Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing is one of my guilty pleasures when it comes to gaming, and I decided to make the jump from the DS version and buy City Folk for the Wii. I decided to go down to a local Video Game + DVD store that opened up downtown. Upon talking to the clerk, I found the wall for Wii games, with a weird group of unlabeled games near them. I was told that the store will buy used games for a small price, and sometimes re-sell ones that appear to be in working conditions. I ended up buying the game. It had a white jewel case, similar to a PS1 game, and a blank label that was pretty much a white piece of paper with "ANIMAL CROSSING WII" on it. I took the game home, and opened up the case. From the start, I figured something was up. The game appeared to be burned onto a Memorex CD(Luckily I had a modded wii console, so I could play burnt games). I turned on the Wii, and here's when things started getting weird.

The game started up normally, albeit the "Nintendo" logo was a dark shade of grey, and there weren't any animal voices speaking it. I started a new game, and noticed that Rover (the purple cat) only spoke parentheses, and had the default sad/worried facial expression stuck on his face. I was greeted with the bus intro, where Kapp'n drives you to your city, and asks you questions. However, the bus seemed to be stopped, as there was no animation or sound. Dialogue boxes popped up at the bottom of the screen. "Who Are You?", "What Gender Are You?" appeared. At this point, I figured that it was either an in-development version, or some sort of rip with limited sound and stuff. The third question came up and startled me. "Where Did They Send You?". At that point, it gave three options, which were simply "A", "B", and "C". I pressed A, and the game cut to black, and then opened with my character near the front gate. The weather was rainy, but the volume of rain seemed to be increased significantly. I didn't see Tom Nook at all, or anyone else. I explored the town, and saw some pretty weird things.

I first tried to find Tom Nook and start the job tutorial, but couldn't find him. I entered Nook's Cranny. All of the items in the store were mannequins (ripped from the city's store), clothing, and various letters "From Mom". I wasn't able to touch any of the letters, but the clothing seemed to be free, as if they were dropped there. When I put them on, they looked like existing clothing patterns, but with (what I assume is) blood spattered on them. This disturbed me. I figured that the game had to have been some sort of modified .ISO, similar to how people can change colors and text with SSB:B, and other titles. I left Nook's Cranny, and noticed that upon attempting to re-enter, the door gets locked, and gives the player the following message: "Stop disturbing us.". I walked far away, and walked into the town hall/post office. The lights seemed dimmer, and Tortimer was the clerk, instead of Pelly/Phyllis. Tortimer automatically spoke. "Why are you here?", with clouds appearing over his head, a sign of an NPC being sad. I wasn't able to make him move, so the post office was disabled. I looked in the garbage pickup box, and the inventory was filled with clothes, fishing rods, slingshots, and more letters from Mom. I exited, but re-entered to make sure that the Nook's Cranny problem wasn't there. I was able to go back in, but Tortimer wasn't there, and all the lights were turned off. I exited, and it began to thunder outside. The landscape started to change. Weeds were visible as far as the eye could see, and many of the trees were replaced with Rafflesia plants, with flies buzzing around them. I walked to the right side of the map, and saw a group of houses. Only three or four. When entering them, it's easy to tell that the houses are wayyy different from in game.

The windows in the houses are boarded up, and trash cans fill the room. They had two NPC's each, which were nondescript cats. Their eyes had no pupils, and when speaking to them, they would turn their backs to you and say "WHYISTHISHAPPENING", with more rainclouds appearing above their heads. After speaking to them, I was kicked out of the houses. The screen cut to black, and faded with me towards the beach. Tom Nook appeared, and gave the usual, normal routine that players go through when beginning the game. I had to wait 2-3 minutes for my char to automatically follow him across town. I got to my house, and entered. The floor and wallpaper were white. No pattern, no texture. Just the color white. I wasn't able to go upstairs, as a "Don't. Please." message appeared. I exited the house, and Tom Nook just stood there, giving me a message consisting of parentheses. The game faded to white, and I heard the "NINTENDO" voice.

I was pissed at this point. I was disturbed, but I can't say I was scared, simply because I assumed it was an odd modification of the game by whomever previously owned it. The game started up in the same exact way. My save was gone! I had to go through the same routine again. When exploring the town, I noticed that the previous houses were gone. I was able to enter Nook's Cranny, but realized something odd. The outfit near one of the mannequins was the same as the one I previously wore, and had a letter near it. I picked it up, and it read "I'm so sorry. Nobody deserves this." I exited the store, and Tom Nook was waiting outside. He gave the same parentheses message as before, and the game faded to white again.

At this point, I'm surprised that I bothered to do the process AGAIN, but out of curiosity, I did. In THIS save, I was freaked out. My character had a very dark, simplistic face with huge black eyes, and a black mouth, similar to the Gyroids from the original title. Now the post office was gone, and every single tree in the game was replaced with a Rafflesia, or the town flag. I entered Nook's Cranny, and surprise-surprise, another mannequin appeared, with my character's default clothes. I left, and Tom Nook gave a different message. "You kids never learn.". The game faded to white, but when I restarted, it appeared normal.

The game had a normal title screen, but I was instantly able to create a save, and not go through the process of answering Q's, etc. It faded to a Wintery town, with the camera focused on a Gyroid outside a house. I thought that it froze, until a human NPC arrived, with Tom Nook talking to them. The camera then zoomed in on the Gyroid. The Gyroid began to jiggle around and let out a weird sobbing noise. The camera faded to black. After that, I wasn't able to create any more saves. The game froze after the Nintendo logo.