Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing
Developer	Nintendo EAD
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Gamecube
Release Date	Gamecube JP: December 14, 2001 US: September 15, 2002 AU: October 17, 2003 EU: September 24, 2004
Rating	ESRB: E

Animal Crossing is a "communication" game designed by Shigeru Miyamoto.

Story

You have just moved away from home to a new town. Make friends, get cool stuff, and pay off your debt.

Gameplay

Animal Crossing is an open-ended game. There really isn't any predefined goals or a plot for the player to follow. The player can choose what they want to do, whether it's catch every type of fish, design clothes, or buy furniture for their house.

The game uses the Gamecube's internal clock to keep track of the time and date. Each day, new things happen and somethings only happen on certain days or certain times. Holidays are also celebrated in the game.

Versions

This game was originally a Japanese Nintendo 64 game called Dōbutsu no Mori(Animal Forest). It lacked a few of the features of the Gamecube game, most notably the internal clock.

Eight months later, 'Dōbutsu no Mori+ was released. This was the game that the American Animal Crossing was based on.

While porting the game to American, a lot of things were added. For instance, they had to add Western holidays and items to go with them. The results were so impressive that Nintendo translated the game into Japanese and released it as Dōbutsu no Mori e+.

Legacy

Animal Crossing is the first of the Animal Crossing series to be brought to America. It brought a truly different type of gameplay to the market.

Sequels

In 2005, Animal Crossing: Wild World was released. It expanded on the original game with features such as Wi-Fi internet, sharing a house, and hats.