So let's kick off with a brief history, starting on the Nintendo 64 when a game by the name of Animal Forest was released. It was a niche title that never made it out of Japan and one which most westerners had never even heard about (until recently). Then when the Gamecube was released, Animal Forest had a few things added to it, and was re-released on the Cube to show off the internal calendar system, under the name Animal Forest +. Pretty soon there was enough demand to warrant a translation from Japanese to English and the release in America. The American version was vastly improved over the Japanese version and included a boatload of features that used the GBA connectivity feature. The name was also changed to Animal Crossing, and the characters were updated to suit the quaint little American town feel that was being aimed for.
Several months after its release, many people gave up hope for a PAL version, and rumour spread like wildfire over the net regarding its cancellation for PAL. Now, here we are, with not only confirmation of Animal Crossing this October for Australia, but Europe is getting their own version next year.
We're pretty sure that most of the people who haven't heard too much about Animal Crossing are thinking "Why all the fuss about an updated port of an N64 game?"
Animal Crossing is a life sim, similar to Harvest Moon. You are a character within a village, and have chores to do to maintain that village prosperity. In Animal Crossing you will be picking weeds, taking trash to the dump, landscaping by cutting down and planting trees to keep your town looking nice. If you fail to keep the town in pristine condition, the villagers will leave to find a better village, trees will die and it will become increasingly hard to find the items you want. However, if you do keep the town looking immaculate with the right amount of trees in each area, you will be rewarded with everything and anything from a new shirt to a copy of NES game Donkey Kong.
The almost endless quest to gain every item holds some players for months on end, whilst other players may simply keep playing because one of their favourite people happens to live in their town, and they don't want them to leave. You will run into various animals who live all over your town (up to 15 animals can live there) who each have their own personality, and quirks. Iggy, the goat, is a fitness nut, but it easily depressed by other people’s opinions. Bob the cat seems to be a cross dresser who will go out of his way to make people happy, but only if they are kind to him (he even came up to my house on my birthday just to give me a NES game as a present).
Every day in Animal Crossing brings something new, be it a few new items at the local store, or a meteor shower for the town to watch. Either way, this game has loads of random and pre-set events to keep you playing for well over a year. And if you have a GBA and a link cable, you can use the GBA to play NES games, or visit a tropical island for your character to relax on, make patterns and get more items by using the E-Reader to unlock a few goodies that are otherwise unattainable.
However, due to the fact that this is just a game, it does get repetitive. You will find that the animals fall into similar categories of personality, and the same random events will occur over and over. Also, who wants to go pick a few weeds every day for a year?
PALGN will have more on Animal Crossing as its release date draws closer.
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