Poll: The Utterly Charming Animal Crossing Series Is 15 Today, But Which Is Your Favourite?

poor amiibo festival is nobody's favorite

Amiibo Festival is not only the best Animal Crossing game, but it is also THE greatest game ever made. 😁

I voted for the Gamecube AC just because of that magic of playing the series for the first time. New Leaf is obviously the better game but I voted nostalgia.

Amiibo Festival obviously

I've only played New Leaf.

I voted new leaf

Animal Crossing: Wild World because it was the first Animal Crossing for the Nintendo DS, in which it popularized AC even further into the handheld market, rather than on home consoles (although I wish they made one for the Wii U). A sim game in which you could take it on the go. How about that?

Also, it was the first and only Animal Crossing game that I ever played. I wonder if I still have the cartridge. I wish I could play AC: New Leaf.

Why is not everyone voting for the original? The original allows you to find a ton of NES games. It's not even debatable which game is better. The rest of them are shallow in terms of content compared to the original.

Remember that the original only has 15 years LEFT.
It stops working after 2030. And that includes the GameCube version.

Thankfully, though, the later games don't have this issue.

Sure, New Leaf is objectively the best one in terms of content but the original holds a special place. That game was MAGIC back in the day.

@XCWarrior I like AC for AC, don't need other games in it, I'll buy those seperately if I want em.

None. I don't play Animal Crossing games.

2% pity vote for Festival now lol

You didn't do an option for jerks like me, who've never played any of them...

@Stu13 Yep, same

New Leaf is probably the best gameplay-wise, but I had to vote for City Folk, the first one I played.

New Leaf was the first I played. I wish Happy Home Designer had more love as I really enjoy its more focused approach. Still, New Lead is by far my most played game this generation.

The Gamecube one is unforgettable. Those NES games you were able to actually play at home...

New Leaf really is the definitive version. So much content and very polished but I must have put thousands of hours into the Gamecube version, which at the time I had to import the Australian version because NoE decided to release Doshin the Giant instead. Not that I'm complaining about Doshin as I quite enjoyed that, to be fair. Anyways, I've played a lot of New Leaf but it hasn't caught me as much as the original did and I doubt any new version ever will.

Animal Crossing for Gamecube.
the feels though after seeing that trailer

People actually prefer amiibo festival to happy home designer? ??

New leaf is still amazing. ..I bought it on day 1 and still go on it most days and still have 4 original residents from day 1. Love it

Never tried one...... New leaf looks interesting.

I tried City Folk and Wild World after I got into New Leaf, and I couldn't get in to them because of either the controls or framerate. No multiplayer was a bummer too.

I also tried Happy Home Designer, but it left me unhappy. I will stick with mainline series only from now on, me thinks.

New Leaf nailed it.

New Leaf is the best because it takes a lot of cues from the Game Cube version, in my opinion. Game Cube would be the best, but the inventory and game play is extremely clunky when compared to the newer versions.

I've never played an Animal Crossing game so I randomly picked a vote and ended up with amiibo festival

I've never played an Animal Crossing game, although something about it intrigues me, probably the charm or that it's Nintendo. I'm just posting because I turn 25 today myself & I'm like, “Oh wow! I share the same birthday as a popular Nintendo franchise. 😊”
Side note: my favourite character in the series is K.K. Slider.

@BaffleBlend Wow. I did not know this...What happens? After 2030 the year just stays on 2030 permanently?

@DrDingus I completely agree. Playing the original Animal Crossing on GameCube was a wonderful experience, and so full of surprises.

@ROBLOGNICK I imported the Australian PAL version too There was no certainty at the time that it would ever be released in Europe. But of course it finally arrived on our shores about a year after the Australian version.

New Leaf is my favourite, but I won't vote since I've only played that and Happy Home Designer.

I only grabbed New Leaf because it was free due to an old Club Nintendo promotion of buying 3 games to get a free code for a fourth game. It easily surpassed all expectations I had.

I dabbled in Wild World a bit but didn't "get it". It wasn't until Nintendo's awesome marketing campaign they did with New Leaf that I dove right in so ACNL was my first Animal Crossing game. I can't wait to see what the inevitable sequel will be! (Especially after the "bleh" that was Happy Home Designer... Major disappointment. That should've been DLC or something - not a full game.)

Nothing beats Animal Crossing on the GCN. It's still one of the best games I've ever played to this day.

Nothing beats Animal Crossing on the GCN. It's still one of the best games I've ever played to this day.

Nothing beats Animal Crossing on the GCN. It's still one of the best games I've ever played to this day.

Nothing beats Animal Crossing on the GCN. It's still one of the best games I've ever played to this day.

Nothing beats Animal Crossing on the GCN. It's still one of the best games I've ever played to this day.

Alternate article title: "Which Child Do You Love Best?"

Each entry provided distinct and new sensations of mirth and unique interactions and memories with people (including myself) who I had never imagined would experience such games.

But on the one hand, the original was the most mysterious and roommate-friendly. It was very strange how the allure of winning early NES games and winning a leaf to throw into your little square room caused one to go bonkers in wanting it, despite the idea of playing a game that (to the people who had yet to play it, especially by 2002's standards) was filled with "uncool, dorky, average" animals. On the other, Wild World made the series much more accessible to everyone, and especially non-gamers. But though I had so little excitement for it when it finally came out (unlike for the first two international entries), New Leaf surprisingly outdid and out-polished everything the Wild World series brought in nearly every aspect (except for constellation designing and possibly for the music), setting a very high point for the series, especially when combined with the 3DS's once online-enabled Letterbox/Swapnote. New Leaf still can't entirely replicate the same feelings the original invokes (there's no matching the charms of the GBA "Animal Island" nor of the rainy days from the first game, for example) nor its segmented scale (which made everything minute feel grander and pleasurably more time-consuming), but besides for some of the unique features (like the NES games) and design choices of the original, New Leaf's improved communication features, customization potential, and overall featured content utterly causes it to be the greatest in the series (overall!). Each game in the series have incredibly wonderful and incomparable soundtracks, which, to some degree, makes each entry worth playing, even today. Actual magic.

It will be very difficult for Ms. Kyogoku and co. to improve upon silver tried in the furnace of the earth, purified seven times. I just hope I will be surprised once again by the amount of time I have to experience whatever new delights she and her co-workers deliver in the future.

PS: Great to see Amiibo Festival getting some love! Much better game than everyone expecting more of the same decries it as, and fits well into the elements of New Leaf.

New Leaf definitely but the original for GameCube had the most charm, I think. I can't believe anyone in their right mind would vote for Amiibo Festival.

New Leaf, but I'm not against another console version with better online that makes it easier to visit others towns.

New Leaf is easily the best game in the series.

If the NES games weren't in the GameCube game I doubt people would still think of it so fondly... saying that I do still have a bit of a soft spot for the GameCube one simply because it was the first in the series I played. The other games in the series haven't aged too well or have been made redundant.

@davidevoid I don't even really consider the NES games a selling feature of the original because I never really played them. It was cool to collect them and put them in your house, but the best ones were only available via eReader and I never got into that. For me, New Leaf is the best game all around, but there's an endearing "weirdness" to the original that they've never duplicated. The villager dialog was more blunt and random, the music had more of an alternative feeling to it, the art style was a little more jagged and odd. I wish they had kept the series weird instead of going for a more cutesy feel, but cute sells more I guess.

Animal Crossing GameCube. Not because it was the best but probably more because of who I played it with. Those poor poor animals never stood a chance against my roommates and I at that time. Terrible horrible things were done that should never be spoken of again.

You know the world isn't worth it anymore when people are voting for amiibo festival more than the original Animal Forest for N64. What a sad sad world we live in indeed...

I love them all for different reasons and yes that includes amiibo Festival which I still play with my friends (since most of them lack gaming skills/knowledge for a even gaming match), but I have to say Animal Crossing New Leaf.

They improve on so many things like customizing your whole town, certain furnitures, and patterns for almost anything. It was a nice way to show off to people I streetpass with. Also more storage for my hoarding

@FRANKLIN_BADGE I think a lot of people are voting for Amiibo Festival ironically just to be "cool." There's no way it's anyone's favorite Animal Crossing game, even if you did like it. Well, unless maybe it's the only one you've ever played. But still.

New leaf is my favourite , and I am hoping that a new proper ac will be announced at this years e3 as I thought happy home designer wasn't very good and amiibo festival , well lets just say I'm glad I never bought it.

The GCN one. I didn't care/like any of the others. HHD and Festival shouldn't count since they're spinoffs.

It's a New Leaf, yes it is, lol. Anyways, I'm a bit late to the series because the first game I played was City Folk on the Wii. I enjoyed it, but New Leaf is my favorite.

None, I don't like this series even a bit. I find it boring.

New Leaf is my favorite. The GameCube AC is a close second.

Gonna be the odd one out...but I'm going to say that Happy Home Designer is my personal favourite.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adored New Leaf when it first came out. But over time having to spend what little free time I had due to work & all on de-weeding the town, watering flowers, talking to all the neighbours etc when firing up the game just got too tedious for me so I put it down for good.

In HHD I don't have to worry about that & I loved the designing aspect in NL above all so this suited me perfectly. It's not perfect & although I've only put in a fraction of time in it compared to NL (20hrs vs 300hrs +) I personally found it to be far more enjoyable & relaxing (though I do miss going to the Island in local/online).

My wife enjoyed Animal Crossing U that came out last year! Such a great game, mmo style with updated graphics.

Ooh wait I'm dreaming again!

City folk will always be let's go to the city to me

Obviously New Leaf. Seems the vast majority agrees.

Can't wait for AC on NX - it's bound to come out pretty soon after launch, if not @ launch, since it's such an enormous IP and it's been years since New Leaf. I'm betting a full-blown AC must've been in development for Wii U, but after it became clear that system wouldn't last, development likely shifted towards making it into an NX title.

I visited my town last night after seeing the 15th anniversary video, and felt so sad when my village animals all said they thought I had gone for good. I hung out in the village, picked the weeds, and realized that my house is a hoarding disaster in the game. Oops.

Lets hope we get a LEGIT animal crossing on the NX. And I still can't believe that they thought a board game was a good idea.

Wild World was my first AC game so it will forever hold a special place in my heart

Seeing as the only one that I have played is New Leaf I have no choice but to go with that one. I really wish we would have received an Animal Crossing on the Wii U, I need an entry in glorious HD! Perhaps the NX is our best chance because it will have been 3 years since the latest game when it reaches June so there must be something in development.

Definitely Wild World for me. I tried to get into New Leaf, but there was just way too much to do in it and I felt like that took a lot away from the relaxing simplicity of the Animal Crossing series. I also found that being able to buy items from the houses of other players you met over Street Pass made it way too easy to build the perfect house with everything I wanted in it, which resulted in me losing interest in the game after a few months rather than the couple years that I played Wild World for.

Gamecube one is the best, after you´ve played one of these kind of games, you´ve seen everything. Played the DS one for some time and the ones on Wii and 3DS even less. The only way it could interest me anymore would be to make it an open world or something.

Open world Animal Crossing, sounds stupid and make it too complex but I would propably like that game more than what it is now.

the original....because the inclusion of NES games.

It's hysterical that amiibo Festival has any votes lol I mean, I enjoy the game, but it's not my favorite Animal Crossing game. I voted New Leaf just because it's the most fleshed out of the series as of yet.

I gave my vote to Wild World, but for me it's a toss up between that and New Leaf. I think the one thing I didn't like in new leaf was the inability to choose where the animals houses would go. It seemed like one would always move in and ruin my paths. There was also a magic that Would World had (as my first game of the series) that was just kinda missing in New Leaf.

I still keep my town up in the GCN edition, but New Leaf brought the series back for me. I didn't much care for Wild World or City Folk.

@grumblebuzzz good point actually, I also kind of missed the grid based flatter look of the GameCube game. It was a bit more of a pain to get around but looked nice.

@DWWM Yeah. A video game magazine advertising it way back in the day included that info as a positive ("You can play until 2030! That's a long time!" or something like that), and not too long ago, I tested it to be sure.

I set the clock to 12/31/2030 at 11:50 PM and waited.
When Midnight struck, it looped back to 1/1/2030.

I'm guessing it's an artifact from the N64 version since that console didn't HAVE its own system clock.

Amiibo isnt a real animal crossing game. What a shame the wii u never had one. At least make one downloadable. I know I could buy it on the wii, but Id like to use my wii u controller. What a shame!

City Folk. I love playing Animal Crossing on the big screen. Plus my kids were young then and we all three had a Wii and a copy of City Folk so we could visit each other's towns and trade and stuff. Hopefully we'll get a new console version some time. They should just go the Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate route and have the game on handheld and console both and crossplay.

I adore New Leaf. I almost voted for the original out of nostalgia, but I played it again a few weeks ago, and it hasn't aged well for me personally.

This question is like asking me to choose one between my two favorite children....I have a lot of love and nostalgia for Wild World. My first Animal Crossing game, easily my most played DS game, lots of great memories from that. However, New Leaf is really what made me buy the 3DS in the first place. Or at least the E3 2010 Tech Demo showing a (then) Next Generation AC game. What that humble little demo evolved into was the best 3DS game hands down. Wild World may win in the nostalgia field, but New Leaf cleans house on everything else.

650 hours on New Leaf and counting...

amiibo festival is OBVIOUSLY the best aminal crossing game out there! It's the newest game, it's the only one with it's own amiibo collection, and it's got the best grahpics! Plus it got a HYPPPPEEEE e3 announcement last year! They were all like, "gereddy for animal crossing on wii u" and I was all like "aw hell yeah" and they was all like "it's mario party, but without the minigames, and you have to buy amiibo to play" and I was like "AW HELLL YEAAH!" SO yes in conclusion my favorite aminal crossing game is amiibo festival. thank you.

Lol, who picked Amiibo Festival just for shirts and giggles?

Anyway, I gotta be totally honest: Although I've put nearly 400 hours into New Leaf, probably making it one of my most played games ever, I kind of really hate it. People claim that Animal Crossing is a 'casual game' for 'hardcore gamers,' which I kind of agree with since I feel I fall more so on the hardcore side of things. But Animal Crossing is a game where you have to play EXACTLY how IT wants you to play it. There's just no way around it. You can't get better at the game.
You can't change how it works. You just have to roll with whatever it gives you. You can't decide where neighbors set up their houses, you can't get rid of pesky rocks, you can't make neighbors leave, or at least speed up the process at all. There's no way to keep your favorite neighbors, so taking breaks from the game is really risky if you have a town full of villagers you actually like... There's so many things.
I still like Animal Crossing but boy it really does turn into a chore eventually. The worst part is, I feel like the series isn't going to change really any of these things because the developers have always wanted you to play by their rules (running deteriorates grass, so you better walk and play the game like you should be!) which makes wacky spinoffs like Amiibo Festival all the more disappointing because an AC spinoff has a lot of potential. Like, I think something like an Animal Crossing Mystery Dungeon game would actually work well.

Also, for a game called ANIMAL Crossing, it's disappointing how shallow the neighbors and their dialogue really are. The game is more about designing your house, and in New Leaf, your village (which is a huge pain honestly). I'd like to see more effort put into the dialogue especially in the next mainline game.

New Leaf was definitely better due to being able to hang items on your wall (finally) and being able to swim in the water (finally). Other than that, there still was no big changes to the series since the first one, but they have gotten better. I honestly wished that the City could have come back into New Leaf, but it wasn't a big miss. Can't wait to see what would be in store for the next one on (if) NX. Was a shame it missed Wii U, but they could still put Animal Crossing City Folk on the virtual console just to make us happy (why hasn't it come on yet?) NINTENDO, PUT ANIMAL CROSSING CITY FOLK ON THE WII U'S VIRTUAL CONSOLE!!!

I do agree with some people, that there was an Animal Crossing game in development for the Wii U and then it was shifted over to NX. I kinda thought this would happen due to not many people purchasing a Wii U.

City Folk for me, though I voted for Amiibo Festival just to cut it some slack

It's a super tough choice between New Leaf and the original GC version. Yeah, NL is full of GOOD new features and all that cool stuff, and I could tell it was taking a bigger-than-usual nod to GC in some parts; but GC had its own formula that wasn't just built upon Wild World, and had cool little features that never appeared in the series again. Plus, I just have so many great memories of it. NL is great, but even so I still get a bit tired of it. 11 years later and I'd still play GC Animal Crossing any day.

Also, NL made Resetti non-mandatory. That broke my heart.

I like new leaf, but the GCN version has the best character responses

Well, for me New Leaf has to take the crown, though I'm really sad I never played the GC version (I just love watching the clips on YouTube). I played Wild World to death for around 2 years, and even bought myself a 2nd DS so I could create and hitch up with another town on a 2nd cart. I played the two games in tandem - never had ANY spare time doing that . I think the music in Wild World was the best, but I agree with Gorlokk about the limitations in the games. I would still be playing Wild World and New Leaf from time to time if the animals didn't move out, weep all over me, or get shirty when I leave them to their own devices for a few weeks. I actually very much resent the way Nintendo has built that sort of penalty into the game, and I'm not sure I will take on another iteration if they bring out one with similar restrictions.

I poured countless hours into the original and 3DS versions, couldn't get into City Folk and Wild World was too dated by the time I got around to it (which was after New Leaf came out :/). I voted AC GCN because I knew New Leaf would win and the original really deserves second place.