Animal Forest - History

History

The game was originally released as Dōbutsu no Mori on the Nintendo 64 in Japan in April 2001. Dōbutsu no Mori+, the Nintendo GameCube version of Dōbutsu no Mori, was released on December 14, 2001, eight months after the original game. This version contains extra features that had to be left out in the Nintendo 64 version, and also uses the GameCube's built-in clock to keep track of the date and time. The Nintendo 64 version uses a clock inside the game cartridge. With the use of the GameCube's clock, the passing of time affects the game, even between play sessions. This led to the game's slogan, "the real life game that's playing, even when you're not." Dōbutsu no Mori+ cost 7,140 yen and sold 92,568 copies during its first week of sale in Japan.

When Nintendo decided to port Dōbutsu no Mori to the Nintendo GameCube, the American version, Animal Crossing, had much more text than the Japanese version, Dōbutsu no Mori+, in part because of the immense translation that Nintendo undertook when translating Dōbutsu no Mori from Japanese to English. Not only did thousands of lines of text have to be translated, but translators Nate Bihldorff and Rich Amtower had to create new holidays and items. Nintendo Japan was so impressed with the results of the translation done by Nintendo of America's Treehouse division that they translated NOA's version back into Japanese and released it as Dōbutsu no Mori e+. Dōbutsu no Mori e+ was released in Japan on June 27, 2003, and sold 91,658 copies during its first week of sale.