While what was released on the 64DD was a failure, the whole venture did end up resulting in a massive success story for Nintendo: the Animal Crossing franchise. The game was inspired by what the 64DD hardware could do, and was probably why some features (such as the clock) ended up being added to the GameCube. When the 64DD failed, the game was scaled back to release on a regular cartridge (with its own internal clock), and only released in Japan. It was originally intended to be a dungeon crawler with the social aspect being in choosing a part, but the focus became on the social aspect, which probably worked out for the better in the long run.

While there is an English patch for the game, it’s still work in progress and crashes a lot, often getting to a state of having to delete saves and start again. As the game ended up releasing on GameCube, I just messed around a bit in this version.

Animal Forest is a relaxing game where you move into a small village, and get given a house. In order to pay it off, you have to do errands for Tom Nook, the owner of the only shop in the town, even if you only need to work when you want to (although it’s the only way to upgrade your house). Outside of this, you can chat to all the villagers, make friends, collect insects, fish, paintings, and fossils, and enjoy events that happen on certain days. You can even write letters to the other animals in the village, or other players using the same cartridge.

One thing that didn’t make it to the N64 version is the museum, which means the collection aspect in this version isn’t quite as compulsive, as you have no way of recording what you have or haven’t collected before. This (along with the Able Sisters design shop) were added to the GameCube version, and both are such a vital part of the game that they feel like they should have been there from the start. One interesting feature that did make it into the N64 version was the ability to play some NES/Famicom games by collecting coloured consoles in-game, although the library was expanded for the GameCube.

The Animal Crossing series is a wonderful and unique kind of game, although the N64 version isn’t much more than a curiosity, as compromises had to be made, and the original intention was later brought to the GameCube, which I will look at in a lot more detail.

Fun

Despite Animal Forest’s undoubted quality, unless you can read Japanese pretty well, you won’t be able to visit Shigsy’s world as anything other than a simple tourist. You can look, you can play, but you’ll never be able to understand what’s going on. And that’s a shame, because everything that we’ve seen so far suggests that this is yet another example of just why Mr Miyamoto is held in such high regard.

Geraint Evans, N64 Magazine #56. Review Score: 80%

[Note: Takashi Tezuka, Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami are the main producers and directors behind Animal Forest]

Remake or remaster?

The game got its full potential on GameCube. Although it would be nice for it to get a re-release, as later games focus a lot more on online and aren’t as nice to return to.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to play Animal Forest.