Animal Crossing: Every Game In The Series, Ranked

With the release of the most popular entry to date, Animal Crossing has definitely made a name for itself at this point as one of the most accessible and fun life-sim style games around. Ever since the first release of the series with Animal Crossing, which came out towards the end of the lifespan of the Nintendo 64 as well as being a launch title for GameCube, it’s had staying power.

That being said, not all of the entries have been smash-hits, with a few in the series more or less just existing to tide people over until the next entry. Here, we’ll be taking a look at all of the games in the series from an objective position.

8 Amiibo Festival

Amiibo Festival definitely had potential, but in reality, it played out more like an op to sell Amiibos for something other than Super Smash Bros. than existing as a whole game. Amiibo Festival was released for Wii U, back in 2015, along with a line of Animal Crossing-themed Amiibos, making the stunt even more transparent. The Amiibo collecting craze kind of came and went, and there’s really no reason to play this game anymore unless one’s an Animal Crossing completionist.

7 Pocket Camp

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp kind of annoyed a lot of people when it came out, especially because people were more expecting a main-series title to be announced rather than this mobile game.

It wasn’t quite as big as the outcry over the announcing of The Elder Scrolls Blades or Fallout Shelter, but fans weren’t happy. The game is basically like an extremely light version of an Animal Crossing game, serving more to familiarize players with the cute villagers and the vibe of the game than to provide a full experience.

6 Happy Home Designer

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer isn’t altogether a bad game, it’s just not really a game that should be considered in the same breath as the main-series games. One of the biggest complaints seen from critics is that there’s no actual challenge in the game, although that’s not really a valid criticism of an already simplistic series. While the game isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea, for anyone who enjoys spending time designing their house in Animal Crossing titles more than reaching objectives, this is definitely the one to play.

5 Animal Crossing: City Folk

The entry released by Nintendo for the Wii is Animal Crossing: City Folk. City Folk was one of the games in the franchise that wasn’t exactly critically acclaimed universally. In fact, the game received rather mixed reviews from both critics and fans alike. It’s not that there’s really anything wrong with the game, which even included voice-chat and wi-fi connectivity, it’s just that not much had changed. It’s a good entry into the series for people who weren’t familiar with the previous titles, but not really worth much for people who were familiar with other games in the franchise.

4 Animal Crossing: Wild World

Animal Crossing: Wild World is a game that was released for the Nintendo DS originally, being the first portable entry in the series. The game essentially showed that the game was right at home on a console that could be carried around anywhere at the player’s will. The entry also featured wi-fi play, which allowed for friends to visit each other’s villages, something that the games had only previously done locally. The game was later released on virtual console for the Wii U, and unfortunately, the Wi-Fi support was ended in 2014.

3 Animal Crossing

The first entry in the series isn’t exactly perfect, but for fans of more established life-sims like Harvest Moon, the game represented a new possibility in the genre, with a brand new aesthetic and less of a focus on farming.

The game also had events that were cued up in real-time, both in terms of the time of day the player is running the game, and in terms of which season the player is playing in, including events like Christmas and New Years.

2 Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the iteration of the series that was released on the Nintendo 3DS. It belongs to the main series of games, which needs to be mentioned given the extremely common spin-offs in the series. The game features a new plot-device, which is that the player is now the mayor of the village they inhabit, instead of just living there, which really adds a new dimension to the gameplay. The player can pass laws that will affect the way some of the villagers behave, and they can also do public works projects, like changing the infrastructure of the town by way of taxation.

1 Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the most recent entry in the series, and it really needs no introduction. The game features plenty of new features, and a wide array of new villagers the player can have live in their town, or maybe just visit. There are also a bunch of new features that aren’t particularly great when compared to some of the older entries, such as the microtransactions and economies that have caused legitimate problems. In our current day and age, the issues with this game aren’t unexpected, just kind of annoying.

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