Raccoon
Fox Brigade
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I've spent much of the past month being a miserable bastard online, so for a slight change of pace I thought I'd put together this thread in anticipation of the upcoming Nintendo Direct.
I imagine that many of you are aware of the fact that Animal Crossing for the GameCube is actually a port of an N64 game, but personally I didn't understand the full lineage until pretty recently. Dōbutsu no Mori was launched on the N64 in Japan in April of 2001, and it was very impressive for its hardware. In some ways you could think of it as the The Last of Us of the N64. This version was actually far more limited than I realized compared to the later GameCube versions. Here is a non-comprehensive list of things it was missing:
Just eight months later Japan saw Dōbutsu no Mori+ for the GameCube, featuring all of the above. After these two releases, the series finally came to the United States as Animal Crossing in September 2002. I had always heard that EAD was so impressed by the thorough work done in the localization (and the e-Reader functionality) that they re-localized it with their own enhancements as Dōbutsu no Mori e+, and had left it at that. The only thing I knew about this version was that if players struck the door of Nook's shop three times after hours, he'd begrudgingly let you in to buy tools or sell items for less favorable rates.
Somehow my curiosity never led me to the wild list of additions made to the game with this version until my recent hopes for a new version of the game on Nintendo Switch. In addition to the above, e+ featured:
This isn't all, though. There was one huge addition that I am baffled I was never aware of: town decorations. Players can pay Tom Nook to build decorative structures in a given acre, taking the place of one of the villager home lots.
If you had told me these screenshots were from a ROM hack, I would've believed you. That's just a downport of New Leaf! I feel that I've made my fascination with e+ clear, so I'd like to take just a moment more to describe what I see as the advantages of "Animal Crossing e++," a further enhanced HD remake for global release.
1. It would garner interest from western fans unfamiliar with this iteration.
2. Fans nostalgic for any iteration of this first generation would be interested.
3. Animal Crossing as an IP would see activity in between New Horizons and whatever comes next.
4. However, the game would not compete with New Horizons due to its significant differences in style and gameplay.
5. Finally, the smaller scope of the overworld could make either graphical performance or effects even more impressive than in New Horizons.
To that last point, I also relatively recently saw in-development screenshots of New Horizons that showed a 3D effect for the grass. I imagine this was removed for performance reasons, as even enough flowers can hurt the final game's framerate, but the atmosphere of a simpler game would benefit greatly from it. Imagine the wind blowing through the trees, flowers, and grass...
So, what did you think? Would you be as excited as I would? If not, would you consider giving this strange piece of history a shot? I'd love to hear your comments below, even if they're kind of mean. As is the spirit of the first gen of Animal Crossing!
To leave off, here's the special rendition of the classic title theme in Dōbutsu no Mori e+.
I imagine that many of you are aware of the fact that Animal Crossing for the GameCube is actually a port of an N64 game, but personally I didn't understand the full lineage until pretty recently. Dōbutsu no Mori was launched on the N64 in Japan in April of 2001, and it was very impressive for its hardware. In some ways you could think of it as the The Last of Us of the N64. This version was actually far more limited than I realized compared to the later GameCube versions. Here is a non-comprehensive list of things it was missing:
- the Able Sisters (yes, really)
- the Museum (yes, really!)
- Tortimer
- Kapp'n and the Island
- Coconuts (lol)
Just eight months later Japan saw Dōbutsu no Mori+ for the GameCube, featuring all of the above. After these two releases, the series finally came to the United States as Animal Crossing in September 2002. I had always heard that EAD was so impressed by the thorough work done in the localization (and the e-Reader functionality) that they re-localized it with their own enhancements as Dōbutsu no Mori e+, and had left it at that. The only thing I knew about this version was that if players struck the door of Nook's shop three times after hours, he'd begrudgingly let you in to buy tools or sell items for less favorable rates.
Somehow my curiosity never led me to the wild list of additions made to the game with this version until my recent hopes for a new version of the game on Nintendo Switch. In addition to the above, e+ featured:
- K.K. Slider giving a performance for players' birthdays
- the ability to buy a private island after fully upgrading one's house
- the Reset Monitoring Center
- more fish, bugs, and K.K. songs
- the Jacob's Ladder flower appearing in perfect towns
- taking screenshots and transferring them to an SD card (yes, really)
- eavesdropping on conversations between villagers
This isn't all, though. There was one huge addition that I am baffled I was never aware of: town decorations. Players can pay Tom Nook to build decorative structures in a given acre, taking the place of one of the villager home lots.
If you had told me these screenshots were from a ROM hack, I would've believed you. That's just a downport of New Leaf! I feel that I've made my fascination with e+ clear, so I'd like to take just a moment more to describe what I see as the advantages of "Animal Crossing e++," a further enhanced HD remake for global release.
1. It would garner interest from western fans unfamiliar with this iteration.
2. Fans nostalgic for any iteration of this first generation would be interested.
3. Animal Crossing as an IP would see activity in between New Horizons and whatever comes next.
4. However, the game would not compete with New Horizons due to its significant differences in style and gameplay.
5. Finally, the smaller scope of the overworld could make either graphical performance or effects even more impressive than in New Horizons.
To that last point, I also relatively recently saw in-development screenshots of New Horizons that showed a 3D effect for the grass. I imagine this was removed for performance reasons, as even enough flowers can hurt the final game's framerate, but the atmosphere of a simpler game would benefit greatly from it. Imagine the wind blowing through the trees, flowers, and grass...
So, what did you think? Would you be as excited as I would? If not, would you consider giving this strange piece of history a shot? I'd love to hear your comments below, even if they're kind of mean. As is the spirit of the first gen of Animal Crossing!
To leave off, here's the special rendition of the classic title theme in Dōbutsu no Mori e+.
