The goal is to save money to pay off the mortgage on the player's house by collecting and selling natural materials.

Animal Crossing was conceived as a role-playing adventure for the 64DD, with the main action taking place in dungeons.

Following the move to the standard cartridge format, co-director Katsuya Eguchi decided to refocus the game as a non-linear life simulator, which would carry the themes of family, friendship, and community and allow several players to develop a virtual town at different times.

Animal Crossing was a critical and commercial success domestically and internationally, attracting many non-traditional gaming audiences.

Critics praised the game's unusual but immersive and addictive gameplay, which was devoid of purpose and stressful elements.

[5] It is open-ended, and the player's character can live a separate life with very little set plot or mandatory tasks.

The game is played in real-time, observing days, weeks, months and years using the GameCube's internal clock.

As the player buys and sells items at Nook's store, it will gradually expand, offering a wider selection of products for purchase.

Players can also visit locations such as the Able Sisters' clothing shop, where they can purchase or design new clothes; the Police Station, where they can obtain additional items from the Lost and Found; and the Museum, where they can donate fossils, paintings, fish and insects to put on display.

There are many possible interactions between the player and the villagers, including talking, trading items, completing tasks, writing letters, and, in e+, buying medicine for when they get sick.

Multiple players can take turns shipping items to each other via Tom Nook, using a system of codes.

Each town has an island that can be accessed by plugging in a Game Boy Advance with a GameCube link cable.

The game is also compatible with the e-Reader; by visiting the Post Office while connected to the accessory via the Game Boy Advance link cable, players can scan Animal Crossing themed cards to receive new items, town tunes, or pattern designs.

Players can collect various Nintendo Entertainment System games in Animal Crossing, which are playable via emulation.

Others are acquired in various ways, such as gifts from villagers, hidden on the island, or via special giveaways from Nintendo's website.

[8] A memory card containing data to unlock Super Mario Bros. in Dōbutsu no Mori+ was offered as a sweepstakes prize in issue #678 of Famitsu magazine.

An additional furniture item, resembling a Famicom Disk System in the Japanese versions and an NES in the English version, allows players to emulate other NES games not included within the base release by reading ROMs stored on the player's Controller Pak or memory card.

[12] The game was developed by Nintendo EAD with an inexperienced team led by Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, and Super Mario co-creator Takashi Tezuka, most of whom had regrouped after the release of Yoshi’s Story in 1997.

The 64DD peripheral served as an enabling technology platform for the conception and development of the game, with its real-time clock and 64MB floppy disk for writable mass storage.

[15] Kenta Nagata composed background music for the fields, Toru Minegishi for the indoor areas and Shinobu Tanaka for the events.

[citation needed] When Nintendo began localizing Dōbutsu no Mori+ for release in North America as Animal Crossing, the game underwent an immense translation project, which resulted in much more text than the Japanese version.

However, others, such as IGN's Peer Schneider, criticized its audio and visuals, for being below-standard quality for a GameCube game.

Next Generation ranked it as the 37th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country.

[43] In 2021, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted Animal Crossing to its World Video Game Hall of Fame.