Animal Crossing (universe)

File:AnimalCrossingSymbol.png

The Animal Crossing universe refers to the Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that hail from the popular Animal Crossing series of colorful life-simulation games for recent Nintendo systems. The series received limited representation in the Smash Bros. games up until the inclusion of the main, male villager as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Franchise description

April 2001 saw the Japan-exclusive release of a game called Animal Forest (どうぶつの森, Dōbutsu no Mori), a life-simulation title for the Nintendo 64 that received an enhanced remake for the Nintendo Gamecube eight months later. Nintendo of America decided to localize this version of the game for release in the United States, and during the immense translation process many more new features were added, resulting in the final product, Animal Crossing, released on September 2002. The game, which had more-or-less already been "promoted to" western audiences via cameo appearances from some of its characters in 2001's Super Smash Bros. Melee, was a breakout hit and received high marks for its quirky and charming approach to the social simulation genre, and Nintendo of Japan was impressed enough with NOA's version that it was translated back and released for essentially the third time in that country.

Animal Crossing was established as one of Nintendo's regular franchises following the GameCube release, and every sequel in the Animal Crossing series had since been released worldwide. From a Western perspective, the second game was Animal Crossing: Wild World for the Nintendo DS late 2005, and introduced an online play component. The third game, Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii in late 2008, added a city outside of the main town as a new area that could be visited. And the fourth and most recent game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS on June 2013, allows the player-character to become the mayor of the town and obtain new customization options for it. The franchise had also spawned an anime film that was released only in Japan, and Animal Crossing properties steadily grew in representation in the Super Smash Bros. games until a character representing a typical Animal Crossing player-character was included as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. 4 as "Villager".

In a given Animal Crossing game, the player's avatar, a human boy or girl, moves into a randomly-generated village in a forest that is populated by anthropomorphic, talking animals that are all roughly his or her size (despite the large range of animal species the villagers encompass). Once the avatar is settled into their living quarters, they may interact with and perform errands for the amiable residents on a day-to-day basis, amassing wealth (in the form of a type of currency called "bells") and a variety of decorative paraphernalia for their own house. The game is open-ended in that there are no objectives to complete and no way to "beat" the game per se, though one may pursue goals such as collecting all available types of bugs and fish in the game world. The only "long term" goal for players to meet in order to access an unrestricted play experience is that they must amass enough wealth to regularly pay off their house's mortgage whenever the town shopkeeper and real-estate agent, Tom Nook the tanuki, upgrades the floor space of their house. Each game released in the U.S. tracks the real-world passage of time through the platform's internal calendar and affects the status of the player's village appropriately even when that village is not being played, and a player's avatar is able to visit the village of another player's copy of the game.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

The Animal Crossing franchise was anonymously introduced to Western gamers through Super Smash Bros. Melee, a full year before Animal Crossing's actual release, but not as an established universe.

Full Trophy List

The only appearances of the franchise in the fighting game are as three collectible trophies, each depicting one of Animal Crossing's staple characters.

• K.K. Slider
• Tom Nook
• Mr. Resetti

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Animal Crossing is recognized as its own universe by Super Smash Bros. Brawl. There are no playable characters to hail from it.

Stage

• 
  Smashville: This stage is essentially a woodland town in the style of towns generated by Animal Crossing games in general and given a name undoubtedly appropriate to a Smash Bros. game. It takes place on a simply-laid-out pair of platforms that may be floating around above town, with several characters standing and walking around in the background of the lower platform. In homage to the Animal Crossing tradition of environmental effects based on time of the day, the stage will display its background based on the time of the day it is when a match is fought on it, such as battles at night looking dark. If the stage is played at 8:00 Saturday night, a concert-style performance by K.K. Slider will be playing in the background while the brawl is on.

Item

• Pitfall: In all Animal Crossing games to date (Called Pitfall Seed in Animal Crossing: Wild World), villagers would occasionally dig a trap called the Pitfall with a shovel. If they took the Pitfall and buried it, neighbors that walked over that part of the ground would fall into a hole and be temporarily trapped. This item has the same effect in Brawl, and translates to the Smash Bros. universe as a combination of Donkey Kong's Headbutt attack and the Motion-sensor Bomb from Melee.

Assist Trophy

• Mr. Resetti: Seems to be the Assist Trophy parallel to the Poké Ball's Goldeen. He lectures the players endlessly, much like his role in the Animal Crossing series, but otherwise has no effect on the battle whatsoever (aside from blowing up occasionally and covering about half the screen).

Music

• Title (Animal Crossing) - A complete redoing of the title screen music from the DS title Animal Crossing: Wild World. It is the theme of the Smashville stage.
• Go K.K. Rider! - A rocking remix of the song of the same name from both Animal Crossing titles. It is used on the Smashville stage.
• 2:00 a.m. - A remix of the song of the same name from the original Animal Crossing. It is used on the Smashville stage.
• Town Hall and Tom Nook's Store - A medley of both the Town Hall background music as well as the music that plays in any of the variations of Tom Nook's store, both from both Animal Crossing titles. It is used on the Smashville stage.
• The Roost - A soothing remix of the music track heard in The Roost in Animal Crossing: Wild World. It is used on the Smashville stage.
• K.K. Cruisin' - One of K.K. Slider's songs taken directly from the Animal Crossing games, it only plays during one of his Saturday night concerts on the Smashville stage.
• K.K. Condor - One of K.K. Slider's songs taken directly from the Animal Crossing games, it only plays during one of his Saturday night concerts on the Smashville stage.
• K.K. Western - One of K.K. Slider's songs taken directly from the Animal Crossing games, it only plays during one of his Saturday night concerts on the Smashville stage.
• K.K. Gumbo - One of K.K. Slider's songs taken directly from the Animal Crossing games, it only plays during one of his Saturday night concerts on the Smashville stage.
• Rockin' K.K. - One of K.K. Slider's songs taken directly from the Animal Crossing games, it only plays during one of his Saturday night concerts on the Smashville stage.
• DJ K.K. - One of K.K. Slider's songs taken directly from the Animal Crossing games, it only plays during one of his Saturday night concerts on the Smashville stage.

Trophies

• Animal Crossing Boy
• Sable & Mabel
• Tom Nook
• Tortimer
• Blathers & Celeste
• Pelly & Phyllis
• Pascal
• Brewster
• Dr. Shrunk
• Katrina
• Blanca
• Copper & Booker
• Joan
• Saharah
• K.K. Slider
• Crazy Redd
• Tommy & Timmy Nook
• Katie & Kaitlin
• Wendell
• Kapp'n
• Gulliver
• Mr. Resetti (Feet)
• Pitfall
• Mr. Resetti

Stickers

• K.K. Slider
• Dr. Shrunk
• Boy
• Girl
• Wendell
• Crazy Redd
• Saharah
• Tom Nook
• Blathers
• Brewster
• Celeste
• Copper
• Gracie
• Harriet
• Katrina
• Lyle
• Mabel
• Mr. Resetti
• Pete
• Pascal
• Pelly
• Rosie
• Rover
• Sable
• Tortimer
• Cornimer
• Phyllis
• Joan

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Villager in SSB4.

Characters

• Villager: The male playable character from Animal Crossing, Villager, appears as a playable character in the upcoming game, Super Smash Bros. 4, taking his design from the cover of City Folk.

Stages

• Unnamed City Folk Stage: An unnamed stage, similar to Smashville, appears in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Two variants have been seen, one featuring a city background, the other showing a village. This course's background looks a bit like Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The two also have different numbers of platforms. It is yet to be confirmed if they are the same stage as each other.
• Unnamed New Leaf Stage: An unnamed stage that appears in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS. It seems to be based off of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Kapp'n is confirmed to appear on this stage.

Music

While there has been no confirmation of which music tracks will appear in the game, both the E3 2013 trailer and the Developers' Direct trailer feature the main theme from the Nintendo GameCube's Animal Crossing.

Games with elements in or from the Super Smash Bros. series

Animal Crossing

• Smashville is a stage based on the villages of the Animal Crossing series.
• Mr. Resetti appears as a Assist Trophy in Brawl.

Animal Crossing: Wild World

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there is an Animal Crossing stage titled Smashville, that seems to draw heavily from Wild World as opposed to the original game. The stage is simple, its biggest gimmick likely being how the stage changes depending on the time of day. Similar to both Animal Crossing and Wild World, K.K. Slider, also known as Totakeke, will appear on the stage at 8:00 PM on Saturdays for four hours.

Animal Crossing: City Folk and Animal Crossing: New Leaf

The city in the background of an Animal Crossing stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U draws inspiration from City Folk, which was the only Animal Crossing game to feature The City. While the variant of the stage that floats over a village is less distinctly based on any Animal Crossing game, it still uses a bus stop from City Folk in the background. Also the Village looks a lot like how it looks in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS has a stage based on New Leaf as well.

External Links

• Nookipedia