Animal Crossing - All GameCube Games

[Cube]

15 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

It was released on the original Xbox. I remember it being very hyped up by various magazines but it ultimately was pretty disappointing.

It's also one of a few bonus games I'll be covering as part of this, due to how big it was as part of the early GameCube showcases. Until I researched this, I had no idea that the game ended up getting released, I thought it was cancelled at some point. 

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Nicktendo said:

As I was reading through this thread I remembered this:

I'm sure we've all seen it. I watched it multiple times back in the day. Amazing that Donkey Kong Racing disappeared without a trace and wasn't reworked in some way. And Kameo of course, finding a home on the Xbox. I always thought the Galleon trailer was amazing. What ever happened to that game? 

 

It actually was reworked! It was being reskinned into an Xbox game that was going to be called Sabreman Stampede before it was cancelled mid-development…

 

[Cube]

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3

Welcome to my world

• NA release: 18th November 2001
• EU release: 3rd May 2002
• JP release: 27th June 2003
• Developer: Neversoft
• Publisher: Activision (NA/EU), Success (JP)
• NGC Magazine Score: 87%
• Mods Used: Widescreen Code

 

After going through N64 games and its versions of Tony Hawk games lacking a bit in presentation, it’s nice to finally play a full version of the game. The full, good quality songs really add so much to the game, and the soundtrack for Pro Skater 3 is no exception. When I was younger, I played a lot of Pro Skater 4, and a lot of the muscle memory from that still applies to Pro Skater 3, and it still feels great.

 

 

The create-a-skater is very solid this time round, and you can upgrade your stats by finding tokens in levels. There’s some more interesting objectives as well that encourage you to explore each level, some of which are larger than previous games, but not too large, all of it filled with interesting sections and ways to transfer tricks from one section to the others. It’s the kind of game where you’ll have fun pulling off tricks and linking combos even when you’re doing the non-trick challenges. There are also even more interactive elements, and you can even trigger an earthquake in one level.

 

 

There’s also a few more fun special characters this time, such as Wolverine and Darth Maul alongside some silly ones like the Neversoft eyeball in a Frankenstein body (who starts with one point in every stat), a demoness and Kelly Slater on a surfboard, so there’s a lot of fun to be had. I’m still not overly fond of the time limit, but it’s still an incredibly solid skateboard game with an addictive nature.

Great

Quote

Attaining that elusive high score is still as relentlessly enjoyable today as it was when, say, Space Invaders appeared in arcades just over twenty years ago and, ultimately, it’s all you need – a hefty slice of gameplay that’ll keep you coming back. Tony Hawk’s 3 has that in spaced.

Neil Randall, NGC Magazine #67

Remake or remaster?

A remake is currently in the works.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3.

[Dcubed]

Coming out only two weeks after the PS2 version in the US is a big improvement over what we saw on the N64, but this of course was not the same in Europe, where the game was much older by the time the console came out.  Unavoidable, but also quite unfortunate.

Thankfully this is a really solid version of the game, featuring all of the content of the PS2 original, coupled with improved performance and better loading times.  So it was quite the statement of intent from both Activision and Neversoft coming off the N64, which always saw very late and highly compromised ports.  Though the Xbox version (which came out later) has the best performance, as well as an additional level (The Oil Rig) and an additional character (X-ray); it doesn’t take away the sheen that THPS3 would’ve had at the GCN’s launch.

As for the game itself? This is the last of the classic THPS gameplay format, with smaller stages designed around the 2 min lime limit.  The Revert is a true game changer, to the point that the lack of this mechanic can make it rough to go back to THPS2 (let alone the OG).  It was so groundbreaking that the remake of THPS1 & 2 actually went out of its way to implement the Revert, despite never appearing in either game.  The level design is once again superb, and even more dynamic than before, with moving cars, obstacles and pedestrians.  It’s very much the apex of the classic format and one last hurrah, before Neversoft began moving more towards an open world format with future titles.

[Cube]

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Nintendo’s all-stars are ready to do battle! Let the melee begin!

• JP release: 21st November 2001
• NA release: 3rd December 2001
• EU release: 24th May 2002
• Developer: HAL Laboratory
• Publisher: Nintendo
• NGC Magazine Score: 95%
• Mods Used: Widescreen Code

 

While the N64 Super Smash Bros was a wonderful novelty, Nintendo realised what potential the game had and decided to go all out with Smash Bros Melee, bringing more characters into the fold and adding in a load of extras to make it a love letter to Nintendo’s history. Melee solidified Super Smash Bros as an important franchise for Nintendo, with each game getting bigger and bigger.

 

 

Singleplayer has gained a few new features, including Adventure mode, where you play through a mixture of different kinds of stages. Some are platforming levels created specially for this mode, while others are fights on regular stages. The platforming levels do feel a bit odd using the control style of Smash Bros, but they’re still immensely enjoyable and set the stage for more to follow in the next game. There’s also the more traditional fighting mode, event fights and some minigames, like Home Run Contest, which are initially simple but are made quite deep due to the mechanics of the game. There’s plenty to do here when friends aren’t over.

 

 

There’s also a ton of options for multiplayer as well, there are stock or points based matches, add special features like making the game slower or faster, making all the characters invisible and you can adjust how frequently items appear and turn specific items on or off. All this means you can come up with your own ideas for matches. A personal favourite of mine was setting items to high, Pokéballs only and everyone had to be a Pokémon character. It’s pure chaos and an absolute blast.

 

 

Melee also introduced a compulsive form of collectible: the trophies. Some are earned by completing specific tasks in the game, while others spawn as items during other game modes. I would always dart towards one whenever I saw one. Once collected, you can view it as a 3D model and read a little bit about the character, offering some background on characters that many had never heard of, including some characters who had never left Japan.

 

 

What made the trophies extra special in Melee was the amount of trophies that were new depictions of characters. There are a few Custom Robo trophies that bring the art style of the N64 games into more detail, we also got our first 3D version of Pit from Kid Icarus, whose description interestingly ends with “Will pit ever fight again?” and just a ton to discover. It gave weight and meaning to the collectables, which made them so compulsive.

 

 

Melee just had a ton of lovely touches all around. The music is wonderful (you can’t go wrong with the DK Rap) and the game scores you at the end of matches in many different ways, with some amusing ones thrown in for being cheap or comedic. Even the menus get some love as you can use the C-stick to tilt them around, just because. It’s a wonderful package.

Fave

Quote

Even if Super Smash Bros for the N64 didn’t really do it for you, that’s no reason to dismiss Super Smash Bros Melee as just a bigger, nicer-looking update. You’d be missing out on an experience that matches many of Nintendo’s best moments of the last few years, because SSBM’s reworking of the Smash Bros theme is so comprehensive, you might as well consider the N64 versions as a mere trial run.

Martin Kitts, NCG Magazine #68

Remake or remaster?

A “complete edition” Smash Bros game with the gameplay styles of each previous one would be wonderful.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Super Smash Bros. Melee.

[darksnowman]

Having played Smash Bros. 64 quite a bit—like, daily at one point—and being all-in on Nintendo, I was looking forward to the follow-up on the new system. I remember sitting up until the wee small hours (playing Conkers Pocket Tales on GBC iirc) to catch a glimpse of Melee on Cybernet or something and was of course blown away by the intro. 

As for the game, I enjoyed the models and their descriptions as that was pretty novel. But I didn't get anywhere near as much play out of Melee and never bought another Smash Bros. game again. I easily got more time out of listening to the Smashing Live CD that later came with a magazine than I did playtime out of SSBM. Playing as Mewtwo in Smash Bros. remains a gaming "one that got away".  

[Hero-of-Time]

Melee

28 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Having played Smash Bros. 64 quite a bit—like, daily at one point—and being all-in on Nintendo, I was looking forward to the follow-up on the new system. I remember sitting up until the wee small hours (playing Conkers Pocket Tales on GBC iirc) to catch a glimpse of Melee on Cybernet or something and was of course blown away by the intro. 

 

That takes me back.

Melee is still my favourite of the series. Plenty of single player stuff to tackle, satisfying unlockables, not too bloated and a fantastic multiplayer experience. Whilst I have still played and enjoyed every other entry, none have come close to recapturing that magic.

[Glen-i]

43 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Melee is still my favourite of the series.

Oh boy, add another one to our "differing opinions" list, because I think Melee is the weakest Smash.

Now that's not me saying it's bad, it certainly is not. And it's definitely not me saying it isn't hugely important to the series. Like @Cube said, it established the games as the "Gaming museum" it's become today. Granted, back then, it was only Nintendo, but it kicked that off.

But I find it hard to go back to now. It's quite stiff, the single player modes get awfully repetitive if you were aiming to get everything. Classic was done way better in Ultimate (Dedicated character routes, and multiple bosses really help with that), Adventure was done way better in Brawl, Event matches were recontextualised as World of Light in Ultimate, which completely dwarfs Melee!

The physics are much more refined later on, the art style of Melee is a bit drab (Not as bad as Brawl, but still), and the character roster is dreadfully balanced! There's like, 5 characters that are good, and the rest are absolute crap in comparison. Yes, Meta Knight in Brawl was insane, but you could ignore him and most of the other characters in that game were still solid.

Smash 64 is so weird, that it's still fun to revisit from time to time, but Melee has nothing going for it these days. Still, it did put Fire Emblem on the western map.

Game is mad buggy though! Which gives me an excuse to post this gem.

 

[Dcubed]

Crazy just how much of a jump this game was from the N64 game in more or less every respect.  Even crazier that they managed to pull off a game of this scope and magnitude in just 13 months of development.  The crunch to end all crunch!  It was so bad that it caused Sakurai to step away from day-to-day development entirely...  until he had to step in at the last minute and rescue Kirby Air Ride from development hell before he left HAL to go freelance.

While I do think the game is overrated in context of the wider series, it's hard to overstate what an accomplishment this game was for the time it launched.  It's no wonder why it ended up being the single best selling game for the console throughout its entire lifetime, it was the full package more or less right there at the console's launch!

Edited Friday at 10:22 AM by Dcubed

[BowserBasher]

2 hours ago, Cube said:

A personal favourite of mine was setting items to high, Pokéballs only and everyone had to be a Pokémon character. It’s pure chaos and an absolute blast.

This was mine too, and sometimes I'd add in that you can't attack anyone yourself, you could only use the Pokeballs and whatever Pokemon you got. So basically a Pokemon battle

[Cube]

XGIII: Extreme-G Racing

Beyond Speed. Beyond Combat. Beyond All Racing.

• NA release: 27th November 2001
• JP release: 15th March December 2002
• EU release: 3rd May 2002
• Developer: Acclaim
• Publisher: Acclaim
• NGC Magazine Score: 85%
• Mods Used: Widescreen Code

 

Alongside Rogue Leader, Extreme-G 3 was the other game I got with my GameCube on launch day. An immensely stunning futuristic racer that also manages to be a little soulless at times. The Nintendo 64 had lots of great futuristic racers, and Extreme G, F-Zero, Wipeout and Episode 1: Racer all managed to feel completely distinct at the same time. Instead of improving upon what worked well for previous games, XGIII instead borrows from others.

 

 

The biggest change in XGIII is how the shields and boosting work. Boosting uses up your shield, and strips at the edge of the track will recharge your shield if you go over them. Exactly like F-Zero. The weapons also work differently, no longer items you pick up on the track that bring down pods that hover over the bike, but upgrades you buy in your shop that subtly pop out of your fancy looking motorbike. The style of Extreme-G is just gone, not just by copying F-Zero, but the design of the world and vehicles as well.

 

 

What XGIII does have in spades, though, is spectacle. The tracks look amazing, weaving through wonderful and unique looking parts of the world. The woosh sound when you go through the rings that hold the track up is a wonderful sound and when you reach a certain speed, you’ll break the sound barrier with a bang followed by silence. It’s wonderful the first few times you hear it, although at the fastest speed, it starts to get a bit annoying. With these things going for it, it’s a shame it didn’t have a bit more personality to go alongside it.

Fun

Quote

We wish Acclaim would have included a variety of bikes with different characteristics. Each and every racer handles pretty much the same way, so there’s no incentive to explore the other characters and as a result the longevity of XG3 suffers.

Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #67

Remake or remaster?

An Extreme-G collection would be nice. Combining mechanics and tracks form different games would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play XGIII: Extreme-G Racing.

[Glen-i]

I definitely owned this one at some point. I think my parents might have remembered me playing the N64 one a lot, but that was because when I first got an N64, it was either Extreme G, or Turok. Either that, or it was a bundle deal for the GameCube I got.

It's... fine. Not the biggest fan of high speed futuristic games, clearly. Luckily, my parents also got me Luigi's Mansion at the same time, so 12 year old me was happy.

[Jonnas]

Super Smash Bros. Melee was my favourite game ever for nearly two decades. Only Ultimate surpassed it.

I never really felt the appeal behind Subspace Emissary (excessively repetitive and dull), even if it had the right idea. Adventure Mode in Melee was quick, to the point, and kept all of its ideas focused. Like, if a stage in SE was more fun with, say, Sonic than any other character, there was no real reason to explore and find that out. Melee Adventure kept its levels short and replayable, and as a result, I found out, for example, which characters handled the F-Zero level better (Capt.Falcon can just run through it like a champ, but figuring out how to keep myself airborne with Jigglypuff was a legit challenge)

The personalized levels in Break the Targets was also an incredible way to learn the ins and outs of various characters. I learned to wall jump thanks to this mode.

And that's just single-player, because also in multi-player there's stuff that it did really well. Even modern Smash games don't do the cheeky bonuses at the end of matches, nor do they measure SDs properly.

Finally, the gamefeel was incredible, really good use of rumble (whenever you landed a good hit, you felt it). By comparison, Brawl was like punching with pillows. Melee was also quite fast, which made for a very exciting spectacle. I do admit it made it harder to play for beginners. Thankfully, Ultimate matches Melee in the gamefeel area, while still being very accommodating for beginners (partly because there are many more beginner-friendly stages as well in Ultimate).

And there's a lot more to gush about Melee. That's why I still put it at the top of any list where I rank my favourite GCN games.

Edited yesterday at 12:24 AM by Jonnas

[Glen-i]

11 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

And that's just single-player, because also in multi-player there's stuff that it did really well. Even modern Smash games don't do the cheeky bonuses at the end of matches, nor do they measure SDs properly.

I kinda prefer the way they do it now. In Melee, it's all too easy to just throw yourself off the stage when you're at high damage to deny an opponent a point. Modern games give the point to whoever landed the last hit if you try that.

[Jonnas]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

I kinda prefer the way they do it now. In Melee, it's all too easy to just throw yourself off the stage when you're at high damage to deny an opponent a point. Modern games give the point to whoever landed the last hit if you try that.

That's the thing, it could be optional. Maybe we could make it work like in Melee, and make it so SDs take away 2 points (an option that already exists). Let each friend group define which adjustment works.

As it stands, if someone does something stupid and falls off the edge, an undeserved point goes to whichever Pikachu last hit that person with a randomly-thrown thunder jolt, and we can't do anything about that.

Heck, even the "kill yourself to deny a point" thing still happens (entirely likely that a Wario might want to deny a Ganon a point by simply getting hit with a stray projectile, and then dying), but even the "SD takes away 2 points" rule becomes entirely worthless in that scenario, because it doesn't register as an SD. An SD only registers as such if it happens at 0%, which is absurd.

[Glen-i]

36 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Heck, even the "kill yourself to deny a point" thing still happens (entirely likely that a Wario might want to deny a Ganon a point by simply getting hit with a stray projectile, and then dying), but even the "SD takes away 2 points" rule becomes entirely worthless in that scenario, because it doesn't register as an SD. An SD only registers as such if it happens at 0%, which is absurd.

Huh, yeah. I kinda forgot that there was an option to make SD's take away 2 points, likely because it's kinda pointless these days, like you said.

[Dcubed]

I wonder if Extreme G2 & 3 will come to NSO… we got the first one, so maybe?

Never did play any of the sequels, but the first game is alright enough.  I’d play them if they came to NSO.

[Cube]

SSX Tricky

Resist gravity.

• NA release: 27th November 2001
• JP release: 27th December 2001
• EU release: 12th July 2002
• Developer: EA Canada
• Publisher: EA Sports BIG (NA/EU), EA Square (JP)
• NGC Magazine Score: 87%
• Mods Used: None

When it comes to basing your game’s identity on a single song, it has to be a good one. Thankfully, “It’s Tricky” by Run-DMC is up to the task and the song shines through at just the right moments, successfully making it feel special when you hear it instead of getting annoyed by its repetition. The SSX games are snowboarding racing games that focus on tricks and my only prior experience is SSX Blur. I didn’t even realise this wasn’t the first game until the commentator kindly pointed out how many tracks were brought back from the previous game (albeit with changes).

While the snowboarding games on the Nintendo 64 featured tricks, including Nintendo’s own 1080° Snowboarding, they didn’t usually gel with the racing itself, often being more of a liability than anything else. The SSX games have two ways to help the two aspects fit together. The first is leniency. You can land at some odd angles without much issue and falling over still has you tumbling downhill and getting up at a decent pace. The second is tying it into a boost system. However, if you hang onto your boost and continue tricking, you’ll fill up the bar and “It’s Tricky” will start playing. During this, you have infinite boosts and can prolong it by performing uber tricks – and pulling off six will give you infinite boosts for the entire race.

Another neat feature is how the other racers develop as you play. Attacking or not attacking other racers during races (which nets you boost) will impact future races – rivalries and friendships will form, adjusting how aggressive they are towards you. The tracks themselves all manage to both feel and look unique, and are a good length with a ton of fun segments.

SSX Tricky is a game chocked full of the style and attitude of this era of sports games, which makes it a ton of fun to go back to as I kind of miss all this today. It’s still hugely enjoyable to play and the art style still holds up quite well.

Great

Quote

Pretty soon you’ve learned the trick lines that allow you to link grinds and flips in stunning combinations over hundreds of feet of snow, you’ve opened up secret shortcuts to shave seconds off your time and you feel like an expert. You’ll even worry that it’s all been too easy and altogether too quick. It’s only then that you’ll hear the dawn chorus of chirping birds outside your window, look at the clock, and realise you’ve been playing for ten hours. It’s time to make that big decision: play through ’til breakfast or get some shut-eye? Hmm, tough one. Oh, go on then – just one more go.

Lee Hall, NGC Magazine #69

Remake or remaster?

An SSX collection would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play SSX Tricky.

--

The GameCube really did have a great start to it, with plenty of great games and nothing particularly terrible. 

[Dcubed]

11 hours ago, Cube said:

The GameCube really did have a great start to it, with plenty of great games and nothing particularly terrible. 

Defo! Easily one of the best launches ever.  I actually ended up buying 6 games with it on launch day (Luigi’s Mansion, Wave Race Blue Storm, Super Monkey Ball, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Rogue Leader and SSBM) and I still only scratched the surface of what it had to offer!

Just such a shame it came out too late to really combat the PS2 (or even the Xbox here in Europe).  The console wars of the 6th Gen were already decided before the thing even launched really.  Especially when you had the likes of GTA 3, FF10 and MGS2 coming out at the same time as the Cube.

[Ashley]

Plus I seem to recall there was a price drop just before the console launched here too right? 

Imagine...

[Cube]

Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure 

Have a good time at Universal Studios with Woody Woodpecker.

• JP release: 7th December 2001
• NA release: 18th December 2001
• EU release: 3rd May 2002
• Developer: Nai’a Digital Works
• Publisher: Kemco
• NGC Magazine Score: 24%
• Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

 

Often said to be the worst game on GameCube. I’ll have to see how it compares when I’ve made it further into my GameCube games, but it’s certainly the first terrible game on the GameCube. You’re a boy visiting Universal Studios, with free reign of the park. Well, sort of. Navigating Universal Studios is apparently utter hell. This game features pre-render backgrounds and fixed camera angles, with no care taken on how they flow with each other, as the orientation changes on every single screen. Sometimes even finding your character is a challenge, as they’ll be far in the distance, obscured by other park visitors.

 

ET Adventure

 

Most likely you’ll bump into ET Adventure for your first minigame. This is a terrible Excitebike-style game where you slowly cycle to the right and go over jumps. Actually landing is pretty much impossible, so you’ll fall over constantly – thankfully, the game is so easy that you’ll have no problems beating it while falling over every few seconds.

With this out of the way, the next time you go to an attraction, there will be a queue, and you’ll be unable to answer. You can buy hats to access events, using points you earn from completing attractions, meeting mascots and picking up rubbish.

 

 

To be fair to the game, the amount of hassle from this set-up is nowhere near as bad as I’ve heard other people say it is. From the ET minigame, a quiz and some interactions, I had enough points for three hats and was given an e-pass that lets me access another for a single attempt, so I didn’t spend that much time needing to collect points. That said, trying to navigate the park to find the other events, as well as the immensely tiny hidden Universal Studios letters, makes even that an unpleasant experience. With that said, here’s my rundown on the other events.

Back to the Future: The Ride

 

This is the only minigame that’s properly based on the ride itself. You need to chase Biff as he races through the first three locations from the ride: Hill Valley, an ice level and a lava world. You have a surprisingly strict time limit so you can’t afford to hit the walls. There’s not much to the game, but it’s probably the best one in the package.

Jurassic Park

 

An on-rails shooter. Kill as many dinosaurs as possible, including the ones that aren’t a danger to you. You can hold A to lock-on multiple times and there’s a needlessly robust points system. The problem is that the minigame is both boring and goes on for far too long. If it wasn’t for the music, you’d barely tell that this was related to Jurassic Park, as it looks and feels like a knock-off.

Waterworld

 

Pick a seat and watch a 5 second CGI clip of a prop plane landing into water. If they wanted to discourage people from seeing the actual attraction, they managed to do a great job at that.

Jaws

 

The shark from Jaws (which this minigame incorrectly calls Jaws) is attacking the Orca. It’s full of barrels, so many that you’ll think they’ll need a bigger boat. On the top right are two different displays showing where the shark will head over from, so just go there and throw a barrel at him. Immensely simple and easy.

The Wild Wild Wild West

 

This is loosely based on a stunt show at the park, not related to the fun Wild Wild West film from Warner Bros. The original show features fun stunts, fights and explosions. Here you shoot cans and targets. Focus on the cardboard cut-out and the bonus targets and you’ll win with zero effort.

Backdraft

 

Everyone knows and loves Backdraft, right? the film [googles] where Kurt Russel becomes a firefighter to impress his brother. Apparently it got a Direct-to-DVD sequel in 2019. This is probably the closest to an actual minigame, as you explore a burning warehouse (with bad camera angles), putting out fires and rescuing people to run into. This one also goes on for far too long.

 

 

And that’s Universal Studios. A game where you get to explore a theme park and play minigames based on the rides is definitely a good idea, but this is just a terrible attempt at doing so, partly from how horrible navigating the park is to how soulless all the games feel. The music from the films seems like the only elements actually used, with zero meaningful interaction with the characters (other than the annoying and deplorable Woody Woodpecker). It’s amazing how this doesn’t just fail as a game, but also as an advertisement, as it makes Universal Studios look like a bad place to visit. The game doesn’t even make it clear that it’s based on the Japan park, not the main one in Orlando.

Worst

Quote

The hopeless GCSE-level artwork on the Universal Studios box – just look at the dinosaur! should set alarm bells ringing straight away. But even if the packaging had consisted of nothing more than a sheet of soiled toilet paper, it still wouldn’t have conveyed the sheer, mind-blowing rubbishness of the game inside.

Mark Green, NGC Magazine #67

Remake or remaster?

This idea would be interesting if it were done well, it could even be an interactive website.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure on Nintendo GameCube, but you can experience Nintendo at Universal Studios.

[Dcubed]

5 hours ago, Cube said:

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure on Nintendo GameCube, but you can experience Nintendo at Universal Studios.

LMAO! The connection runs deep! 

[Cube]

Animal Crossing

Welcome to Animal Crossing, where something happens every day-whether you’re here or not.

• JP release: 14th December 2001
• NA release: 16th September 2002
• AU release: 17th October 2003
• EU release: 24th September 2004
• Developer: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• NGC Magazine Score: 90%
• Mods Used: Widescreen Code

 

Animal Crossing was a game born from the 64DD. The extra space for saving games led to the idea of a game that not only grows with the player, but also grows on its own, which led to a clock being implemented into the 64DD. As development of the 64DD struggled, many features were cut for the initial Japan-only N64 release.

There are a few different versions of Animal Crossing. For the original Japanese release, many of the original plans were implemented into the game, such as the museum and design shop, with the North American release adding some extra features, such as e-Reader support. The Japanese then had another release with massively increased e-Reader support (and some other changes), before finally Australia (and a year later, Europe) finally got the game, based on the North American version. While the E+ version does have an English patch, I opted for the PAL version due to understanding the holidays more and a sensible date format.

 

 

Animal Crossing isn’t a game you play in a single setting, but designed more for short visits multiple times a week over a long period of time – which is how I’m playing the game to get a close to authentic experience – I’ll be refraining with messing with the clock, which the game can sometimes tell you off for doing.

Interactions

 

As you spend time on your island, you’ll meet other residents that you can talk to. These are brief conversations, and you’ll sometimes be asked stuff. One surprising thing is how mean some of the villagers can be, although they’ll likely be nice again the following day. One problem I had was that you can often get the same conversations from multiple villagers on the same day – they’re often lumped into personality types, which will act in the same way.

 

 

You can also type out letters to send to the residents, where they’ll respond. No matter what, I couldn’t get a single response other than “I can’t understand you”, no matter how simple I made my letters. It just doesn’t seem to work at all.

Still, it’s nice talking to them all each day, and new residents will move into your village over time.

Events

 

Events are a large part of Animal Crossing. On certain days, like Halloween or Christmas, there will be an in-game event. It’s wonderful being able to attend these events, but if you’re busy in real life, you either have to miss it completely or mess with the clock on your system.

While this goes against the spirit of the game, it really is necessary to get the full enjoyment if you can only play it later on at night, as you’ll find many things closed and your residents asleep. The real time aspect of Animal Crossing is both a blessing and a curse, but I believe a middle ground could be found as the game could cater to the user more.

Collecting

 

There are lots of bugs, fish and fossils to find in your village, some of which only appear at certain times of the year. Your village has a museum that you can donate one of each animal or item to, and exploring the museum lets you read up more on each object. It’s something that’s great to work towards as the years go by.

 

 

There’s also a lot of furniture to collect. A few items will be available from Nook’s shop each day, while sometimes you’ll receive some as gifts from animals or events. Sometimes, you’ll talk to an animal and they’ll force you to give up or trade your new item, which can be frustrating.

Your furniture can be placed in your home, which you can pay to make bigger or add more rooms, but there’s only limited space for your furniture. Luckily, once you have an item once, you can then re-order it from the catalogue at Nok’s shop and be sent it in the post.

Animal Island

 

If you have a Game Boy Advance connected, you can visit a little tropical island. Here you can find some unique fruit and a special villager. There’s not a massive amount of stuff to do while there, but when you leave, you can transfer the island to a Game Boy Advance. Here, you can get them to eat fruit and leave items behind for them to use – they like fishing, for example. Improving their mood will make them leave bells and other surprises.

One slight issue with the GBA was its lack of storage, which meant that all data is lost when you turn it off. It does have a sleep mode to help conserve battery, although that probably doesn’t help if you notice your GBA is low on battery and changing them turns it off. Still, it’s a nice little feature.

NES games

 

As you play the game, you’ll sometimes discover NES consoles that come with a game. Put these in your house and you’ll be able to play them – as in properly play the full, original games. You can even transfer the games to a Game Boy Advance to take with you (until you turn the power off). Sometimes these are in the shop, some had to be scanned via eReader, one can only be found on the island and one can only be obtained by cheating (or using an unreleased password in the Japanese version).

There was also a NES without a game which held an interesting secret that wasn’t uncovered until much later. This special NES can load any properly formatted NES ROM file from the memory card. People found references to this being done in the N64 version (with special Controller Paks with Ice Climber being in a competition), but it was never officially used for the GameCube version.

The NES game functionality unfortunately never returned in later games due to services like the Virtual Console.

Overall

Animal Crossing is a rather wonderful experience. It’s calm and relaxing and something nice to visit occasionally. There are some annoying aspects, as you need to decide if you’re going to miss events or mess with the game. Animal Crossing can also feel depressing to come back to if you leave the game for a while, as animals will leave and weeds will cover your village the next time you return.

But these aspects are what makes the game feel alive, so you make do for the good moments.

Great

Quote

It’s utterly charming and refreshingly gentle – the point is not to get to the next level or to open up unlockable content and claim high scores. It’s about making your own entertainment, literally playing the game how you want to play it, with pleasure derived from the situations you create. Under the right conditions (ie, with friends who’ll play it too) it’s hugely absorbing and laugh-out-loud fun; indeed, the reason we’ve enjoyed it so much is that it’s easy for anyone in the office to simply boot up the game and chop gown Geraint’s trees, for example, or leave threatening messages.

Jes Bickham, NGC Magazine #98

Remake or remaster?

It would be nice for a version with the e+ content added into the main game, but I don’t think Nintendo will ever re-release an Animal Crossing game.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Animal Crossing.

[BowserBasher]

Animal Crossing. I have so many fond memories of that game and the joys it bought.

It was the first time I ever bought an import copy of a game along with the FreeLoader to play it. I think the game arrived like 3 days before the FreeLaoder so I had to wait.

I made so many friends from a site that I found when I started playing the game, ACC, Animal Crossing Community. Still talk to some today, and I was there like 20 years ago when the game came out.

 

There were two thing I did that I never saw anywhere else on the internet. One, and remember this was before saving photos directly was a thing, I took a photo of every inch of the map and stitched them all together to form (what may be) the only full town photo ever.

https://www.bowserbasher.com/images/ACImages/GCFullTownImages/ACTheShireFull.jpg

The second was the fabled "huge shadow" in the ocean when you went to the GBA island. I remember hearing about it and seeing people use codes to walk on the water to see it, but I had never seen an actual image of the thing, especially in unedited gameplay. I was playing one day, went over to the island and suddenly saw it. Luckily my camera was right by me and I snapped the only known photo (that I know of).

https://www.bowserbasher.com/images/ACImages/GCImages/ACGiantShadow.jpg

 

Sorry for the links instead of images, I think my site is so out of date that things just aren't working right. I last updated it like 10 years ago. Things work, it's just the way I did my image gallery seems to be broken.