Animal Crossing

1001 Video Games

The GameCube version of Animal Crossing appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Don Resetti

If the player resets a certain number of times, Mr Resetti's older brother Don Resetti will appear to lecture the player instead of Mr Resetti. This only happens once.

Fake Reset

If the player resets a certain number of times, Mr Resetti will pretend to delete their town in an attempt to scare them.

K.K. Slider's name

Among the ensemble of animals that populate Animal Crossing there is a dog who welcomes the player on their first play session and gives guitar concerts every Saturday night by the Train Station. The Dalmatian is called Totakeke (or K.K. Slider), an obvious pun to Kasumi Totaka, the game's sound director.

Loading time

With its small size due to being a slight enhancement on the N64 original, Animal Crossing completely loads into memory soon after you start the system. Thus the only load time in the game is when using the memory card or linking with the Game Boy Advance. Once loaded, the game can even be fully played if you remove the disc from the system.

Promotional copy

In early August 2002 Nintendo ran a contest where teams of two told in 50 words or less why they should get free copies of the game. 125 teams of these so-called Animal Crossing Pioneers got copies a month earlier than the general release. This helped to create a big buzz about the game on the Internet, and is also where the "Promotional Copy" disc scan on this site came from.

Tom Nook

The name of your first employer on Animal Crossing, a raccoon named Tom Nook, is a pun on the Japanese word for raccoon, "tanuuki". Fans of Super Mario Bros. 3 might remember the Tanooki suit that resembled a raccoon. Tom Nook clearly owns all the supply lines in town. He owns the only general goods store, controls all real estate, and is the only one who gives out loans. This has led many gamers to dub him as somewhat of a slum lord and a loan shark.

Awards

• GameSpy
  • 2002 – Should Have Been Online Award (GameCube)
• The Strong National Museum of Play
  • 2021 – Introduced into the World Video Game Hall of Fame

Info also contributed by JPaterson, ~~, Joshua J. Slone, Jiguryo, Matt Neuteboom and Thomas Dowding.