The Animal Crossing series has become one of Nintendo's biggest first-party franchises, yet its international debut happened in another big Nintendo franchise, as Tom Nook's first English language appearance was in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Tom Nook is one of the main recurring characters in the Animal Crossing series and is one of the most iconic parts of the franchise, appearing in all kinds of Animal Crossing merchandise. Nook's family runs the local store in many Animal Crossing games, but Tom Nook's most important role involves providing the mortgages that players use to upgrade their homes, and not repossessing their house when they're late with the repayments.
The Nintendo Switch is home to the biggest entries in the Animal Crossing and Super Smash Bros. series. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate became the best-selling fighting game of all time and is notable for having possibly the most impressive roster ever assembled in a crossover game. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is currently the second best-selling game on Switch and is one of the few Nintendo titles to come close to dethroning the Mario Kart series, which has created the best-selling games on every Nintendo system since the 3DS, and would have taken the Wii if Wii Sports wasn't a pack-in game.
Animal Crossing has been providing stages to the Super Smash Bros. series since Super Smash Bros. Brawl and providing playable fighters since Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U. The connection between the series runs deeper than the content provided between the two, as the Super Smash Bros. series gave Nintendo fans outside of Japan their first glimpse at the Animal Crossing series, even though it hadn't been named yet.
Super Smash Bros. Has A History Of Introducing Characters To The West
The Super Smash Bros. series has a history of introducing characters to players outside of Japan. The most famous of these was the inclusion of Marth and Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee. At this point in time, the Fire Emblem series had never left Japan, which meant that Melee was the game that first brought Fire Emblem content to Europe and North America. This was even brought up in the trailer for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light, which was a localization of the first Fire Emblem game that was released for the Switch in 2020. The trailer showed kids playing Melee and talking about Fire Emblem being a Japan-exclusive series. Roy technically debuted in Melee, as his game hadn't been released yet in Japan, and his inclusion was meant as a promotion for his own title.
Lucas from Mother 3 debuted in Brawl outside of Japan and he's still associated with Super Smash Bros., as his original game has still never received an official English localization. The Fire Emblem series would see another character receive their international debut in the Super Smash Bros. series, as Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates was a DLC character in Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U, and their game was only available in Japan at the time. Outside of the playable characters, there are a number of spirits, stickers, and trophies that contain characters from Japan-exclusive titles, most of which will likely never appear outside of a Super Smash Bros. game in other territories.
The Release History Of Animal Crossing Outside Of Japan
The Animal Crossing series is known as Dobutsu no Mori in Japan, which means "Animal Forest." The series debuted on the Nintendo 64 in Japan, as the original Dobutsu no Mori was going to be released for the 64DD. One of the features of the 64DD was its real-time clock, which could change what was happening in the game over time. This would have been the perfect fit for the first Animal Crossing game, but the 64DD failed in Japan and it never received an international release. The development of Dobutsu no Mori switched to the regular N64 and its Game Pak had a clock feature that needed to be set by the player, allowing for a day and night cycle, as well as a calendar that could be used to track time.
Dobutsu no Mori was released for the N64 on April 14, 2001. The game was later ported to the GameCube as Dobutsu no Mori+, with new content and connectivity to the Game Boy Advance. Dobutsu no Mori+ was released on December 14, 2001, and it was later localized as Animal Crossing and released in North America on September 16, 2002, with a European release happening on September 24, 2004. The Animal Crossing series now has simultaneous worldwide releases, but the fractured release of the original game led to one of its most iconic characters debuting in another series.
Tom Nook's Smash Trophy In Melee Predates Animal Crossing
Super Smash Bros. Melee launched in Japan on November 21, 2001. The game was later released in North America on December 3, 2001, and in Europe on May 24, 2002. Tom Nook appeared as a trophy in Melee, where he's described as the local shopkeeper who can help the player set up their home. Melee launched in Europe and North America before the first Animal Crossing game was released, so Tom Nook's series was listed as "Future Release". The same is also true of K.K. Slider and Mr. Resetti, who also appear as trophies in Smash, and are listed under "Future Release". It seems that the localized name for Animal Crossing hadn't been decided while Melee was still in development, otherwise, Nintendo could have used Tom Nook's trophy to promote the upcoming game.
This isn't the only time when characters have been given a tentative name during a fighting game crossover, as Noctis was listed as coming from Final Fantasy Versus XIII in his icon in Dissidia 012, which was a game that was later turned into Final Fantasy XV. Tom Nook had a similar issue in Super Smash Bros. Melee, where he was introduced to the audience under a filler name, as the Animal Crossing localization was still nearly a year away. This wasn't the end of Tom Nook's connection to the series, as he became part of Isabelle and Villager's Final Smash in later Super Smash Bros. games. Tom Nook also had the last laugh, as the Isabelle fighter introduction trailer was used as the introduction to the Nookcentric debut trailer for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which went on to outsell Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.