Which console first received Animal Crossing in Japan in 2001?

The first Animal Crossing game received a Japanese release on the Nintendo 64 in 2001.

Known in Japan as Dōbutsu no Mori, or “Animal Forest,” the game launched on April 14, 2001. It was developed by Nintendo EAD and became the first entry in what would grow into Nintendo’s Animal Crossing series. Its unusual real-time life-simulation design let players build relationships, collect items, attend events, and gradually pay off a house loan.

The game’s Nintendo 64 release is easy to mix up with the GameCube version. Nintendo later produced an enhanced edition called Dōbutsu no Mori+, released in Japan for the GameCube in December 2001. That version added content and served as the basis for the international game titled Animal Crossing, which reached North America in 2002 and Europe in 2004.

Thus, GameCube is important to the franchise’s worldwide history, but it was not the first Japanese platform. The Nintendo 64 version also used a special Game Pak with a real-time clock, helping support the series’ signature calendar system.