One of the most popular and timeless things in the Animal Crossing franchise is the whimsical and catchy soundtrack. Yet, there's plenty that fans don't know about the game's classic music. For example, who wrote it, and just how expansive is it really?
This and more are things most players, both seasoned and fresh, don't know about the music that accompanies the day-to-day life of the Animal Crossing world. The extensive soundtrack has accompanied and differed in every iteration of the game so far, even bringing familiar melodies to each new installment. Now, if only the series could get a live concert like the Legend Of Zelda did...
10 Aircheck/Bootleg Songs
Sometimes within the Animal Crossing community, there is talk of the "aircheck" and "live" versions of songs — but not all fans know what this means. The Aircheck versions (previously known as Bootleg versions in games before Animal Crossing: New Horizons) are the recorded songs that players can have on repeat in their homes and on stereos.
These songs sound very different from the songs that K.K. Slider performs on Saturday nights. The aircheck recordings feature instruments and a fully fleshed-out sound, unlike the acoustic tracks from the plaza.
9 The Film Has Its Own Soundtrack
Not all fans know that the Animal Crossing franchise has its own animated film called Dobutsu No Mori, which released a few years ago. This charming movie its own version of familiar Animal Crossing songs. The plot is mostly based upon the first iteration of the game on GameCube and the DS, and features mostly songs from Wild World.
The cute movie even had a theme song recorded with vocals, titled "Let's Go To The Forest." The melody is loosely based on the title song from Wild World and has similar instruments.
8 KK Is Based On Kazumi Totaka
Kazumi Totaka has been intertwined with the Animal Crossing games since the very start of the series. He has composed and recorded every song for every game in the series. That's not all, though — he has worked on games like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and Pikmin 2.
KK Slider, the guitar-playing dog that visits the players' town every week to perform songs, is actually based on Kazumi himself. In fact, the design of the character is meant to be a caricature of the musician! KK's name is Totakeke in the Japanese version of the game, which sure sounds a lot like Totaka — further cementing this connection.
7 Totaka Has A Hidden Song
The talented musician Totaka, during his work on many Nintendo games, has hidden a secret in most of them. "Totaka's Song" is a simple melody composed of 19 notes and features in almost all of Kazumi Totaka's works, including Luigi's Mansion and Yoshi's Island. It first appeared in Pikmin 2 on the GameCube.
In Animal Crossing, the melody is featured as a song that players can obtain. KK Song has appeared in every game in the series and is a recognizable tune amongst the other more composed tracks.
6 KK Has A Secret Song List, Too
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Not only composer Kazumi Totaka have secrets, but so does his in-game counterpart. K.K. the musical dog has a small secret set that players can access if they know the right words.
There are three songs that don't come up in rotation: "Drivin," "Animal City," and "Farewell." To get him to play any of these songs, players must type in the name of the song exactly when requesting a particular song on a Saturday night. K.K. will recognise this and mention that the player somehow knows his secret.
5 T-Pain's Animal Crossing Inspiration
Among Animal Crossing's many, many fans is acclaimed rapper T-Pain. When the game was released, he frequently tweeted about his achievements and the progress of his island, expressing his love for the franchise.
T-Pain went so far as to write and release a song, complete with a music video, based on the game. Named "Nook's Bells," the song features streamer Cardboard Cowboy and is produced by Jayteehazard. The video is fully animated and has a lot of friendly faces in it — Leif the sloth and Blathers hop in from time to time.
4 New Horizons' Theme Is Written Down
Thanks to the musically trained side of Animal Crossing's fandom, this hidden little fact has been brought to light. Reddit user postwarhippo worked out that there is the theme song written in note format on a furniture item: the music written on one version of the chalkboard item in New Horizons is actually the theme song.
It could be that the same item in New Leaf has the previous game's theme song written on it. Unfortunately, though, it is a little hard to tell with the smaller resolution.
3 KK Used To Be A DJ
Whereas New Horizons is a huge game and is now overflowing with fresh content, things used to be a little different. Back in the old days of the 3DS title Animal Crossing: New Leaf, there was a main street of shops and facilities. One of these was a club run by Dr. Shrunk.
This was called Club LOL and had different acts during the week. K.K. Slider would perform as a DJ on weekend nights and would throw in some catchy remixes of songs. As well as this, he scratched up a version of the players' town tune, while the Gyroids on stage went mad.
2 Two Games Share The Same Soundtrack
Despite all of the Animal Crossing games having the same composer and writer for the soundtracks, they all differ in terms of melody. Even some of the instrumental use is different; for example New Leaf had heavy use of steel drums and accordion, whereas New Horizons features a lot of guitars.
But, as some seasoned players will know, two games do actually share the exact same soundtrack. It seems Kazumi took a note from the Pokémon games with this one! Animal Crossing: Wild World and City Folk have the same recordings, despite being on two different platforms: the DS and the Wii respectively.
1 The Soundtrack Is Mostly Bossa Nova
Over time, plenty of players have made attempts to to categorize the Animal Crossing music. This is a hard task, as melodies and song compositions differ from game to game. However, there are a few running themes.
Overall, the feel of the music is heavily bossa nova inspired, but with added instruments like ukuleles, accordions, steel drums, and harmonicas. Influences also come from accordion-heavy jazz, originating in France. The New Horizons themes, for instance, sound more tropical and rustic than some of the previous entries, pulling on different genes.