I have never played an Animal Crossing game before, nor do I really own any of the consoles to play them on, but I was considering giving one a try!!! Which game/system would you recommend???
ACNL is the best, I think, though I've never really played the GC one or City Folk. I played ACWW and it didn't really appeal to me (probably due to the lack of real world holidays). Also I recently went back to try it again and the graphics are just terrible - ACNL is superior in every way TBH, and also ACWW lacks Internet support now so you won't be able to interact with other people via the Internet. I've heard many people say that City Folk is basically a port of ACWW to the Wii and that it is pretty disappointing. Most people love the original GC one however, though I think that's largely due to nostalgia.
I've read this somewhere on this subforum and I agree: Animal Crossing as a series is about continual improvement, once a new version is released, there's really no point (apart from nostalgia) to go back and play the older ones due to the general lack of features added.
So tl;dr, go with ACNL. You won't be disappointed!
P.S. Since you'll buy a 3DS to play ACNL, you'll have a great library of games (for both the DS and 3DS) at your disposal as well!
From what I've read, ACNL is best for newbies and I have to say, I agree. I do not envy anyone who had to spend two hours, waiting to catch a sea bass in the original AC game.
I bought a N3DSXL with AN:CL and Story of Seasons last night! I was going to buy them today but I got too excited and I was bored so I went ahead and went shopping!! Still looking at some other games to get too, but so far these two are pretty fun!!!
I'll probably start a blog and post daily/semi-daily updates about AC:NL soon!!
I agree that a lot of it is nostalgia and ultimately I prefer NL(considered it the only worthy purchase after getting PG) but there are concrete advantages it has. Just some positives the Gamecube version has over New Leaf:
-Cranky and Snooty personalities aren't butchered
-Dialogue is generally more natural, captivating, and out there
-Wishing Well
-Blathers blathers, Resetti is his cranky self, etc.
-Peaceful train rides to other towns
-Wisp the Ghost
-No grass deterioration
-No grass deterioration
-No grass deterioration