[Hi! Diamond here with a quick programming note: By the time this post goes live I'll be in the US for a 10-day visit which will include the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee. That means I won't have anything to share with you on Sunday, April 26, but we will record a monthly community episode and I'll get it to you as soon as I can. See you soon, be it in Milwaukee or here on Patreon]
April 14, 2001: Because \"Furry Forest\" was too on the nose
by Diamond Feit
Having grown up in the crosshairs of marketing departments my entire life, I find myself weary whenever the general advertising lexicon latched onto any one word or phrase. In my early years, everything made of plastic was hailed as Space-Age or somehow linked to NASA scientists. As national confidence in exploring the stars declined, the promise of the internet grew. Suddenly we all needed to prepare ourselves for Cyberspace or the Information Superhighway, words I now use ironically but which carried much weight in the 1990s, I assure you.
Of course, logging on meant exposure to even more commercials as pop-up ads and spam quickly became both traffic-driving tools and villains which only the latest software could eradicate. Pre-millenium hype turned to panic when we learned about the Y2K problem; now all devices needed stickers reassuring us that they would survive past December 31st, 1999.
These days trends come and go faster than any one human could possibly track, allowing me some comfort as I let important-sounding terms soar over my head without feeling any need to look them up. I am 30 or 40 years old at this point and you cannot make me learn about the blockchain, I refuse!
However, since I am perpetually plugged into video game news and receive many emails each day about upcoming releases, I have noticed one perfectly innocent word appear with such frequency in PR-speak that I now view it as a red flag. I'm teetering into Andy Rooney territory at this point so I'll just lean into it: Why is every game Cozy now? Who made this decision? Can we find out where they live?
One possible culprit in the Cozification of video games made its debut 25 years ago in Japan this week, although the rest of the world wouldn't hear about it for some time. Nintendo christened it as D\u014dbutsu no Mori\u2014meaning \"Forest of Animals\"\u2014before eventually rebranding an overseas version as Animal Crossing.
Pressing start on the Animal Crossing title screen for the first time brings players face-to-face with K.K. Slider, a chill dog sitting under a spotlight with a guitar in his lap. Slider doesn't welcome you to the game so much as he opines about the perks and challenges of moving out and living alone. \"You can do what you want, when you want, where you want,\" he says, equating it to \"being free\" while acknowledging it \"can be a real drag, too.\"
Having said his piece, Slider asks you if you're \"ready to hop on that train\" to begin the game. He's not speaking metaphorically; the very next scene has you riding the rails and chatting with a friendly cat en route to your new life. This conversation lets you establish your in-game identity as you introduce yourself to Rover and tell him where you're heading. Rover also asks you the date and time to make sure the game clock is correct, as Animal Crossing operates in real-time whether you're playing or not.
Once you step off the train and exit the station, you meet Animal Crossing's most infamous character. Originally a tanuki named Tanukichi in Japan, he's now known internationally as a raccoon named Tom Nook. Nook knows you thanks to a call from Rover and he's aware that you've arrived without establishing a residence in advance. As a general merchant he just so happens to have newly-built vacancies ready for tenants, offering you your choice of starter home.
This is the moment where Animal Crossing subtly transitions from fantasy to harsh economic reality: Nook wants way more money for this transaction than you have in your wallet. Luckily this anthropomorphic raccoon (dog) has more humanity than any actual landlord as he agrees to let you have the place so long as you agree to work off your debt in his employ.
What happens next in Animal Crossing is entirely up to you; Tom Nook can issue IOUs for eternity but collection agencies and eviction notices do not exist in this game. That said, unless you're content to live in a one-room shack without so much as a blanket to sleep on, you'll probably look for ways to earn some money to repay Nook and get back in the black.
Since you're the new kid on the block, you should also prioritize meeting your neighbors. Animal Crossing generates a unique village for each player, so the only way to find out who's who in town is to knock on some doors. Even though the available real estate only supports a maximum of 15 residents, the game draws from a pool of over 200 different critters when populating your surroundings\u2014all with their own distinct personalities and verbal quirks.
Nintendo classifies Animal Crossing as a Communication Game, a genre that might not make sense on paper but an apt description none the less. You've got your pick of activities which will pass the time and yield financial rewards, but the real entertainment comes from getting to know your fellow citizens. Forget about the townsfolk you encounter in RPGs who repeat one phrase ad nauseum; Animal Crossing villagers utilize the internal clock and calendar to vary their responses based on past conversations, time of day, and even seasonal events.
Besides talking with owls or penguins, your communications can reach other humans as well. Animal Crossing only supports a single player at any given moment but up to four people may cohabitate in one cartridge. Posting on a public message board in the village center or writing a letter allows players to keep in touch. Swapping memory cards lets you visit a friend's village, offering you an opportunity to sample their local flora and fauna or to chop down all their trees.
A playthrough of Animal Crossing has no functional endpoint. Successfully paying off Tom Nook only unlocks potential housing upgrades, allowing you to restart the debt cycle again and again. You'll spend hours scavenging for fruit, collecting bugs, and catching fish, but it's the connections you build with those around you that will last the longest. Frankly, the older I get, the more I realize how this lesson is just as true in real life as it is inside any video game.
We know Animal Crossing began as a disk-based game for the 64DD add-on before shifting to the cartridge format when Nintendo's proposed peripheral met with delay after delay. In fact, when Animal Crossing finally launched in Japan in April 2001\u2014extremely late in the N64's run\u2014the 64DD had already been discontinued. Given the importance of saving and sharing Animal Crossing data, Nintendo shipped a deluxe package which bundled the cartridge with a memory card; this edition included a digital letter from supervisor Shigeru Miyamoto encouraging players to enjoy the game with their family and friends.
Audiences must have heeded his advice, for Animal Crossing sold well enough to justify a port later that same year to the GameCube. Nintendo even operated a Data Moving Service in Japan so N64 players could migrate their virtual village to the new D\u014dbutsu no Mori+. This enhanced version served as the basis of the English-language Animal Crossing in 2002, leaving the N64 original a Japanese exclusive.
Nintendo veteran Takashi Tezuka produced Animal Crossing with Hisashi Nogami and Katsuya Eguchi sharing directorial duties. All three men have worked on various projects large and small in their careers, but it is Eguchi who is most closely associated with Animal Crossing's design. That's because Nogami and Tezuka both have roots in the Kansai area close to Nintendo HQ, but Eguchi grew up in Chiba near Tokyo. His decision to work for Nintendo fresh out of college necessitated moving across the country far from his childhood home.
\"Chiba is east of Tokyo and quite a distance from Kyoto, and when I moved there I left my family and friends behind,\" Eguchi told Edge Magazine in 2008. \"I realized that being close to them\u2014being able to spend time with them, talk to them, play with them\u2014was such a great, important thing. I wondered for a long time if there would be a way to recreate that feeling, and that was the impetus behind the original Animal Crossing.\u201d
Animal Crossing happened to arrive as 80s kids raised on 8-bit games were either heading off to or graduating from college. I had moved out on my own just a few years earlier, a major change regardless of the distance traveled. Even with my parents nearby, waking up in a studio apartment full of game consoles and barely any food felt far removed from the life I once knew. I completely understood what K.K. Slider meant when he extolled the highs and lamented the lows of residential independence.
Like Pok\u00e9mon before it, Animal Crossing strikes me as fundamentally Japanese in its conception. The culture surrounding how people communicate in this country operates according to strict rules which incorporates things like the changing of the seasons. The time of year also impacts the clothes people wear, the food they eat, and their personal decor.
Nintendo of America must have gone to great lengths in order to reshape Animal Crossing's many peculiar elements into something Americans could comprehend. The small clay figurine next to your in-game house is a great example: Even a small Japanese child would recognize a haniwa at a glance, but in English it's a robotic personal assistant called a Gyroid.
Animal Crossing came to the United States when open-world crime simulators and multiplayer shooters were all the rage, yet its personal stakes and laid-back charms resonated with Americans just as it did in Japan. Critics loved it, millions bought a copy, and in 2021 The Strong Museum of Play inducted Animal Crossing into their World Video Game Hall of Fame.\u00a0
If Nintendo built a Mount Rushmore to celebrate their most popular franchises, Animal Crossing would deserve a space alongside Mario and Zelda. Each new iteration offers more villagers to meet, more in-game activities to enjoy, and more ways to hang out with real friends within the friendly confines of its candy-colored world. The handheld versions have proven especially irresistible as they allow you to check in on your town whenever you have a spare moment during the day.
While I maintain that far too many games brand themselves as Cozy nowadays, that's not a strike against Animal Crossing. If anything the opposite is true: An environment where everyone can afford a home because kindness matters more than money has never sounded more appealing.
Animal Crossing is also the only software that could possibly unite all the Switch players in my household given its ease of use and asynchronous nature. My wife and children spend the majority of their waking hours locked into various conflicting commitments. We all enjoy playing games but rarely the same game, and certainly not at the same time. One Animal Crossing village, however, could easily serve as a conversational hub and a cooperative bonding experience.
Don't look now, but I think I talked myself into buying another copy of Animal Crossing. Just when I thought I was out, Nook pulls me back in.
Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit has written professionally since 2009 and contributed to Retronauts since 2018. Look up feitclub on social media or visit Diamond's lofi website. All the music in the audio version of this column comes straight from the original game's soundtrack except for that last song :)
", "contentSnippet": "[Hi! Diamond here with a quick programming note: By the time this post goes live I'll be in the US for a 10-day visit which will include the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee. That means I won't have anything to share with you on Sunday, April 26, but we will record a monthly community episode and I'll get it to you as soon as I can. See you soon, be it in Milwaukee or here on Patreon]\nApril 14, 2001: Because \"Furry Forest\" was too on the nose\nby Diamond Feit\nHaving grown up in the crosshairs of marketing departments my entire life, I find myself weary whenever the general advertising lexicon latched onto any one word or phrase. In my early years, everything made of plastic was hailed as Space-Age or somehow linked to NASA scientists. As national confidence in exploring the stars declined, the promise of the internet grew. Suddenly we all needed to prepare ourselves for Cyberspace or the Information Superhighway, words I now use ironically but which carried much weight in the 1990s, I assure you.\nOf course, logging on meant exposure to even more commercials as pop-up ads and spam quickly became both traffic-driving tools and villains which only the latest software could eradicate. Pre-millenium hype turned to panic when we learned about the Y2K problem; now all devices needed stickers reassuring us that they would survive past December 31st, 1999.\nThese days trends come and go faster than any one human could possibly track, allowing me some comfort as I let important-sounding terms soar over my head without feeling any need to look them up. I am 30 or 40 years old at this point and you cannot make me learn about the blockchain, I refuse!\nHowever, since I am perpetually plugged into video game news and receive many emails each day about upcoming releases, I have noticed one perfectly innocent word appear with such frequency in PR-speak that I now view it as a red flag. I'm teetering into Andy Rooney territory at this point so I'll just lean into it: Why is every game Cozy now? Who made this decision? Can we find out where they live?\nOne possible culprit in the Cozification of video games made its debut 25 years ago in Japan this week, although the rest of the world wouldn't hear about it for some time. Nintendo christened it as D\u014dbutsu no Mori\u2014meaning \"Forest of Animals\"\u2014before eventually rebranding an overseas version as Animal Crossing.\nPressing start on the Animal Crossing title screen for the first time brings players face-to-face with K.K. Slider, a chill dog sitting under a spotlight with a guitar in his lap. Slider doesn't welcome you to the game so much as he opines about the perks and challenges of moving out and living alone. \"You can do what you want, when you want, where you want,\" he says, equating it to \"being free\" while acknowledging it \"can be a real drag, too.\"\nHaving said his piece, Slider asks you if you're \"ready to hop on that train\" to begin the game. He's not speaking metaphorically; the very next scene has you riding the rails and chatting with a friendly cat en route to your new life. This conversation lets you establish your in-game identity as you introduce yourself to Rover and tell him where you're heading. Rover also asks you the date and time to make sure the game clock is correct, as Animal Crossing operates in real-time whether you're playing or not.\nOnce you step off the train and exit the station, you meet Animal Crossing's most infamous character. Originally a tanuki named Tanukichi in Japan, he's now known internationally as a raccoon named Tom Nook. Nook knows you thanks to a call from Rover and he's aware that you've arrived without establishing a residence in advance. As a general merchant he just so happens to have newly-built vacancies ready for tenants, offering you your choice of starter home.\nThis is the moment where Animal Crossing subtly transitions from fantasy to harsh economic reality: Nook wants way more money for this transaction than you have in your wallet. Luckily this anthropomorphic raccoon (dog) has more humanity than any actual landlord as he agrees to let you have the place so long as you agree to work off your debt in his employ.\nWhat happens next in Animal Crossing is entirely up to you; Tom Nook can issue IOUs for eternity but collection agencies and eviction notices do not exist in this game. That said, unless you're content to live in a one-room shack without so much as a blanket to sleep on, you'll probably look for ways to earn some money to repay Nook and get back in the black.\nSince you're the new kid on the block, you should also prioritize meeting your neighbors. Animal Crossing generates a unique village for each player, so the only way to find out who's who in town is to knock on some doors. Even though the available real estate only supports a maximum of 15 residents, the game draws from a pool of over 200 different critters when populating your surroundings\u2014all with their own distinct personalities and verbal quirks.\nNintendo classifies Animal Crossing as a Communication Game, a genre that might not make sense on paper but an apt description none the less. You've got your pick of activities which will pass the time and yield financial rewards, but the real entertainment comes from getting to know your fellow citizens. Forget about the townsfolk you encounter in RPGs who repeat one phrase ad nauseum; Animal Crossing villagers utilize the internal clock and calendar to vary their responses based on past conversations, time of day, and even seasonal events.\nBesides talking with owls or penguins, your communications can reach other humans as well. Animal Crossing only supports a single player at any given moment but up to four people may cohabitate in one cartridge. Posting on a public message board in the village center or writing a letter allows players to keep in touch. Swapping memory cards lets you visit a friend's village, offering you an opportunity to sample their local flora and fauna or to chop down all their trees.\nA playthrough of Animal Crossing has no functional endpoint. Successfully paying off Tom Nook only unlocks potential housing upgrades, allowing you to restart the debt cycle again and again. You'll spend hours scavenging for fruit, collecting bugs, and catching fish, but it's the connections you build with those around you that will last the longest. Frankly, the older I get, the more I realize how this lesson is just as true in real life as it is inside any video game.\nWe know Animal Crossing began as a disk-based game for the 64DD add-on before shifting to the cartridge format when Nintendo's proposed peripheral met with delay after delay. In fact, when Animal Crossing finally launched in Japan in April 2001\u2014extremely late in the N64's run\u2014the 64DD had already been discontinued. Given the importance of saving and sharing Animal Crossing data, Nintendo shipped a deluxe package which bundled the cartridge with a memory card; this edition included a digital letter from supervisor Shigeru Miyamoto encouraging players to enjoy the game with their family and friends.\nAudiences must have heeded his advice, for Animal Crossing sold well enough to justify a port later that same year to the GameCube. Nintendo even operated a Data Moving Service in Japan so N64 players could migrate their virtual village to the new D\u014dbutsu no Mori+. This enhanced version served as the basis of the English-language Animal Crossing in 2002, leaving the N64 original a Japanese exclusive.\nNintendo veteran Takashi Tezuka produced Animal Crossing with Hisashi Nogami and Katsuya Eguchi sharing directorial duties. All three men have worked on various projects large and small in their careers, but it is Eguchi who is most closely associated with Animal Crossing's design. That's because Nogami and Tezuka both have roots in the Kansai area close to Nintendo HQ, but Eguchi grew up in Chiba near Tokyo. His decision to work for Nintendo fresh out of college necessitated moving across the country far from his childhood home.\n\"Chiba is east of Tokyo and quite a distance from Kyoto, and when I moved there I left my family and friends behind,\" Eguchi told Edge Magazine in 2008. \"I realized that being close to them\u2014being able to spend time with them, talk to them, play with them\u2014was such a great, important thing. I wondered for a long time if there would be a way to recreate that feeling, and that was the impetus behind the original Animal Crossing.\u201d\nAnimal Crossing happened to arrive as 80s kids raised on 8-bit games were either heading off to or graduating from college. I had moved out on my own just a few years earlier, a major change regardless of the distance traveled. Even with my parents nearby, waking up in a studio apartment full of game consoles and barely any food felt far removed from the life I once knew. I completely understood what K.K. Slider meant when he extolled the highs and lamented the lows of residential independence.\nLike Pok\u00e9mon before it, Animal Crossing strikes me as fundamentally Japanese in its conception. The culture surrounding how people communicate in this country operates according to strict rules which incorporates things like the changing of the seasons. The time of year also impacts the clothes people wear, the food they eat, and their personal decor.\nNintendo of America must have gone to great lengths in order to reshape Animal Crossing's many peculiar elements into something Americans could comprehend. The small clay figurine next to your in-game house is a great example: Even a small Japanese child would recognize a haniwa at a glance, but in English it's a robotic personal assistant called a Gyroid.\nAnimal Crossing came to the United States when open-world crime simulators and multiplayer shooters were all the rage, yet its personal stakes and laid-back charms resonated with Americans just as it did in Japan. Critics loved it, millions bought a copy, and in 2021 The Strong Museum of Play inducted Animal Crossing into their World Video Game Hall of Fame.\u00a0\nIf Nintendo built a Mount Rushmore to celebrate their most popular franchises, Animal Crossing would deserve a space alongside Mario and Zelda. Each new iteration offers more villagers to meet, more in-game activities to enjoy, and more ways to hang out with real friends within the friendly confines of its candy-colored world. The handheld versions have proven especially irresistible as they allow you to check in on your town whenever you have a spare moment during the day.\nWhile I maintain that far too many games brand themselves as Cozy nowadays, that's not a strike against Animal Crossing. If anything the opposite is true: An environment where everyone can afford a home because kindness matters more than money has never sounded more appealing.\nAnimal Crossing is also the only software that could possibly unite all the Switch players in my household given its ease of use and asynchronous nature. My wife and children spend the majority of their waking hours locked into various conflicting commitments. We all enjoy playing games but rarely the same game, and certainly not at the same time. One Animal Crossing village, however, could easily serve as a conversational hub and a cooperative bonding experience.\nDon't look now, but I think I talked myself into buying another copy of Animal Crossing. Just when I thought I was out, Nook pulls me back in.\nWriter/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit has written professionally since 2009 and contributed to Retronauts since 2018. Look up feitclub on social media or visit Diamond's lofi website. All the music in the audio version of this column comes straight from the original game's soundtrack except for that last song :)", "guid": "155641605", "isoDate": "2026-04-19T11:00:08.000Z", "itunes": { "duration": "980", "image": "https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/155641605/484c1ae1ea604468a1cb02fcae0b5383/eyJkIjo3MiwiaCI6MzAwMCwic3RyaXBfYWxwaGEiOjEsInciOjMwMDAsIndlYnAiOjB9/1.jpg?token-hash=YeffHYoXhxwMMvHEnSyIPbyWtYovapHR2sEJCD0QZPE%3D" }, "itunes_duration": "0:16:19" }