Animal Crossing is a game that really needs no introduction.
It has been released on multiple consoles, it has been included in Super Smash Bros, and it even received a mobile version! It has had crossovers with real world aquariums, and you can even go to nearly any store that sells toys or merchandise, and find something Animal Crossing related.
The series has exploded since its initial release, and it all began with a simple "Welcome to Animal Crossing!"
...
Or did it?
The truth is, despite Animal Crossing being so popular in today's world, not a lot of people know the true full history of the series. Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the first for many, while others might remember New Leaf as a part of their childhood. But the history of Animal Crossing expands far past these two games, and today we are going to take a quick look into exactly where the series began!
While this might already be common knowledge to many of you, hopefully we can still teach you a thing or three.
Animal Forest
The very first release in the Animal Crossing series was a game titled Doubutsu no Mori, or Animal Forest.
Initially designed to make use of the Nintendo 64 Disc Drive, the game was revised and released as a standard Nintendo 64 game in 2001 exclusively in Japan. The game featured a villager getting on a train, being asked questions about themselves and where they are going, and then ultimately moving into a randomly generated town. Once there, they meet with Tanukichi who then sets them up with their first house, and hires them to work at his store to pay it off. This begins the villager's new life in the world of Animal Forest, where every day is a new adventure.
The game ran on a real world clock system, with time actually passing in real time. Villagers would move in and out of the town throughout the year, and players could become friends with them during that time. Japanese holidays would be celebrated on the days they actually took place, and players could obtain a wide variety of furniture to decorate their houses with. What initially begins as a small single room home, eventually gets upgraded into a larger room with an upstairs and basement, and players would get ranked based upon how well they lay out their stuff. Animal Forest allowed for up to four players to move into the town, each with their own home, but they could not play the game at the same time.
Outside of the home, players could go fishing, catch bugs, and find dinosaur fossils. Players could also get lucky and obtain Famicom games, which actually let them play the full original titles.
In short, the game was packed full of content, and offered a life simulation experience like no other. Sadly this entry remained Japanese exclusive, but things would change a year later.
Animal Crossing
In 2002 Animal Crossing was finally released in the West for the Nintendo GameCube.
The game was based off of the original Animal Forest release the previous year, but with brand new content to go along with its complete localization. Characters like Tanukichi were renamed to Tom Nook, the Japanese holidays were removed in favor of western ones, and a wide range of new features were included.
Some of the changes made to the game included giving villagers different eye colors, the introduction of new characters for the western based holidays, existing characters were slightly redesigned, and a Museum was added to display collected fish, bugs, and fossils. Players could also now create custom designs at the tailor, and Famicom games were also replaced with their NES versions, with some special NES games being locked behind the other newly included feature; the eReader.
Overall it was the "best" version of the game, and was the title to
fully establish what Animal Crossing would be moving forward. (It was also the version with some pretty great TV advertisements!)
The Game Boy Advance and eReader
Animal Crossing on the Nintendo GameCube was one of the handful of games that could make use of the Game Boy Advance Cable, and the short lived eReader. By connecting a GBA to the GameCube, players could speak to Kapp'n to have him take them to an island just south of the village. This island was home to one random villager, and players could both spend time with them in game, or use their physical GBA to play with them and take care of them like a virtual pet. The island contained exclusive islands for players to obtain, and could also be used to harvest coconuts, or get a sun tan by staying outside too long. This was the only way to change a character's skin tone originally, and could also result in a sun burn if left out too long.
Besides visiting the island and playing the island mini game, the GBA could also be used to create custom designs, and play obtained NES games.
When it came to the eReader content, players needed to own the eReader itself, connect it to a GBA, and connect the GBA Cable directly into the eReader. From there, players could purchase card packs, or obtain them from Nintendo Power, and scan them. These cards could be used to obtain special items, town tunes, clothing designs, and even unlock special NES games. Some eReader cards also came with secret passwords, which could either be found on the back of the card, or by obtaining high scores within mini games.
Although the eReader wasn't very successful in the west, the device continued to be supported in Japan, with over 60 new villagers being released for the Japanese version. Despite this, the eReader wasn't the last time Animal Crossing cards would appear in the western market, as Nintendo would revisit this idea in the near future.
Animal Forest e+
In 2004 Animal Forest e+ released on the Nintendo GameCube in Japan. While Animal Forest + was initially ported to the GameCube in 2001, e+ included all of the changes and enhancements introduced with Animal Crossing, while also adding some new content of its own.
Animal Forest e+ was one of the few games that worked with the GameCube SD Card adapter, and as such, could be used to save screenshots, and even back up and restore copies of different Animal Crossing towns. The game also supported the revised model of the Japanese eReader, which was based off of the western design, so players could connect the eReader to the GameCube as well. This meant all of the cards released for the western version of the game could be used here as well, along with the newly introduced ones for the Japanese market.
Other changes included the ability to simply purchase the island (without needing a GBA connected), and the introduction of systems such as becoming best friends, finding lost items, and catching fleas off of villagers. Such features would become staples in Animal Crossing going forward, but they originated here.
Animal Crossing: Wild World
After multiple versions of the original Animal Crossing was released, Nintendo set their sights to the Nintendo DS.
The Nintendo DS was a handheld console that not only replaced the Game Boy Advance, but included a GBA slot as well; it was nearly fully backwards compatible. Power wise the handheld was capable of handling 3D graphics, and had the ability to connect online via wi-fi as well. Along with the touch screen which would allow players to type on a keyboard or draw, it was the perfect platform for what would become known as Animal Crossing: Wild World.
Wild World released during the holiday season of 2005, and was the first entry in the series to have a true multiplayer mode. Players were able to create their own town, and by adding another player's friend code, they could open their Town Gate to allow them to visit. Only four players could be in a village at a time, with only two at a time being allowed inside a building, but they could talk to each other using the keyboard, and had access to all standard Animal Crossing features. There was a limitation on placing furniture inside homes when someone else was inside, but all they had to do was leave. Other multiplayer features included the ability to share design patterns with each other, and "for fun" objects like the timer that would track how many fish or bugs were caught during a set period of time. Animal Crossing was always a game where players made their own fun however, and that too extended into the multiplayer. It was a sandbox for friends to hang-out in.
Moving past the multiplayer, the game featured multiple changes to the core gameplay. Players could now change their character's hat, or even completely take off the hat to change their hair style (something the original did not let you do). New face accessories such as glasses were added in as well, new locations such as The Roost (a coffee shop) and Shampoodle were added into the Museum and Nook's shop respectively. The final new location however, also went hand in hand with the biggest change of all. The new perspective.
While Animal Forest and Animal Crossing featured a top-down view, Wild World lowers the angle, and turns the world itself into that of a cylinder. Objects in the background slowly fade away into the horizon as players walk south towards the screen, and the sky is now visible thanks to the Nintendo DS having a second top screen. Here is where balloons can be spotted and shot down using a sling shot, and where stars and constellations can be viewed at night. These constellations can actually be created and modified by going to the new Observatory within the Museum, and by speaking with Celeste.
Along with the addition of a sky, other environmental changes were made as well. While the previous versions of Animal Crossing had towns with multiple levels and cliff-sides, Wild World is a single flat level. To make up for this change other additions were made, such as the ability to select the location of your house, but there was no denying what was lost. Holidays from the original Animal Crossing were also removed in favor of new Animal Crossing exclusive events, with the exception of the New Year count down, and little details like the random ball players could kick around were also taken out. On the flip side, changes to the flower system and housing system were a huge improvement.
Flowers in the original titles were nothing more than decoration found across the village. They didn't do much besides look pretty, and there was a limited number of them. Weeds would grow as well, which were ugly and cluttered up the town, but that was about it. In Wild World however, the flower hybrid was introduced, and players could now water them to create unique flower colors. On the other hand, flowers that are not watered will die over time, so they needed to be taken care of every day to avoid losing them. This new flower system played into the town rating and environment aspect of the game as well, so it gave players a reason to plant flowers and trees to make things as "perfect" as possible.
The final major addition to Wild World was the inclusion of extra rooms in the house, and the ability to have four users in the same town. A north room, west room, and east room were added to the main floor of the house, while the basement was removed, but all users playing on the same game card would have to share it; other players did not get their own houses as they could previously.
In the end, Wild World was the game to really push the social aspect of Animal Crossing, and it quickly became one of the biggest games the Nintendo DS had to offer. Along side other multiplayer games like Mario Kart DS, it was one of the first titles to bring Nintendo into the online world, and that would be a key part of the series going forward.
Animal Crossing: City Folk
The next entry in the Animal Crossing series was a little different.
Titled Animal Crossing: City Folk, the game released as a Wii exclusive in 2008. Instead of forcing everyone to start over from scratch, City Folk allowed players to take their Animal Crossing: Wild World character, and actually move into a new town. This new town once again featured multiple levels and cliffs like in the first Animal Crossing versions, but it also had grass that would die if ran upon. The biggest difference for this town town however, was the fact that it now had a bus stop to take players to the newly introduced city.
At the city, players could find a wide variety of shops to spend money at, and higher end items that would require the use of a debit card to purchase. This debit card was linked directly to player's Animal Crossing bank accounts, and allowed them to enter the city without having to hold stacks of bells (the Animal Crossing currency) in their pockets. Besides the addition of a debit card, a shoe shop was also added, as City Folk was the first game in the series to add changeable shoes and sock color. This is another feature that would continue into the later entries of the series; however, the city and debit card would not. (At least not in the same form when it comes to the city.)
Outside of the city, City Folk was very much like Wild World. It restored the holidays from the previous entries, and allowed each player to own their own house in town. House sizes were reduced back to their original N64 and GameCube size (no extra rooms, but the basement returned and could now be customized), new town monuments could be placed by donating to Town Hall. The game also featured new furniture, clothing, and other items, but also retained what was previously in Wild World.
Multiplayer was also upgraded in City Folk, with the game now supporting USB keyboards, and the new Wii Speak add-on, which was a microphone that could sit on top of a player's TV. Animal Crossing was one of the few games to support the device, and it was included with the City Folk bundle. Players visiting the town were still limited to four at a time, but all four users could now be inside a single location.
Ultimately, City Folk was more of an extension to Wild World, and those who chose to move from Wild World got to bring over their appearance, name, and entire item catalogue. This gave existing players a huge head start, but they would still have to rebuild their bank account to actually reorder items they once owned.
Sadly City Folk did not feature any form of local multiplayer, so when the servers shut down the multiplayer mode went with it. Wild World on the other hand could still be played locally with friends.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
For the next entry in the series, Nintendo took Animal Crossing back to handhelds with the Nintendo 3DS.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf launched in June of 2013 in the West, after its initial 2012 Japanese release. The game featured redesigned character models that were taller, and introduced the ability to change the character's pants. The shops from the city in City Folk were relocated to an attached city region just north of town, and the game made the player the mayor of the town instead of a simple resident. As the mayor, players could select where buildings and other constructed objects were placed in town, and could even change the town ordinance to adjust how the town functioned. One ordinance ordered villagers to take care of flowers, ensuring they never wilted or died, while others effected how late shops stayed open, or how early. These were designed to allow players to customize the games to fit their real life needs, and also allowed for each town to be a bit more unique.
Multiplayer once again returned, but this time all four players could do more than just hang-out in each other's towns. Players could take the boat to the reintroduced tropical island, and there were added mini games to play as well. Previously online modes in Animal Crossing didn't allow other players to enter special areas (such as the city), so this was a huge change from what was seen before.
Other additions included a wide variety of new furniture and items to collect, new types of tropical fruit that could be planted on the beach, and the introduction of swimming and diving brought along with it new sea creatures to find and collect. The Museum also added extra rooms where special items could be displayed outside of the usual fish, bugs, and fossils, and housing also saw a major upgrade.
Similar to Wild World, houses once again included the north, east, and west rooms, but this time around the basement was included as well. However, unlike every game before it, even these additional rooms could be upgraded, and eventually increased to the same larger size of the main room. This meant houses in New Leaf were the largest they had ever been, and that fact still rings true to today.
Of course New Leaf also saw other general improvements as well, such as the addition of new villagers, but the game could be easily summed up in one sentence. Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a game that takes nearly everything from the past, and makes it better. That is all there was to it.
Animal Crossing: Plaza
When the Wii U released, many expected a new Animal Crossing to come with it as well. However, that didn't happen in the way one might think. Instead, a little app known as Animal Crossing: Plaza was released in 2013, and it was the last Animal Crossing related thing to be released for a couple of years.
Instead of being a game, Animal Crossing: Plaza was an extension of Nintendo's Miiverse social network. Miiverse itself was a follow up to Nintendo's Nsider Forums, which originally closed unexpectedly back in 2007. Back then Nintendo stated they were looking for a way to better incorporate their fans and community with their newer Nintendo DS and Wii hardware; however, that never came to fruition until 2012 with the Wii U's included app Miiverse.
Miiverse allowed users to follow groups dedicated to their favorite games, and then either draw pictures, type messages, or post pictures related to the topic at hand. In a way it was an extension of PicTChat on the Nintendo DS (which allowed users to draw and send messages to nearby Nintendo DS owners), as well as Flipnote on the Nintendo 3DS. While both of these apps were peer to peer however, Miiverse was a full online community that everyone had access to.
Animal Crossing: Plaza was an app that simply connected to the Animal Crossing group, and displayed messages, and screenshots posted there. Other Nintendo games did something similar within their actual games (such as Splatoon showing messages in its hub town), but as Animal Crossing didn't have a Wii U title, this was shown in Plaza instead. This is all Plaza really was; Miiverse with an Animal Crossing skin, and it never evolved past that. Eventually it was shut down in 2014, while Miiverse itself came to an end in 2017.
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
Still avoiding the Wii U, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer was the second Animal Crossing game to release on the Nintendo 3DS in 2015.
Instead of being a standard Animal Crossing title, the game focused completely on working for the Happy Home Academy, and building houses for animal villagers in need. Players are given a wide range of tools to work with, with a new option to place partition walls and half walls within a home. Players could also now side step around furniture, or squeeze by them if there was a small gap, making it so you no longer had to leave extra room to walk. Furniture and items could now also be rearranged using the touch screen on the 3DS, making customizing rooms much easier than just placing and pushing items around.
While the game wasn't a standard Animal Crossing title, it greatly improved upon the house building aspect of the series, and allowed players to fully unleash their interior decorating creativity. With multiple houses to make use of, it allowed players to save a lot more layouts rather than just a single house with multiple rooms.
On top of all of this, Happy Home Designer was the first Animal Crossing to be compatible with Nintendo's new Amiibo figures and cards. Similar to the eReader cards back during the GameCube days, these little figures or cards could be scanned into the game to unlock additional characters and content. Only a handful of physical figures were ever created, while card packs became a lot more common. These same figures and cards could also be used in future Animal Crossing titles, making them a lot more useful than simply unlocking content in a spinoff.
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Finally! Animal Crossing arrived on the Wii U.
Releasing a few months after Happy Home Designer on the 3DS, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival launched exclusively on the Wii U in November of 2015. Like the previous title however, this was a spinoff and not a main entry.
Amiibo Festival is a board game that makes use of physical Amiibo figures and Amiibo cards. Players scan their characters (or cards) into the game, and roll the dice to make their way across the board. And that is about it.
Sadly Amiibo Festival required Amiibo to be able to play it, and they were not always easy to come by. The game also lacked variety, and was overshadowed by other party games like the popular Mario Party series. The game was short lived, but thankfully it wasn't the last time Amiibo would be a major focus.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome Amiibo
Following the poor reception of Amiibo Festival, a second version of Animal Crossing: New Leaf was announced, and given the subtitle Welcome Amiibo.
Released in 2016, the game could either be purchased directly, or downloaded as a free update for existing copies of Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
As the name suggests, the update made the game compatible with Amiibo, allowing for over 50 new villagers to move into town, and gave players access to new special guest characters. Along with this, over 750 new items were added into the game, the game was fine tuned and rebalanced to fix complaints fans had about the original release (such as how villagers could move in over top of design patterns and destroy paths), new daily town missions called Town Initiatives were added in, and an option to sell the town and start over was also included. Along with all of this, new mini games were introduced, and new character interactions were introduced as well; like being able to sit on rocks.
The update was a huge expansion for New Leaf, and greatly expanded upon an already massive Animal Crossing title. Unfortunately with the 3DS eShop now being closed, it can now only be played if users previously downloaded the update, or by purchasing a physical copy that already includes it.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was the next "main" entry within the Animal Crossing series, but it was also one that could be seen as a spinoff.
The game launched in 2017 exclusively for mobile devices, and was an attempt to bring the Animal Crossing series to the world of mobile gaming. And it succeeded.
Lasting for nearly seven years, the game allowed players to build their own campsite, customize their own RV (which had multiple floors), and customize their own log cabin (which ALSO had multiple floors). It brought the core decorating gameplay into the palm of your hand, and included close to 10,000 items to collect and display. It was the largest Animal Crossing content wise, but with mobile gameplay applied on top of it all.
Instead of featuring a Museum, bugs, fish, and other collectibles were used to either gain money, or to give to animals that requested items. Giving animals items they want would increase their friendship level with the player, and upon receiving enough friendship points the player would level up. Only a limited number of animals could be helped each day, with real money options allowing for more refreshes. The campsite and cabin could also have dozens of layouts saved (allowing for those 10,000ish items to actually be used), but even this feature was locked behind a subscription service. Some items could also only be obtained via randomly drawn fortune cookies, which could either be gained for free by getting lucky, or by spending Leaf Tickets to unlock them instantly. Leaf Tickets themselves were slowly rewarded to players, but they could also be purchased by using real money. This monetization is what kept the game running for years, but it also meant some players clearly had an advantage. This especially rang true for those who paid for the helper plan, which for a low fee made it so an animal helper would gather items when users weren't playing. This meant a lot of money, a lot of items, and a lot of resources all without lifting a finger.
And resources were important.
Rather than simply buying everything, Pocket Camp introduced a crafting feature. Crafting required a set amount of materials, and so many hours in real time for the item to be completed. Long time players could eventually decrease the time it took to craft something, but it too was ultimately locked behind the helper plan. Other special items were gained via weekly or monthly events, with a "season pass" system eventually also being incorporated. This new "planner" system awarded players with points for completing daily goals, and the rewards were special items that couldn't be gained elsewhere. It also had a free and paid for version, so again, paid players would get more out of the game in the long run.
Although the game didn't feature true multiplayer, other players would appear in random locations in the game, and items could be put up for sale and traded between them. Gifts could also be sent between friends, which a lot of the time would reward the other player with special fortune cookies to get rare furniture. For those who didn't pay for the game's subscriptions, having friends was another way to "cheat" the system, but even gifts were limited to only once a day per user.
In the end, Pocket Camp was a massive entry within the series, and something that greatly evolved past its initial release. However, Pocket Camp came to a close at the end of 2024, with Pocket Camp Complete replacing it shortly after.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a very unique game. It was the Nintendo Switch's main entry in the series, and it released at the start of a global pandemic! In a world where everyone was supposed to stay inside, and avoid contact with people... New Horizons acted as a gateway to the outside world. A way for friends and family to connect, and to hang-out despite not being able to be physically present.
Putting that aside however, New Horizons was a pretty big change for the series.
Instead of taking place in a small village, New Horizons puts players in control of their own "island paradise," where they must build it up and recruit more villagers as time goes on. Taking the "mayor" setup from New Leaf, the game allowed players to not just place key objects around the island, but every single piece of indoor furniture could now be used outside as well. Actual paths could be placed to create roads and sidewalks, cliff edges could be broken down and reshaped to build upper levels anywhere, rivers and waterfalls could be altered, and ponds could be freely built. The island layout was fully customizable, with the exceptions of the outside edges, and the two river mouths which were set the moment the island was created. This allowed players to build exactly what they wanted, where they wanted, and then decorate it as well. This meant every single island could truly be unique, and completely change day by day.
But all of this wasn't completely free.
Taking the item crafting system from Pocket Camp, New Horizons also asked for most items to be crafted. Resources could be gathered from trees, rocks, etc, but these resources were limited by the day. Players could gain extra materials by visiting outside islands, but these too required a new currency called "Nook Miles" to access. Nook Miles were gained by completing daily goals, which could take awhile to initial build up as well. Other players islands were an option as well, but they have the same limit resources as your own, and taking them would be taking away from other players.
On top of needing resources to craft items, tools such as shovels, bug nets, fishing rods, etc, all have a durability limit, and would break with continued use. This durability could be reset by using a customization kit to change the tool's look and color, but a broken tool must either be rebuilt (which required resources), or a new one needed to be purchased from the shop.
This focus on "DIY" and the randomness of gaining DIY recipes completely altered how previous Animal Crossing titles played, and its inclusion came at the cost of many items not making the cut. On the other hand item storage and clothing did see a major overhaul as well, with both storage and closets now being represented by menus rather than as items sitting in a storage box. In general the game featured many quality of life changes, but it would take a few years before some of the missing content was added back into the game. Eventually diving was reintroduced, the art gallery was added back into the Museum, and holidays and events were added in as their real world dates approached. None of this was included in the base game, but can be accessed from now on (even if you change the clock on the Switch).
As for the multiplayer features this time around, not only did the online mode support up to eight players at once, but two players could now play co-op on the same switch. Dubbed "party play," one player could call in a local resident, and the two could both run around completing their daily activities. Although only the main "owner" of the island can make main decisions for the island, all other players have full access to the game. They gain their own house, can shape the island with the customization tools, place furniture around, etc. Of course a lot of this is limited to who is currently the leader, but that can be taken care of by simply changing the controller to pass on the lead.
Sadly, the city did not make a return this time around, but shops which previously appeared in still pop up daily in front of town hall. That is... Until Happy Home Paradise happened.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise
The Happy Home Paradise update for New Horizons was the game's one and only paid DLC. It could either be purchased on its own, or downloaded for free if users subscribed to the brand new Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service. Not only did the update add a wide variety of items, including fan favorite missing ones like the Froggy Chair, but it also brought back The Roost, the ability to group exercise in front of Town Hall (which was previously seen in the original Animal Crossing), new islands to visit via Kapp'n, and now allowed players to squeeze past furniture as introduced in Happy Home Designer. The update greatly increased the content of New Horizons, but this was only the half of it.
Like in Happy Home Designer on the Nintendo 3DS, Happy Home Paradise introduced the ability to "Go to Work," which sees players working for the Happy Home once again. Here at this new island, players could take on contracts to construct new homes for animal villagers looking for vacation homes. As with the 3DS game, this included new customization options such as half-walls, partition walls, and counters, which could also be used in the main game to further customize player homes. Villager's homes could also be modified using the new Happy Home tools, but house sizes remained restricted to their default size. Other features included being able to polish items to add special effects to them (such as making them sparkle).
The final main additions to the DLC included climbable ladders and vines that could be placed at cliff sides, a new "cooking" DIY category, and the ability to grow a garden to support the new cooking profession.
All of this helped make New Horizons a better game; however, it was also the game's final update. Outside of a few minor patches, this marked the end of New Horizons.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete
The (current) final entry within the Animal Crossing series is Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete.
Released at the end of 2024, Pocket Camp Complete is a paid version of the original Pocket Camp without any of the additional paid options. This means all previous subscription features are in the game for free, such as the multiple camp layouts, and premium items can be purchased with the new Leaf Tokens that are gained at a much faster rate. Players from Pocket Camp were able to transfer their progress over to Pocket Camp Complete, so nothing was lost outside of a few early Nintendo event items.
Thanks to these changes, Pocket Camp Complete is now a full single player Animal Crossing experience, with seven years worth of content, and an additional year worth of new content as well. Although multiplayer connections was removed from the game, players can share QR codes of their villager to send them into their friend's games, so the social element wasn't completely taken away.
Overall, Pocket Camp Complete truly is the "complete" package.
The Future
And there you have it! This has been the complete history of Animal Crossing. At this point in time no further projects has been announced by Nintendo, but the series is sure to live on. This article will be updated as more announcements are made, so feel free to check back at a later date!
Until then, thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and we hope you learned at least a little something from all of this!
Later!
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