands of bells must be spent at each interval for Nook to upgrade his shop. Eventually, a department store is opened, called Nookington's, staffed by Nook and young twin raccoons named Tommy and Timmy.

At the end of every month in Animal Crossing, Nook runs a raffle, which players can enter by handing over five raffle tickets, won by buying furniture, wallpaper, flooring, clothes, and umbrellas over the course of the month.^{[clarification needed]} Items cannot be purchased or sold on Raffle Day. Tickets for a particular month must be used in that month, but of any year; for example, a set of April tickets obtained in 2006 cannot be used in May 2006, but can be used in April 2007.

[edit] Characters in every town

[edit] Blanca

Blanca is a white cat who, in Animal Crossing, occasionally appears on the train when the player is traveling to another town. Every time she appears, the player can draw her a face on a pixelated grid, with her explanation being that she lost it. In Wild World, she occasionally appears in town, with the same purpose. In City Folk, if internet access is available and the player turns on the "mysterious cat" option via the phone in their house's attic, Blanca occasionally visits.^[5]

[edit] Resetti

Resetti is a mole who appears every time the game is reset, immediately appearing outside their character's house, scolding them for doing so. If the player keeps resetting, Resetti threatens to, but never does, delete their character. The European Let's Go to the city manual warns that young children may find Resetti's authoritative tone of voice disturbing.^{[6][unreliable source?]} There is a Easter egg in City Folk that allows the player to enter Resetti's "surveillance center" in the rightmost part of the city after 8:00 p.m. on a random basis. In his surveillance center, Resetti will give players the Silver Shovel if they talk to him. Resetti's brother Don also makes sporadic appearances. He also appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as an Assist Trophy item. In the film, Resetti is somewhat similar to a police officer, making sure the villagers follow the law.

[edit] Timmy and Tommy

Timmy and Tommy are twin racoons who appear in each game as the top floor workers for Tom Nook's last store expansion, Nookington's. They often speak in tandem (Timmy has a squeakier, higher pitched voice than Tommy), and are almost impossible to tell apart (Nook claiming that they have moles on opposite wrists). Though English-language sources imply that Timmy and Tommy are Tom Nook's nephews,^[7], dialogue in Wild World imply that they are not related. However, Nook does see both Timmy and Tommy as his protegees.

[edit] Tom Nook

[edit] Sable

"Mable is one of the able sisters working in the tailors shop with her older sister "Sable". Both of the two sisters actually have an older sister named "Label". Label appears in "Animal crossing lets go to the city" and works at Gracie Grace. Mable works hard and is the shop manger at the tailors. She is a blue hedgehog.

[edit] Mable

"Sable" is the older sister of Mable and you see her work at the tailors using a sewing machine making clothes. When you talk to her she doesn't talk much until you soon become friends with her by talking to her day after day. She is a brown hedgehog with freckles

[edit] Kapp'n

Kapp'n is a Kappa who drives the vehicle that get to your new town. In "Animal crossing lets go to the city", he takes you to and from the city. sometimes you might see him at the roost drinking some coffee. You can talk to him.

[edit] K.K. Slider

"K.K. Slider" is a black and white dog that sings songs at the roost every Saturday. You are able to get songs from him to add to your house.

[edit] Games

• Animal Crossing (video game), (Dobutsu no Mori in Japan) is a game made for the Nintendo 64 and ported to Nintendo GameCube, with upgraded versions with a (+), and even an (e+) added to the title for re-releases.
• Animal Crossing-e, a series of Nintendo e-Reader cards, for use on the Game Boy Advance.
• Animal Crossing: Wild World, for the Nintendo DS. Second video game in Animal Crossing series.
• Animal Crossing: City Folk/Lets go to the city, for Nintendo's Wii console. Third video game in Animal Crossing series.

[edit] In other media

Animal Crossing characters and items have appeared many times in the latter two entries of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mr. Resetti, Tom Nook and K.K. Slider appear as trophies players can collect in the game. Because Melee predated the release of the GameCube Animal Crossing (the first one to be released in North America), their first appearances are listed as "Future Release". Also, K.K. Slider's trophy's name is translated directly as his Japanese name, Totakeke.

The series has more significant cameos in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Included in Brawl are an item (the Pitfall, described above), several trophies (including ones for Redd, Sahara, Tom Nook, Timmy and Tommy, Pelly and Phyllis), an assist trophy (Mr. Resetti) and a stage ("Smashville"). The time of day and scenery for the stage is determined by the Wii's internal clock in a similar method to the Animal Crossing series. Special events also occur during specific times and dates at which the stage is played; for example, at 8 p.m. on Saturdays, K.K. Slider appears and hosts a guitar performance. The stage is influenced by Animal Crossing: Wild World.^[8] Several songs from Animal Crossing: Wild World play on this stage.^[9][10] On July 31, 2007, the Pitfall item was announced on the Smash Bros. Dojo!! website as a usable item in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.^[8]

[edit] References