Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing is a series of simulation video games developed and published by Nintendo, depicting the life of a human character in a town of animal inhabitants. It had been created by Katsuya Eguchi in order to explore themes of family, friendship, and community deriving from his experience of moving from Chiba to Kyoto. It was introduced as Animal Forest (どうぶつの森), a game released only in Japan for the Nintendo 64 without any plans of localizing the game due to it containing Japanese references that were believed to not resonate with Western players, before being ported to the Nintendo GameCube worldwide. Games in the series contain numerous furniture and clothing items to purchase or acquire, some of which reference other Nintendo games, including the Metroid franchise.

Characters from both Metroid and Animal Crossing appear together in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Animal Crossing


Animal Crossing-e Series 2 features an e-Reader card titled Samus's Suit. If a Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance Cable is used to connect the e-Reader to the game, a pattern can be uploaded to Animal Crossing that gives the player a Power Suit pattern on their shirt and helmet on their hat. The pattern can also be put on umbrellas, floor tiles, and wallpaper. If the card is swiped without the GBA and GCN being connected beforehand, a message instead pops up where Mabel references the saying of how the suit makes the bounty hunter, and encourages the player to find out by trying it on.

Animal Crossing: Wild World
A Metroid is available as a furniture item, and is acquired randomly after shooting down Gulliver's UFO. It is based on the baby from Metroid II: Return of Samus, Metroid: Samus Returns, and Super Metroid, and features it in its signature capsule. There appears to be a stasis liquid in the capsule, although the Metroid is seen moving. When touched, a few seconds of the Title theme from the Family Computer Disk System version of Metroid will play.

If the player speaks to Gulliver after repairing his ship, there is a chance he will say "There are plenty of bounty hunters in space. Do you know of one who can turn into a small metal ball? Or the fox like creature who pilots a space craft?" This is a reference to both Samus, who uses the Morph Ball in her series, and Fox McCloud from Star Fox. On a similar note, Gulliver rides UFO called the Porpoise, which is an indirect reference to Olimar's spaceship, the S.S. Dolphin, from Pikmin.

Animal Crossing: City Folk
The Metroid item can still be obtained from Gulliver. Copying the player's data from Wild World to City Folk does not retain the Metroid from the former in the latter's catalogue. It now appears to be based on the Metroid's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as an Assist Trophy.

City Folk also contains two additional items, a helmet named Samus Mask and a T-shirt named Varia Suit. Both are obtained through the Tom Nook Point Tracking System. Similar to the Metroid, both the Samus Mask hat and the Varia Suit shirt resemble their Brawl appearances. The mask can be purchased for 6000 points and the Varia Suit for 5000. The design of the main body of the shirt is partly based on Samus's Suit from Animal Crossing, though it has different sleeves and back as it is a shirt and not a pattern anymore. If both clothing items are worn in conjunction, Kicks the shoe-shining skunk will change the Villager's shoes to yellow if they choose "Go by color" when Kicks asks how the player wants their shoes shined.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf
The Metroid item and Samus outfit return as special prizes, retaining their appearances from City Folk. The Varia Suit is split into smaller pieces of clothing, since New Leaf had added the ability to change pants and shoes. The outfit is assembled by purchasing Fortune Cookies at Nookling Stores. Each article of the suit is categorized into the "rock 'n' roll" style of clothing. The fortunes are as follows:


 * Samus Mask (#10: "She who foregoes a hat and grabs a helmet knows not the sting of lava.")
 * Varia Suit Pants (#42: "She who wears lava-proof pants is dressed for any occasion.")
 * Varia Suit Shoes (#43: "She who wears laceless shoes is probably busy with space monsters.")
 * Varia Suit (#46: "She who wears armor today is she who may wear armor tomorrow.")
 * Metroid (#47: "Wise men say the brain is a terrible thing to waste.")

When the Metroid is touched, it now plays the title theme from Metroid: Other M, along with the screeching of the Baby Metroid from the same game.

Aside from these, three Metroid-related clothing and painting designs were issued via Official Nintendo Magazine as part of Thank KK It's Friday. The first, titled "metroid" was a T-shirt colored black and featuring Samus's Helmet on the front (referring to the opening prologue for Super Metroid); The second, titled "Metroid" (note the capitalized word) and created by Darren Kerwin, was a painting featuring a black background and an 8-bit Metroid; the third, titled "Samus" made by someone with the handle of "Dissidia012", was a painting similar to the one made by Kerwin, although it instead featured Samus in her pose from both the Samus Data Screen and Continue screen in the Famicom Disk System version of Metroid.

Super Smash Bros. series


While Samus has appeared in every Super Smash Bros. game to date, Animal Crossing was first introduced outside Japan through Trophies in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the Smashville stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (where the Villager can be seen in the background), before the series finally got a playable character in Super Smash for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The Villager is primarily based on the character's artwork for Animal Crossing: City Folk, but has alternate costumes changing their sex, clothing, hair and face to match other possible configurations in Animal Crossing. The Villager also appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with Samus, Zero Suit Samus and newcomers Ridley, Dark Samus and Isabelle, the player character's secretary in New Leaf.

The Villager and Samus were two of the first characters confirmed for Smash 4. In his gameplay reveal, the Villager demonstrates his Pocket move by catching Samus's Charge Shot and firing it back at her.

In Super Smash Bros for the Wii U, although not actual allies of Zero Suit Samus, two Villagers acted as opponents to the player (playing as Captain Falcon) shortly after Zero Suit Samus was defeated in the Event Match "Bounty Hunter Clash", with the flavor text indicating that they did so because they intended to challenge the winner of a bounty so they could beat the winner and then make off with the bounty in order to "make a quick buck."

Although he does not have a direct appearance in Dark Samus's debut trailer in Ultimate, his Gizoid attack was seen among the projectiles Dark Samus dodged at Sukuzu Castle.

Although no Metroid characters appear in Isabelle's debut trailer "A Hardworker's Dream", one of the gameplay segments has her using her down smash on Falco as the latter is about to use his Fire Bird attack on Planet Zebes: Brinstar.

In Min Min's debut trailer "Ramen Time!", Villager alongside Zero Suit Samus attempt to attack Min Min at Reset Bomb Forest, although she punches them away.