Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing, known in Japan as Dōbutsu no Mori (どうぶつの森, lit. "Animal Forest"), is a video game series developed by Nintendo, in which the player lives his/her own virtual life in a village with many residents, all of which are animals. The game takes place in real time, moving through day and night, and the four seasons. The individual games have been widely praised for their uniqueness and innovative nature, which has led to the series becoming one of Nintendo's leading franchises. As of March 2007, over 7,000,000 units of games from the Animal Crossing series have been sold.

Series

Games

Game	Format	First Released	Notes
Dōbutsu no Mori (どうぶつの森 lit. Animal Forest)	Nintendo 64	14 April 2001 (JP) [1]	First game in the series. Nintendo 64 version was released only in Japan.
Dōbutsu no Mori+ (どうぶつの森+ lit. Animal Forest+)	Nintendo GameCube	14 December 2001 (JP)	GameCube version of Animal Forest, which used the system's internal clock to keep track of the date and time.
Animal Crossing	Nintendo GameCube	15 September 2002 (NA)	English language version of Animal Forest+, with numerous additions to the previous version.
Dōbutsu no Mori e+ (どうぶつの森+ lit. Animal Forest e-Plus)	Nintendo GameCube	27 June 2003 (JP)	An expanded port of Animal Crossing, for release in Japan.
Animal Crossing: Wild World (Known as Oideyo Dōbutsu no Mori in Japan, おいでよ どうぶつの森)	Nintendo DS	23 November 2005 (JP)	The second game in the series and the first to utilize online play with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
Animal Crossing Wii	Wii	2008 Q2	Not yet released.

Movies

Title	Released	Notes
Dōbutsu no Mori	December 16 2006 (JP)	Anime film based on the Animal Crossing series, released only in Japan.

Seasons

As the Animal Crossing series games play in real-time, the seasons within the games change accordingly. A number of noticeable changes occur during each of the four seasons.

Spring

During spring, the player can catch many of the game's insects. This season includes several holidays: in Animal Crossing, there is the Cherry Blossom Festival, during which tree leaves turn pink; in Animal Crossing: Wild World, there is the Flower Festival, a week during which the player can compete with villagers for the best garden.

Summer

Summer is when players can find the most insects. In Animal Crossing, one can find a tent set up by a villager on weekends; if the player talks to the villager residing in the tent, the player may play a game with him/her. Sometimes villagers will give the player a summer-related item such as a Campfire. In Animal Crossing: Wild World, there is the Bug-Off, a bug-catching contest. It is also the only time of year where sharks are available for capture and on the 1st Saturday of August there is a fireworks show.

Autumn

During autumn, the leaves start to change colors and the grass starts to become dormant for the year. There are several holidays in this season: in Animal Crossing, there is the Harvest Festival (similar to real world Thanksgiving) and Halloween; in Animal Crossing: Wild World, there is the Acorn Festival, during which the player is awarded pieces of the "Mush series" for collecting certain amounts of acorns. Unlike fruit from fruit trees, acorns only come from the plain trees that resemble fruit trees, not the cedar or fruit trees themselves.

Winter

During winter, snow falls and blankets rooftops, trees, and the ground itself. Small snowballs form randomly on the ground, and when these are pushed by players they can make snowmen; should the player create a "perfect" snowman, he/she will receive a piece of "Snowman furniture" in the mail. This is also when Jingle the reindeer comes around to give the children presents in the original Animal Crossing (Toy Day is similar to real world Christmas). Wild World does not have any sort of celebration on Christmas Day, with no references to Christmas, removed because of religious references/possible localization difficulties. When it nears Christmas in the original Animal Crossing, some trees will be decorated with flashing lights (resembling Christmas lights) on their branches. On "Animal Crossing: Wild World" the lights only flash on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Several of the villagers also build igloos at this time of year, allowing players to play games with the inhabitants. Sometimes the villager will give the player the infamous "DUMMY," a glitch item. Other times, villagers may give the player a winter-related item such as a Snow Bunny. In Animal Crossing: Wild World, the town celebrates "Bright Nights," a week during which villagers' houses will be decorated in lights; the player is allowed to vote which neighbor's house is the best-decorated.

Gaming Features

Despite the ad infinitum nature of "Animal Crossing," the game presents several tasks, including the capture of every fish and insect. Some types of fish and insects are only available during certain parts of the year or at specific times. Both fish and insects can be donated to the museum, kept in the house as a decoration, or sold to shopkeeper Tom Nook for varying amounts, with some fetching prices as high as 15,000 Bells, such as the Stringfish, and others, such as the Cockroach, selling for only 5 Bells. The game keeps record of which insects and fish the player has caught.

Insects

Capturing insects requires a net, which can be purchased at Tom Nook's store. Most insects can be found during the summer, while very few are available during winter. Most insects can be found either based on the insects' volume and tone of their chirping, or through careful inspection of trees and flowers. Some are more difficult, however; Pill Bugs must be found by using shovels or axes on rocks, and Bees must be caught before they have the chance to sting the player and leave his/her left eye swollen shut. Ants and Cockroaches may be lured by spoiled turnips or Halloween candy left on the ground. The player's reward for capturing every type of insect is the golden net, which is larger than the standard net, and a butterfly model for the player's roof.

Fish

Catching fish requires a fishing pole, which is also available for purchase at Tom Nook's store. Ponds, lakes, rivers, and the ocean are available for fishing. Certain fish live only in certain bodies of water, and some fish can only be found in the rain, as well as at certain times of the day and year. The player's reward for capturing every type of fish is the golden fishing rod, which causes fish to stay on the line longer, thus making it easier to catch fish, and a fish-shaped weather vane for the player's house.

Fossils

Initially, fossils dug up are unidentified. In Animal Crossing, the player must send it in the Farway Museum to identify the fossil; in Animal Crossing: Wild World, the player instead asks the 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

Gyroids in Animal Crossing resemble "clay figures" and are found in the ground, usually after it has rained in the game. In the Japanese version of the game, "gyroids" are called haniwa, after a kind of archaeological artifact native to Japan. Gyroids make various sounds at intervals determined by the music the player has chosen to play in his or her house. In the Nintendo GameCube version of the game a player can sell items, save his/her progress, and perform other actions via a gyroid stationed at the player's house.

Pitfalls

File:ACWWPitfall.jpg

A Pitfall Seed unearthed in Animal Crossing: Wild World

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 by digging them up or looking lost and found (the Police Station in Animal Crossing and talking to Booker in Wild World). In Animal Crossing, Non-villager NPCs are not affected by pitfalls. Since many newcomers to the Animal Crossing world are unfamiliar with Pitfalls, many of them have confused the Pitfall with the glitch-inducing "DUMMY" item, or the Activision game Pitfall!. To avoid this confusion, the name of the item was changed from "Pitfall" to "Pitfall seed" in Animal Crossing: Wild World.

On July 31 2007 the Pitfall item was announced on the Smash Brothers DOJO as a usable item in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Pattern design

File:Animal Crossing Spooky.jpg

An Animal Crossing character wearing a tailor-made shirt on Halloween.

Players may design patterns at the village tailor shop, the Able Sisters, run by two sister hedgehogs, Mabel and Sable Able, at a cost of 350 Bells. These patterns can be used for wallpaper, flooring, umbrellas, and shirts; in Animal Crossing, the player can use the pattern on the door of his/her 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, he/she can put up to eight of them on display at the tailor shop: four as shirts, and four as umbrellas; in Animal Crossing: Wild World, all eight patterns are displayed as shirts. This allows other villagers to wear those patterns. If players put up signs of those patterns around town, they could become more popular. Mabel tells the player the most popular shirt and umbrella patterns if asked.

Headgear

If the player's character is a boy, then he wears a stereotypical Viking-styled hat. If the player's character is a girl, then she wears a cone-styled hat. In Wild World, there are several different shapes of hats available, although the player's designs are still restricted to Viking-style or Cone-style depending on gender. Also in Wild World, the player's character can take off the hat and go around town "hatless".

Happy Room Academy

Once a player finishes Tom Nook's chores, the Happy Room Academy ("HRA") will begin judging the interior design of the player's house every other day (in Animal Crossing) or every Sunday (in Animal Crossing: Wild World). Providing the player has changed his/her interior since the previous inspection, the HRA will send the player a letter informing him/her of his/her point rating. The HRA judges the upstairs and first floor of a players house, according to a point system. Upon earning certain point marks, the player will receive prizes.

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 building, resembling a log cabin and 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 by the raccoon, called Nookington's, staffed by Nook and young twin raccoons named Tommy and Timmy, Nook's nephews.

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. Items cannot be purchased or sold on Raffle Day. Tickets for a particular month must be used in that month, but of any year; e.g. a set of April tickets obtained in 2006 cannot be used in May 2006, but can be used in April 2007.

Feng Shui

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 will have an increased chance of finding rare items, Bells, 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, will provide good luck in money and items regardless of placement or color.

Cameos in Super Smash Bros.

Due to the popularity of the series, Animal Crossing characters and items have made many cameo appearances 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 all appear as trophies players can collect within the game. Because the game predated the release of the Gamecube iteration of the series (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 from Japanese (as Totakeke), so it is different than his international name.

The series has more significant cameos in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Included in Brawl are an item (the Pitfall, described above), two trophies (one for Tortimer, one for Pelly and Phyllis), an assist trophy (Mr. Resetti), and a stage (Smashville). This stage consists of a main platform with a moving platform overhead, situated above a typical Animal Crossing town. The time of day and scenery is determined by the Wii's internal clock in similar fashion to the Animal Crossing games. Special events also occur during a specific time and date the stage is played; at 8:00 pm on Saturdays, K.K. Slider will appear and host a live guitar performance. The stage is influenced by Animal Crossing: Wild World. The songs "Go K. K. Rider!" and "The Roost" have been remixed to play on this stage.