Animal Forest

About This Game

Gameplay

Animal Crossing is a social simulation game, dubbed a "communication game" by Nintendo. It is open-ended, and the player's character can live a separate life with very little set plot or mandatory tasks. Players assume the role of a new resident to the town. The gender and looks of the character depend on answers given to a cat named Rover, whom the player meets on the train the character takes to the town. There are also tasks that players can complete and goals they can achieve. The game is played in real-time, observing days, weeks, months and years using the GameCube's internal clock. Many real-life events and holidays span the year, including Independence Day, Halloween, the Harvest Festival (Thanksgiving), and Toy Day (Christmas). Other activities, such as fishing tournaments and early-morning fitness classes, occur on a regular schedule. When players stop playing, they can talk to their Gyroid, a creature next to their house, to save their progress. If the player turns off the game or resets the GameCube without saving first, what they achieved during the previous unsaved game is lost, but everything else is kept; however a mole named Mr.

History

The game was developed by Nintendo EAD with an inexperienced team led by Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, and Super Mario co-creator Takashi Tezuka, most of whom had regrouped after the release of Yoshi’s Story in 1997. The 64DD peripheral served as an enabling technology platform for the conception and development of the game, with its real-time clock and 64MB floppy disk for writable mass storage. Due to 64DD's extended delays and cancellation, the game's development was moved to the Game Pak cartridge medium—the only Game Pak containing a real-time clock—plus a Controller Pak for saving progress. Kazumi Totaka served as the game's sound director. Kenta Nagata composed background music for the fields, Toru Minegishi for the indoor areas and Shinobu Tanaka for the events.