Lost in transmition

If this review had been published under the original Japanese title Dōbutsu no Mori very few people would have known what it was about. However, Animal Crossing is probably familiar to most gamers - and to those who wouldn't consider calling themselves such. After all, the island simulation has achieved on consoles what The Sims did on the PC: become mainstream gaming for casuals.

Dōbutsu no Mori was published in April 2001 in Japan for the N64 and later the same year in December in the West under the name Animal Crossing . Literally translated as ‘Forest of Animals’, the Japanese title describes the game very well, but doesn't explain anything. So what's it all about? The first part is already a (rudimentary) social simulation that lets us explore and shape a randomly generated island and interact with its animal inhabitants.

Secondly, Animal Crossing introduced the audience to the concept of capitalism in its very first iteration, with raccoon Tom Nook giving us a house and the associated debt, which we have to pay back by selling fish, bugs or shells. As you can see, the game is from the turn of the millennium. Nowadays, despite the debts, we would only be renting. The game concept should be familiar to fans of the later games, as it has only changed minimally over the years.

At its core, Animal Crossing has remained the same, with a wonderfully relaxing appeal then just as it does now - at least that's what I heard. Due to the lack of a console, I have never owned any of the games and have only recently been able to marvel at my girlfriend's island, who lived out her passion for building a home in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Switch. Another trademark of the series is the relaxing, cozy background music that accompanies our island interludes.

The soundtrack of Dōbutsu no Mori was released on 2 albums, Doubutsu no Mori: Totakeke Music 1 & 2 each comprising 29 tracks with a length between 2:09 and 2:24. That doesn't just sound very homogeneous, it is. The tracks by Nintendo composers Kazumi Totaka, Kenta Nagata (Mario Kart 64), Toru Minegishi (The Legend of Zelda) and Shinobu Tanaka (Super Mario Sunshine) are all minimalist in style: guitar synths + vocals, occasionally supplemented by whistling.

What sounds boring turns out to be primarily one thing for uninitiated people like me: annoying. Not because of a lack of variation, as there is some. Each of the tracks uses a different genre: from march to soul, the musicians cover everything from samba to jazz, gospel and techno. No, the real problem is the vocals.

As is usual for the experimental Japanese (watch out for the cliché!), these are not real words, but meaningless syllables that babble out a sequence of notes. That would be bad enough in itself if it wasn't intoned by a mewling robot voice. “Oh ah ih uh oh ah äääääääääääääääääää.” The result is a vocal interlude that sounds like the noises I make during one of my more toilett sessions being run through a distortion device.

Yes, I'm being unnecessarily mean. Because to its credit, it must be said that the OST only includes the tracks surrounding the traveling dog musician Totakeke (alternatively ‘K.K. Slider’ or just ‘K.K’). Without his ‘vocals’ we would have the typical Animal Crossing-charm, but that's the way Nintendo released it. In this form, the music fits the concept and is similar to the style of other Japanese series such as the Pikmin-games. The whistling tracks (K.K. March, K.K. Samba) instinctively make me think of the wacky Deadly Premonition. But it's just not mine (in this form).

Time will tell whether the vocal interludes have been abandoned in the releases of the sequels and whether we can listen to the delicate strumming and minimalist soundscapes while cherishing our decelerated island idyll. However, I can only recommend the music of Dōbutsu no Mori to hardcore music enthusiasts and die-hard fans of the series. The rest should stick to the later parts / releases.