Tom Nook

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Tom Nook , known in Japan as Tanukichi ( Japanese た ぬ き ち ) , is a fictional character from the Animal Crossing series who runs the village shop. He first appears in the Nintendo 64 game Dōbutsu no Mori , which was published in Europe and North America on the Nintendo GameCube as Animal Crossing . Nook sells a house to the player at the start of each game in the series, gives them a set mortgage to pay, and offers to expand it after the mortgage is paid off. He also made some appearances in the Super Smash Bros. -Series.

Concept and characteristics

Tom Nook is based on a Tanuki , a raccoon dog. Despite being viewed as greedy by 1UP.com , Rich Amtower and Reiko Ninomiya, members of Nintendo's Treehouse Localization Team, disagreed, saying he had a nice personality that he would rarely show. Amtower referred to him as " the first boss you will ever have " and added: " Although Tom Nook goes out of his way and doesn't always have time for fun, Nook is not a bad person. He shows a lot of generosity ".

Occur

Role in the Animal Crossing series

Tom Nook occurs first in the Nintendo 64 title Dōbutsu no Mori (later as Animal Crossing for GameCube ) as the main business owner of the city and continues his work in the next two games in the series. Nook's role remained virtually unchanged from 2001 to 2012 with the release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf . In addition to the main business owner, Nook will also sell the player a house for around 19,800 sternis (game currency in the series) at the start of the first three games. Since the player only has 1000 sternis in his pocket, Nook asks the player to do some work in his business to pay off part of the debt. The tasks that Nook assigns you are intended for the player to get used to controlling the game. After planting flowers, writing letters and talking to the villagers, the player is "released" to do what he wants, but he has to pay the balance of his mortgage himself. Every time a mortgage payment is completed, Nook updates or expands the player's home, placing the player in debt more and more in debt, with the final surcharge being the most expensive.

Nook's shop also performs several upgrades and additions as the game progresses. The timing of the enlargement depends on how many sternis are given out in the store. His humble shop like "Nooks Laden " with basic tools and very small items eventually becomes " Hyper Nook " - a large, two-story building with a wide variety of items. In this expansion, the player encounters rip and roll who are actually not his nephews, as he admits in Wild World , who run the second floor of the store. Since Animal Crossing: New Leaf, however, the two nephews have run the entire shop under the name " Schlepp & Nepps Laden " alone. In each game, the items in the store are changed every day, regardless of which extension the store is in. This means that no identical combination of items is for sale two days in a row.

  • In Animal Crossing , at the end of each month, Nook holds a raffle for rare items to be won. This was not continued in any other game.
  • In Wild World , with the expansion of the Hyper Nook , the player meets Trude, a poodle lady who changes the player's hair for 3000 sternis.
  • In Let's Go to the City , Pudel moved her hair salon to the city. With the expansion of Hyper Nook , Tom Nook will randomly ask the player a series of questions. As the player replies, the store could be turned into an earlier gig.
  • Nook returns in Animal Crossing: New Leaf . Instead of being the shopkeeper on site, Nook is now in charge of "ImmoNook" and instead sells things to improve the exterior of the player house. He will also be expanding the player's house for a price that increases with each expansion. His nephews now run the town shop independently.
  • Nook makes a small appearance in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp , where the player can purchase him for 250 leaf tokens (available only 45 days after the game starts).

In other games

Tom Nook has some minor appearances in the Super Smash Bros video game series . had. He appears in various collectibles in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as well as a background character on the City and Metropolitan Stage , which is based on the Animal Crossing series. Tom Nook's shop music can also be heard on Super Smash Bros. Brawl as part of Town Hall and Tom Nook's Store . Tom Nook has also been featured in several promotional items, including plush toys.

reception

Despite the negative feedback, Tom Nook was received positively. In Katherine Isbister's book, Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach , she quotes Tom Nook as an example of a mentor figure who indirectly helps players. GamesRadar also lists him as one of the 25 best new characters of the decade, declaring that he has earned his place among the hearts of gamers and people on the Internet both as a viral meme and as a deceptively devious character. In 2012, GamesRadar ranked Tom Nook in the "Top 100" of 2013 as the eightieth best villain in video games. Although he is a raccoon, he is "striped, furry and cute". That same year, he was ranked the forty-ninth coolest video game villain by Complex.

Parody and analysis

Tom Nook has been satirized in several articles, often compared to a rabble boss, a kingpin or some other bad person. IGN listed him as the 72nd video game villain, suggesting Tom Nook has a handsome face but the "cold, dead heart of a megalomaniac whose only desire is to make sternis quick". Fellow IGN editor Patrick Kolan described Nook as the Animal Crossing equivalent of Al Swearengen, a pimp from the 1800s, due to his business acumen and the position and disposition of character. Tom Nook has also been personified as a devious character and gangster, including an issue of the web comic book VG Cats showing him mixing up the player's character for his rental money. In a satirical article by GamesRadar, they suggest that the cast of Animal Crossing, especially Tom Nook, put the player in a "furry cult". Recorded Tom Nook as a video game character who wouldn't be popular in real life, GameSpy stated that if he were a landlord in real life he would be annoying and terrifying about the video games. 1UP.com editor Jeremy Parish makes a parody documentary about the in-game world in his review of Animal Crossing: Wild World. In it, he suggests that Tom Nook's business acumen allow him to effectively control the village.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Animal Crossing: City Folk Afterthoughts from 1UP.com. October 13, 2012, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  2. ↑ A Tom Nook plush toy at a Tom Nook price - Joystiq (Nintendo). February 11, 2009, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  3. ↑ GamesRadar_ US 2009-12-29T18: 12: 42.362Z Feature: The 25 best new characters of the decade. Retrieved March 3, 2019 (American English).
  4. ↑ The 50 Coolest Video Game Villains of All Time49. Tom Nook. Accessed March 3, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Tom Nook is number 72 - IGN. June 28, 2013, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  6. ↑ IGN: Animal Crossing: City Folk & Wii Speak Bundle Review. February 14, 2009, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  7. ↑ PVP - by nook or by crook. Retrieved March 3, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Brett Elston 2008-11-25T22: 01: 41.329Z Feature: Animal Crossing's dark side revealed. Retrieved March 3, 2019 (American English).
  9. ↑ GameSpy: Videogame Characters Who Would Suck in Real Life - Page April 1 , 2010, accessed March 3, 2019 .
Animal Crossing


Main series

Animal Crossing  • Wild World  • Let's Go to the City  • New Leaf  • New Horizons

Offshoot

Happy Home Designer  • Amiibo Festival  • Pocket Camp