These larger changes were honestly exciting, adding town decorations, as well as fleshing out the island system that was seen in Animal Crossing. There are smaller additions, like additional NES games (such as Mahjong) as well as larger changes. Though these changes were so popular and loved in Japan and Nintendo was so impressed with the efforts of their American counterparts, this version of the game was then re-translated into Japanese and released as Dōbutsu no Mori e+, with even more new features added for Japanese audiences. Image: Dōbutsu no Mori e+, the remake of the remake Tom Nook in his pajamas, seen by bashing on the door of his shop until he opens it in the e+ edition of the game. There are also various cosmetic changes for the villagers in terms of clothes and fur colours, not to mention the event changes. Some of the differences were pretty big, like the Japanese version having a ‘Bell Shrine’, modelled on a traditional Japanese Shinto Shrine, which was part of a New Years Day event. Events had to be added that were more relevant to Western audiences, thousands of lines of dialogue had to be translated and then, even more, had to be added, and at the end of the day, Nintendo was left with almost two entirely different products. Not only were there the cultural items that had to be changed, but it was a massive effort for dialogue and gameplay as well.
Now, the super interesting part is that Animal Crossing as we know it on the Gamecube, used Dōbutsu no Mori+, the original Japanese port, as a base. There were also other changes, like additional NES games such as Excitebike and Soccer.
Other things were also changed to make sense to a Western audience, for example, a traditional Japanese fireplace was changed to a more recognisable BBQ grill. Later, when it came time to localise the game for Western audiences, it was decided to move development to the Gamecube and then to use the Gamecube’s extra power to add a bunch of cool features.
Animal crossing logo pixel cute series#
Even series mainstay, Mayor Tortimer, wasn’t present.Īn image from the Animal Forest+ Gamecube manual. There wasn’t even a museum, though collecting fossils was still possible through sending them off to have them identified. The game contains a lot of oddities, such as the Able Sisters not being in the game, meaning clothes were only available from Tom Nook and custom designs were non-existent, a lot of the holidays were different (going off the Japanese holiday system), and, generally speaking, there was a lot less content. The game pak is the only one that contains a working in-game clock for the Nintendo 64 (though it needs to be manually set), while the controller pak was entirely dedicated to saving the game (similar to how the Gamecube version was sold with a dedicated memory card). Its original Nintendo 64 version was something of a technical feat, coming out late in the console’s lifespan and originally slated for the 64DD, its production was later moved to a standard game pak and a controller pak. A lot of folks know that originally, Animal Crossing was a game for the Nintendo 64 called Dōbutsu no Mori, or, Animal Forest. Interestingly, though, Animal Crossing has a lot of fun localisation changes going on which have had lasting impacts on the series as a whole.
Animal crossing logo pixel cute manual#
So with a new Animal Crossing game coming out soon and the likelihood of me giving up my real life to just play this game all day, let’s take a look at the history of the series and how localisation has created almost two entirely distinct games.Ī scan from the Animal Forest manual for the Nintendo 64. It’s quite possibly the most utterly delightful and wholesome series of video games to ever exist and I will defend this fact to my death. Animal Crossing is probably one of the coziest games to ever exist, allowing players to live their dreams of independence, homeownership and talking to cute animals who all want to be your friend.