Summary
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf revolutionized the series with its mayor mechanic, new characters, and creative freedom, solidifying its modern identity.
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons became a bestseller with its unique island setting and enhanced customization options, though it relied heavily on post-launch updates.
- Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival disappointed fans with its lackluster board game mode and required amiibo use, falling short of expectations for a mainline title.
The Animal Crossing series has grown into a massive franchise since its international debut on the GameCube, becoming one of Nintendo's biggest series in recent years. As an icon of the life-sim genre, Animal Crossing has pioneered many elements that have helped it remain unique among its competitors, such as its real-time day cycle and multiplayer connectivity. While not every entry in the series has been as popular as some of the others, there have been enough hits to propell the franchise to the heights it has reached today.
Although the core Animal Crossing series has retained largely the same formula throughout its life, several spin-off titles have changed the way players interact with the world and its characters. Animal Crossing is even one of the few Nintendo franchises to recieve its own mobile title, demonstrating how broad of an appeal this series has. Despite a few controversial entries, the Animal Crossing series has consistently delivered a charming experience that has captured the hearts of many fans over the years.
S-Tier
Animal Crossing: New Leaf – The core 3DS entry in the series is often considered the title that gave the Animal Crossing series its modern identity. Animal Crossing: New Leaf took the traditional Animal Crossing formula and put a major twist on it by putting players in the position of Mayor, allowing them to shape the growth of their town to their liking. Along with giving players more creative freedom than ever before, Animal Crossing: New Leaf also introduced popular new characters like Isabelle, Leif, and Reese, as well as a variety of new villagers.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Animal Crossing: New Horizons took the world by storm when it released in 2020, quickly becoming the best selling game in the Animal Crossing series. Rather than having players move into a small town, Animal Crossing: New Horizons flies them out to an uninhabited island and tasks them with cleaning it up and developing it to attract residents to move there. This entry drastically increased the amount of customization options available to players by introducing mechanic like crafting and terraforming, but didn't quite have the staying power of other entries due to overreliance on post-launch updates.
A-Tier
Animal Crossing: Wild World – As only the second game in the series, Animal Crossing: Wild World had huge shoes to fill and the potential to set the precedent for future entries. Luckily, Animal Crossing: Wild World successfully demonstrated that the series functions best when it can be played portably, as this Nintendo DS entry expanded upon what made the original game great and translated it to a handheld format. The game featured more customization options than its predecessor while also taking advantage of the DS hardware to become the first entry in the series to include online connectivity.
Animal Crossing – The game that started it all may not be as feature-rich as some of the modern entries, but it holds a special place in many players' hearts and built a solid foundation for future Animal Crossing titles to iterate upon. Originally released as Animal Forest on the N64 in Japan, Animal Crossing would release internationally on GameCube in 2001. Despite feeling more bare bones compared to its sequels, many fans point to Animal Crossing on the GameCube as the model for a diversity of villager personalities that future entries in the series should follow.
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer – Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is notable for being the first spin-off game in the series, releasing on the 3DS in 2015. This title takes the home customization elements from the mainline games and refines it into the central mechanic of the game. In Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, players are given the opportunity design homes and other buildings for their favorite villagers, and this spin-off was popular enough to recieve a sequel in the form of Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Happy Home Paradise DLC.
B-Tier
Animal Crossing: City Folk – While there is nothing inherently wrong with Animal Crossing: City Folk, the series' Wii entry never felt like as much of a step forward for the series as the previous entry, Animal Crossing: Wild World. After being able to visit their town portably on the DS entry, Animal Crossing: City Folk once again confined players to a home console. This entry did add the ability to visit the City and check out attractions like GracieGrace and the Marquee, but these features weren't enough of an improvement make City Folk feel like anything more than just another Animal Crossing game.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp – Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has the honor of being one of Nintendo's few ventures into the mobile game market, and the Animal Crossing series was the perfect candidate for the platform. However, this spin-off title is very stripped down compared to its console counterparts and falls victim to the typical mobile game criticisms of premium currency and timed events designed to capitalize on FOMO. While there are some mechanics like fishing and furniture collecting that give Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp some semblance of the main series, it is no substitute for one of the core titles.
C-Tier
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival – Perhaps one of the most infamously disappointing games in Nintendo's history, Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival was a poorly timed spin-off in the eyes of many series fans. While the concept of a Mario Party style game featuring Animal Crossing characters is solid, the execution of Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival's bare bones board game mode and required amiibo use felt like a cheap cash grab. The game also released in 2015 at a time when many fans were expecting the next mainline title to be announced, resulting in even more disappointment when the new Animal Crossing game being teased turned out to be this amiibo-based spin-off.