Remember the hoopla surrounding the existence of Punch Out!!, Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda as playable NES games in Animal Crossing? The debate was finally put to rest when a game-hacking device revealed that they actually do exist — unlockable in the real game or otherwise.
It seemed that after the discovery, the attention and efforts in discovering new secrets deflated. But in actuality, game hackers didn't stop there.
Ever wondered what it'd be like to live in a village with Sahara (the carpet trader) as your neighbor? How about Tom Nook? What about new items? Think you've seen them all? You probably haven't. Even better — wouldn't it be cool if you could jump in Animal Crossing? It'd sure make it a lot easier to get around, huh? Well, guess what? You can. Don't worry, we'll show you everything.
Wendy I can fly!
Err... jump. Contrary to popular belief, your character can jump in Animal Crossing. Of course, it can't be done during "normal" gameplay — you'll be needing a game-hacking device to do this one.
With a little tap of the "Z" button, you'll send your little villager soaring into the skies above. Enjoy the view while it lasts, because seeing your town from this far up can only be done by altering the programming code. See for yourself!
So what can be done with the new jump feature? Lots of things, but before we get to that, let's ponder whether or not game developers and designers were intending to implement some sort of jump feature into the game. Hmmm.
Let your town be your playground
I found it a bit perplexing that the objects in the AC universe were, how you say, concrete. For example, it's expected that when I run into the side of a house, my villager will naturally stop. What I didn't expect was that when I jumped on the top of a house, I could actually stand on top of the roof! Maybe I'm overanalyzing, but the designers had to have implemented boundaries on the tops of objects for some reason, right? Then again, perhaps it's just the simple case of natural boundaries created when building a polygon. Nonetheless, it's fun to ponder.
Discover New Horizons
So I decided to get a little creative with my new jumping abilities. I immediately began questioning how high I could fly, where the railroad tracks lead and how far out the ocean goes. Well, let me show you what I discovered.
Invisible ceiling?
The longer I hold the "Z" button, the higher my villager jumps. So logically, I slammed on the button for at least a minute. My character rocketed skyward so fast that the screen couldn't even catch up. My town got smaller and smaller as I slowly approached virtual Heaven. Soon enough I saw nothing but black. My town was consumed by infinite blackness.
My poor villager was still climbing to exponential heights. He didn't seem to stop rising, so I grew tired of holding the "Z" button and let go. It literally took around 10 minutes for my villager to come back down to land! I felt sorry for the guy, so I promised him I wouldn't do it again, but assured him we'd check out other boundaries — like the railroad tracks.
Eff the train, let me walk
I talked to monkey-boy at the train station and of course he asked if I wanted to take the next train. I told him to shove it and that I'd walk to the next village. I jumped from the depot to the tracks. Ahhh. It felt good to finally touch those tracks. I soon discovered I could lay down objects on the track just as if it was normal ground in my village. No, unfortunately you can't dig through it though.
No more wasting time. I sprinted to the left to see where these tracks would lead me. See for yourself.
Blackness. My improbable dreams of running to another village (or at least seeing the freakin' train) were vanquished. But then again, there's the other side, right? More on that later.
Cliffhanger
Instead of running from one end of the tracks to the other, I decided to take the scenic route — the cliffs. Admit it, you've all wondered what it'd be like up there. It's pretty cool at that height. The cliffs surround three quarters of the village, so there's a lot space to explore. It works like the natural ground, but as you can see, some of the edges need some limitation tweaking, if you know what I mean.
Waterlogged
Unfortunately, the tunnel on the far right of the screen was basically the same as the left side — no train, just black space. Oh well, I still had fun exploring around. Even better, I still had some juicy questions that needed answering. Can I jump in the water?!
You bet I can.
I tried it use it to my advantage when fishing, but the game wouldn't let me cast my rod while submerged in water. Instead, I decided to chase the fish like a moron thinking if I hit the "A" button I could grab it or something. Idiot.
So where does this ocean lead to? I leaped in and started to run. Can I actually get to the infamous island without a Game Boy Advance link-up?
The island!
After downing a few virtual cocktails and picking up a new Hawaii-styled shirt, my search went on. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
It was the same on the other side as well. Interesting stuff.
