Animal Crossing series

The Animal Crossing logo used outside of Japan

The Animal Crossing (Japanese: どうぶつの森 Dōbutsu no Mori) is a series of games developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Gamecube in 2001. Released initially as Animal Forest for the Nintendo 64, Animal Crossing has since expanded to include an animated film, a manga series, and several applications for the Nintendo DSi.

The series focuses on the player living their own virtual life in a village populated with anthropomorphic animals. The series also take place in real time, such as the current time and year.

History

Animal Crossing began as Animal Forest, a video game initially planned for the Nintendo 64DD, later on moving to the Nintendo 64 due to the delays of the Nintendo 64DD. Takashi Tezuka, the Director for Animal Forest, thought Animal Forest to be a a communication-type game. Katsuya Eguchi, the Producer for Animal Forest, wanted to create an easy game that people of all ages can play. He has also stated that he wanted to have a game that he and his family can play together whether or not he is there to be with the family.

Afterwards, the first game, Animal Forest was released on April 14, 2001 in Japan. Since the Nintendo 64 was near its end and with the game's success, the game was later ported as Animal Forest+ onto the Nintendo GameCube and released on December 14, 2001 in Japan. On the first week, Animal Forest+ had over 90,000 copies sold. Animal Forest+ had new material included onto the game such as the use of GameCube's internal clock, for the game take place in real time. Eventually, an American version of Animal Forest+, named Animal Crossing. It was released on September 15, 2002 in North America. Animal Crossing had much more material translated and added than Animal Forest+, it had taken over six months to complete it. Impressed by this translation, Nintendo of Japan decides to release this game. Animal Forest e+, was released on June 27, 2003 in Japan, this game sold over 90,000 copies.

With the success of the series, a sequel was made onto the Nintendo DS. Animal Crossing: Wild World was released on November 23, 2005 in Japan. The game had sold over 325,460 copies in its first week. Wild World was later released in North America on December 5, 2005. The third installment of Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing: City Folk, was released in Japan on November 20, 2008 and November 26, 2008 in North America for the Wii. Recently announced, the fourth installment of the series has been announced for the Nintendo 3DS.

Games

The Animal Crossing series consists of 3 games, most that are remade with new material. What follows is a list of Animal Crossing games by their release date:

style="border-top-left-radius: 15px; background:#Template:Nintendo red light;" | Game	style="background:#Template:Nintendo red light;" | JP release	style="border-top-right-radius: 15px; background:#Template:Nintendo red light;" | NA release
Animal Forest	2001	N/A
Animal Forest+	2001	N/A
Animal Crossing	N/A	2001
Animal Forest e+	2003	N/A
Animal Crossing: Wild World	2005	2005
Animal Crossing: City Folk	2008	2008
Animal Crossing (3DS)	TBA	TBA

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