Animal Crossing is a series of social simulation games developed and released by Nintendo starting in 2001. The series was initially created by Katsuya Eguchi, who, after moving far from home and to a new city to begin his work at Nintendo, was inspired to translate this experience into the form of a game.

This game was called Doubutsu no Mori, or Animal Forest, as it translates to English, and released in 2001 for the N64. Later that year, the game was re-released as Doubutsu no Mori+ for the Game Cube, with several new features, some of which I feel are considered staples of the series (the Able Sisters and the museum were added in this version!!!!!).

Doubutsu no Mori+ was then localized into English, as well as several other languages, and released as Animal Crossing in America in 2002, Australia in 2003, and Europe in 2004. This localization is now usually either referred to as Animal Crossing: Game Cube, or Animal Crossing: Population Growing, due to a sign on the cover of the game reading "Population: Growing!"

Funny enough, the English localization of Animal Crossing was so popular and impressed Nintendo Japan enough, that it was actually relocalized back into Japanese and released as Doubutsu no Mori e+, with several new features.

After this point, releases are pretty consistent. Animal Crossing: Wild World released for the DS in 2005 in Japan, America, and Australia, 2006 in Europe, and 2007 in South Korea. This game was pretty similar to Animal Crossing, but it also added many new things to the series, including characters like Harriet, Celeste, and Brewster. This was also the installment where grass deterioration was added (to the dismay of many).

Animal Crossing: City Colk was released for the Wii in 2008 in America, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Europe, and in 2010 in South Korea. This game added the city, which was where characters previously considered special visitors, as well as some new characters, were able to host a shop, but otherwise the game was incredibly similar to Wild World, which made many fans of the game upset.

In an attempt to turn over a New Leaf in the series, Nintendo released Animal Crossing: New Leaf (get it??) for the 3DS in 2012 in Japan, and 2013 in North America, Europe, and Australia. This game changed... a LOT. So much so, in fact, that even the artstyle was dramatically changed, as Nintendo attempted to separate it from past entries. The game formula also changed significantly. Players became the mayor, rather than just another citizen of the town, and were granted a lot of town customization options, including ordinances and public works projects! Grass deterioration was NOT removed BUT it was altered to make it harder for grass wear to begin in any spot, preventing past issues of entire towns having worn grass.

In 2016, Welcome Amiibo, a free update to Animal Crossing: New Leaf was released globally, providing Amiibo compatibility for the game, as well as a number of small changes, such as allowing players to sit on rocks!

There were several other games that released around this time (Happy Home Designer, Amiibo Festival, Pocket Camp), but I won't be covering them because they're more like spin-off games, rather than main-line games.

In 2020, the game everyone and their mom knows and played, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, released globally. It built upon the changes made in New Leaf, being player customization, and added many new features in a similar vein, such as terraforming, moving the locations of shops and villager houses, fencing, and the ability to place furniture outside (!!!). The graphics were also improved on immensely, in the form of small details to make the world feel alive (eg, flowers and the leaves of trees rustling in the wind, and at faster speeds depending on the wind/general weather conditions).

A dlc was released for New Horizons in 2022 that expanded further on villager-related customization. It functioned as a similar game to Happy Home Designer, and it also allowed you to completely remodel the interiors of your villagers houses. It also added... walls? partitions? What are they called? I'm not sure, I never bought the dlc. XXP

Simply put.. Animal Crossing saved my life! XX3

Ironically, given Katsuya Eguchi's reasons for creating the games, when I was barely 10 years old, my family moved across the country. I lost contact with basically all of my friends, and all of the people at my new school hated me and spread terrible rumors about me (including that I killed over 10 people. I played into it because I thought it was a joke, because what 10 year old is able to kill 10 people?? But either it wasn't a joke, or people thought I was weird for committing to the bit. So whatever).

A couple months later, on Christmas, one of my gifts was a copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf! .....I thought it was stupid. LOL. But my father told me to give the game a chance and, on December 31, 2014, I started my first ever Animal Crossing town. I called it Taco (I wanted to call it Taco Town, and since Tomodachi Life appended "Island" at the end of your input, I thought, "Surely this will be the case here too"...).

My native fruit was cherries, and I regrettebly ate the perfect fruit... I dont remember all of the initial villagers in my town, but I can remember Cally, Tom, Leonardo, and Cole. Cally was my best friend!! She's still one of my favorites to this day. I should probably get her amiibo...

This game was... amazing. It was an escape where I actually had friends, despite being a newcomer to town. It's no wonder I became attached so easily! As I've gotten older, the franchise as a whole continues to be an escape from me, whether that be from bullying, abuse, or simply just the stress of real life. Had this game never existed, or had I never discovered and played it, I dont think that I would be here today. I'm very greatful for these games!! ::3

work in progress!!