Over the last few days, fans everywhere have been poring over the recent Nintendo ‘gigaleak;’ a massive amount of source codes and unused assets for several titles that were not meant to be public knowledge. We’ve seencut characters from the likes ofSuper Mario 64andStar Fox 2, and now we can add the originalAnimal Crossingto the list.
When we say the originalAnimal Crossing, we’re not talking about the one on GameCube. More specifically, it’s the Japanese-exclusive N64 title,Animal Forest, which later received an enhanced re-release that was the GameCube game the West received.
RELATED:Nintendo Leaks Reveal Strange Star Fox Details
The discovery comes from a game developer who goes by the Twitter handle TV. According to their findings, there is anAnimal Crossingvillager who ultimately never appeared in the game and has yet to make any sort of appearance in the series since. Not even in the newest entry,Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The villager, a female cat, has no official name, only known by the codename CAT13, so TV decided to give her the name of Catty. They transplanted her unused assets onto a character model inAnimal Forest e+(another enhanced version of the original game only available in Japan) to see what she would’ve looked like.
Unfortunately, her design isn’t particularly appealing and the combination of her dark fur and huge lips may be the reason why she was cut from the final release. A redesign could potentially allow her to make a proper appearance in the series in the future, but given that it hasn’t happened in nearly 20 years, it’s probably unlikely that she ever will.
This wasn’t the only thing TV found, though. The leak also contained files for series regular Blathers, who didn’t actually appear in the N64 game and neither did the museum he usually runs. More info can be found on TV’s Twitter and we could probably see even more be revealed in the near future.
While this glimpse into the series' past is certainly interesting, fans may be more focused on the future. Tomorrow, players can look forward to a big update forNew Horizons,which willfinally be adding an option to back-up save data, among other things.
As for Nintendo itself, there is still no word on when another major Nintendo Direct will be taking place. For the time being, fans have been latching onto any rumors they come across, withthe newest one suggesting that it will come in August.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsis available only on Nintendo Switch.
MORE:Hotel Returns Lost Nintendo Switch and Animal Crossing: New Horizons Game With Wholesome Note
