Pet Crossing

Pet Crossing is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Electronic Arts and created by Chris Savino. In Pet Crossing, the player character is a human who lives in a village inhabited by various anthropomorphic animals, carrying out various activities including fishing, bug catching, fossil hunting, etc. The series is notable for its open-ended gameplay and extensive use of the video game consoles' internal clock and calendar to simulate real passage of time.

Four Pet Crossing games have been released worldwide, one each for the Nintendo 64/IQue Player (enhanced and reissued for the GameCube) Nintendo DS, Wii, and the Nintendo 3DS. A fifth game, for the Nintendo Switch, is scheduled to be released on March 20th, 2020. The series has been both critically and commercially successful and has sold over 30 million units worldwide. Three spin-off games have also been released: Pet Crossing: Happy Home Designer for Nintendo 3DS, Pet Crossing: Amiibo Festival for Wii U, and Pet  Crossing: Pocket Camp for mobile devices.

Characters
Main article: Characters in the Pet Crossing series

While the series features various villagers for each title, certain prominent characters return in each series installment. Tom Nook is a tanuki character who functions as both a shop owner and real estate broker, giving the player a loan for their house and allowing them to pay it back with no interest. He is also one of the only residents of the town to follow a capitalist ethos and engage in deceptive business practices.[5] Mr. Resetti is a mole character who appears from underground whenever players shut off the game without saving, berating them for circumventing one of the game's systems. Due to a new autosave function, he was "laid off" from his job in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, although he will be making a return in some form.[6]

JP Cubey is a canine traveling musician based on series composer Joris de Man, and plays on certain nights in the town's club.[7] Afterwards, he gifts the player a free copy of the song played, saying that his music "wants to be free". This was seen by some fans as tacit support for music piracy, although Nintendo denied that it was intended as social commentary.

Gameplay
In the Pet Crossing games, the player assumes the role of a human character who moves into a rural village populated with anthropomorphic animals and lives there indefinitely. Gameplay is open-ended: players have no defined objectives, but are instead encouraged to spend their time in the village performing any number of activities, which include collecting items, planting plants or other items, and socializing with the village's residents. Pet Crossing games are played in real time, utilizing the video game console's internal clock and calendar. Thus, passage of time in the game world reflects that in reality, as well as the current season and time of day. Some in-game events, such as holidays or the growth of a tree, occur at certain times or require some duration of time to have passed.[9]

One notable feature of the Pet Crossing series is the high level of customization available, some of which affects the outcome of the game.[10] The player character is both named and gendered by the real life player at the start of the game, and their appearance can be modified by buying or designing custom clothes and accessories or changing the hairstyle (introduced in Wild World). The player's house can also be furnished, decorated, and later expanded: the player can purchase and collect furniture and place it anywhere in the house, as well as change both the wallpaper and floor designs. While its terrain, building locations, and initial residents are randomly generated when the game is first begun (except in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, in which the player decides between four given towns), the village's name and anthem, as well as some of the residents' catchphrases, are also determined by the player.[10]

Collecting items is a major facet of Pet Crossing: the player can explore the village and gather objects, including fruit from trees, seashells, and discarded items. Nearly all objects can be sold for Bells, the in-game currency. Players collect objects to obtain more Bells, which can then be used to buy furniture and clothing, purchase home expansions, invest in stocks, and play games. A number of specialized tools are available for other activities such as fishing and insect collecting. Special items, such as fossils and paintings, may be donated to the village museum. The player can choose to socialize with the other animal residents by engaging in conversation, sending and receiving letters, bartering, or playing hide-and-seek. Residents may move in or out of the village depending on the player's actions.

All installments of Animal Crossing allow some form of communication between players, both offline and online. A single village can house up to four human players, though only one can be exploring the village at any given time.[9] The players can interact via written messages through the village post office or bulletin board. The GameCube iteration allowed players to travel to other villages by trading memory cards written with the game data,[10] but all subsequent installments allow players to travel and interact online via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, although City Folk also allows the DS Suitcase to travel to others' towns

Pet Crossing (2001)
Main article: Pet Crossing (video game)

Animal Crossing[b] originally released only in Japan for the Nintendo 64 in 2001. It was enhanced and released on the GameCube the same year. This version was localized and released in North America on September 15, 2002, Australia on October 17, 2003, and Europe on September 24, 2004.[14] An extended version titled "Dōbutsu no Mori e+" was released on June 27, 2003 in Japan.[15] The Nintendo 64 version of the game was released in China in 2006 for iQue Player.

Pet Crossing: Wild World (2005)
Main article: Pet Crossing: Wild World

Pet Crossing: Wild World[c] was released for the Nintendo DS in Japan on November 23, 2005, North America on December 5, 2005, Australia on December 8, 2005, and Europe on March 31, 2006.[17] It was the first game in the series to use Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The game was later re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console on October 13, 2016, although its Wi-Fi multiplayer feature is unavailable due to the discontinuation of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Pet Crossing: City Folk (2008)
Main article: Pet Crossing: City Folk

Animal Crossing: City Folk, known as Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City in Europe and Oceania, was released for the Wii in North America on November 16, 2008, Japan on November 20, 2008, Australia on December 4, 2008, and Europe on December 5, 2008.[18] It was later released in South Korea in 2010.[19] It was the first Wii game to utilize the Wii Speak, an accessory that allows players to talk to each other during online play.

Pet Crossing: New Leaf (2012)
Main article: Pet Crossing: New Leaf

Pet Crossing: New Leaf was announced at E3 2010.[20] It was released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan on November 8, 2012, North America on June 9, 2013, Europe on June 14, 2013, and Australia on June 15, 2013.[21] For the first time in the series, players are appointed to the role of Mayor.[22] In November 2016, a new update was released along with "Welcome Amiibo" in North America and Europe, adding several new locations, items and activities.[23]

Pet Crossing: New Horizons (2020)
Main article: Pet Crossing: New Horizons

A game in the series for Nintendo Switch was announced in a Nintendo Direct in September 2018. Set on a deserted island, it is scheduled for release March 20, 2020.

Pet Crossing: Happy Home Designer (2015)
Pet Crossing: Happy Home Designer is a community simulation game for the Nintendo 3DS and the first spin-off of the Pet Crossing series. It was released in Japan on July 30, 2015,[25] North America on September 25, 2015,[26] Europe on October 2, 2015,[27] and Australia on October 3, 2015.[27] The game revolves around designing houses for villagers based on their requests. By scanning Amiibo cards, players can unlock the ability to design special characters' houses.[28] The game has a score of 66 out of 100 on Metacritic, which signifies "mixed or average reviews".

Pet Crossing: Amiibo Festival (2015)
Pet Crossing: Amiibo Festival is a party game for the Wii U released in November 2015 that heavily utilizes Amiibo. It was met with unfavorable reviews from critics.[29] It was developed by NDcube and Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development.

Pet Crossing: Pocket Camp (2017)
Main article: Pet Crossing: Pocket Camp

In April 2016, Nintendo announced that an Pet Crossing mobile game, later named as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, would be released as a part of their mobile game lineup. The game was soft launched in Australia in October 2017, and released worldwide on November 21, 2017.

Apps

 * Pet Crossing Plaza, a WaraWara Plaza-like app for Wii U. Limited time promotion for Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
 * Pet Crossing Clock, a Clock system app for Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS.
 * Pet Crossing Calculator, a Calculator app for Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS.
 * Photos with Animal Crossing, a Camera app for Nintendo 3DS allowing players to take photos with Animal Crossing characters