Animal Crossing: Advance

== Animal Crossing: Advance ==
=== Development & Concepts ===
Released in 2004, Animal Crossing: Advance is a GBA port of Population Growing that was released so that players can enjoy the world of Animal Crossing on the go. The game was initially proposed as a trading cartridge and storage software. Satoshi Itechi, the lead director of Animal Crossing: Advance, said he made a program that would store furniture, stationary, and fossils so that players could manage pocket space. Iwata then proposed a program that would store items while also allowing you to trade between two-four GBAs. With the GC-GBA link adapter, players could transfer items they traded back to their disk or memory card.
"Mr. Iwata made the trading program and helped me implement it into a test cartridge. Then the idea to make a whole [Animal Crossing] game sort of popped into our heads. It was going to be tough, but we had a lot of fun doing it. It was a project that we did just for fun." 
- Satoshi Itehci, Nintendo Power Interview, July, 2004
The game was developed within thirteen months and with a team of only eight people. They would spend most nights taking turns writing code, drawing assets, and composing music. Itechi stressed that the game wouldn't be critically enjoyed, but was glad to see hardcore players using the storage program to run between their GameCube or GBA. To him, the game did was it was made for. 
The development team worked on small updates that were released alongside the American version, and downloadable content was also added to the GameCube version, including legal versions of the "forbidden four". 
It was released on June 29th, 2004. It was given the name Dobutsu no Mori: mori no tomotachi, or Animal Forest: Friends of the Forest.
Itechi expressed how the game was buggy, but otherwise turned out almost perfectly.
=== Reception and Gameplay ===
The game begins with you naming your villager, town, and setting the time and date. Unlike other Animal Crossing titles, you can choose the season you start in presumably due to the northern and southern hemispheres, however the game never released outside of Japan and NA. Players are greeted with a top-down perspective of a small village. You can freely walk about and work with Tom Nook, talk with villagers, and do daily tasks. You can connect with either three friends, or a GameCube via the GBA to GC link adapter. Friends can explore their towns together or trade items through Population Growing. 
Players enjoyed the game, but due to the release of Wild World, it was quickly dismissed. The game wasn't sold at full price, and came with a GC memory card so players could transfer town data onto it somewhat archiving the town so they could transfer it to another copy or keep it safe for a new save file.
The ability for four players to play off of one copy was removed, nearly half of the furniture, fossils, and fish were cut, only thirty-five villagers are available, and only major holidays are celebrated. 
Toy Day was renamed as Snow Festival.
Harvest Day is now called Friends Feast.
Town day, Halloween, and New Years all remain the same with different items.
None of the holiday mascots host their events, just Tortimer.
Although many cuts were made, most of them were added in Animal Crossing: Advance, which is the American release. New/added features include the Post Office, Train Station, Four-Player-One-Copy, KK Slider, and Mascots return. 12 new furniture pieces were added and the villager count is bumped up to 75.
=== Animal Crossing: Advance, and Dobutsu no Mori: mori no tomotachi + ===
In 2005, Dobutsu no Mori: mori no tomotachi received an updated version and Animal Crossing: Advance was released on November 22nd, 2005. While the Japanese market enjoyed the game, the American audience seemed critical of the title, IGN called it a, "$40 Pokemon Box for Animal Crossing players with minor gameplay elements." 
The Japanese rerelease of Animal Crossing: Advance was called "Dobutsu no Mori: mori no tomodatchi Purasu" and simply added the American content with the newly added and exclusive "Sakura Day".
== Animal Crossing: Advance Rerelease for Wii U ==
In 2015, Animal Crossing: Advance was rereleased on the eShop and available only during the anniversary week of Wild World. It was updated to include all of the content from its plus release and was rated relatively well. A new villager, Ossa, was added as an exclusive eShop purchase bonus. She would automatically move in a day after arriving to town, and had a low possibility of leaving.
Category:Games