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Doubutsu no Mori: Reviews

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Game Score: 9/10

So, I ask you: what Nintendo fanboy's game collection would be complete without a copy of Animal Crossing? Recognizing that, I'm sure many of you know about Animal Crossing for the Gamecube. Now, Doubutsu No Mori is the untranslated "prequel" to that GC classic. Just like AC, it's a heckuva game. Let's get started then, shall we?

So, as far as the storyline goes, it's the same: you're a guy/girl who's starting off on his/her own, looking to buy a house. First of all, the whole atmosphere of this game is relaxing. In the real world, you have all sorts of stuff going on, but in Doubutsu No Mori, the biggest thing worrying you is pulling weeds! So kick back, relax. You can do anything in this game, cuz it's just...you living your life. Buy a house, pay a mortgage, meet the other villagers in the town, who are animals (hence the name "Doubutsu No Mori," which translates to "Animal Forest" in English). You can go fishing, bug-catching, even dig up fossils. All the while you collect furniture and other items to decorate your humble abode with. Like I said, relaxed. And man does relaxed make for a great game!

Graphics are actually not that bad, considering it's for the N64. Usually you would at least expect to see villagers walking through one another, but rarely is this the case. Textures of the trees, grass, snow, and the like are all very good, and actually are nearly exactly the same as the GC version. They are simple, but when living a simple life, who needs amazingly involved graphics? In my opinion, detailed and realistic graphics would've taken away from the cartoony, happy appeal that this game has. So the graphics are fine by me.

Sound. Now, as far as sound goes, Doubutsu No Mori isn't the most wonderful little piece of hardware. Villagers voices are generic with only maybe three or four different "types" of voices to cover all the villagers. Other sound effects are also rather sinple, but it's nothing major. In my opinion, bad sound is sound that takes away from the overall experience, and the sound effects of this game do nothing of the sort. So, they're not bad, but they're not really anything to be marveled at.

Music. Despite this game's lack of amazing sound effects, the music in this game, I think, is wonderful. Every hour has its own catchy little theme, and every time the clock strikes the hour it changes to the appropriate theme. A traveling musician named Totokeke comes to the town weekly, and if you know the name of one of his songs, request it, and he'll play it for you. Afterwards, he'll even give you a copy of the song to play in any given music player back at your house. This feature is WONDERFUL. The tunes are fun, catchy, and run the whole gamut of genres. A VERY nice idea on Nintendo's part.

Now, this is a Japanese ROM. The nice thing is, though, that if you've played any Animal Crossing before, you'll know what's going on, because the story's pretty much exactly the same. Also, if you know some Japanese, and hiragana and katakana, but aren't too sure on kanji, then no worries. I've only seen one kanji in this entire game, and that's the kanji "mori" in "Doubutsu No Mori" on the title screen. All dialogue and pretty much anything else you see or read is in either kana or roumaji.

Now, my only real DISlike of the game doesn't come from the game itself, but playing the ROM. Because this game goes in real time, the Nintendo would normally regulate time passing between play. So, for example, if you saved on February tenth at 10:30 a.m., then began playing again at 11:30, that hour will have passed both in real life and in the game. However, because the emulator does not support saving on the game itself, you must instead use the Save State option on the emulator. Unfortunately, that means that ifyou save state at 10:30, then load the state again at 11:30, it will still be 10:30 on the game. Kinda a setback.

Besides that however, this is a wonderful game. My overall rating: 9/10