I've played all the games so far, starting with population growing, city folk, wild world, new leaf, and then HHD. However, New Leaf is probably my favorite with HHD really close c:
New Leaf. It feels like there's more to do than any previous Animal Crossing game.
Believe it or not though, Happy Home Designer is my second favorite. I really like designing houses, so this is a lot of fun for me. It has features that New Leaf doesn't, so it feels like it complements NL.
i definitely have extremely fond memories of animal crossing: wild world. it was my first animal crossing game and i had it for years and years, i logged so many hours on that game and would play it with my little sister over wi-fi almost nonstop. i was a dumb kid so i didn't know much of the strategy or understand a lot of the mechanics but i did get myself a decent tan and achieved a ton of milestones. i might have also completed my house. the holidays from that game that never passed over to the recent games like la di da day and the flea market and so on. (i want to steal my villager's cute furniture gosh darnit!) i even bought a japanese copy out of nostalgia. mostly to practice my japanese skills and see how they changed the dialogue and such.
the gamecube version was one i only got to play via emulator. since my computer wasn't very powerful it was kind of a nightmare to run, but i recently acquired a gamecube and copy of the animal crossing for gamecube! it's still low poly and cute but i feel like overall it's aged well. i've been busy lately so i haven't played it much but there's something so charming and quintessentially "animal crossing" about the gamecube title. i love how wide it is, i love the villagers and their speech, i love the cute little details and secrets strewn about the town. kicking those balls around is a lot of fun, especially if a villager is playing with you. i still need to do the morning aerobics. cleaning gracie's car was a pretty fun minigame.
i didn't play much of animal crossing: city folk. it was boring and tedious. i felt like the models were a bit off and i liked the concept of the city but it felt kinda... badly rushed. you had to wait forever to do anything fun and the unlocking of certain places felt so... arbitrarily complicated?? idk it's just not a favorite. not bad, rather so-so.
by far my favorite tothis day has to be new leaf. i love this game with all my heart. the graphics are perfect. the 3D is lovely. the improvements and fixes and amount of control you have over the game compared to previous games literally makes me want to cry. and we can swim!!! finally!! that was one of the first things i tried to do when i picked up wild world.
i can't wait to see what the wii u version will bring!
Although I feel like I left NL for HHD, I still know that deep down NL will always be my fave. I mean I've played so much of that game. I even spent over a week just playing it and not doing anything else. I could probably still get really into it. With HHD, designing can take it's toll. Especially since I usually need to be creative to make it and it can get hard sometimes when you have either too little or too much furniture (depending on the theme)
Ouch, Wild World getting snubbed! If it had been my top 2, WW would have been there with NL, I got hooked back on the series thanks to WW, and still play it a decade later- not nearly as heavy as 2005-2010, but still, every so often.
City Folk is probably my favorite. Animal Crossing GCN and Wild World are either tied or are very close seconds. I feel like all three are polished, all of them have their goods and bads.
Gah <3 Animal crossing new leaf, I was going to pick city folk as well but it was kind of an hassle when playing on the wii and the new leaf version had more content/upgrades too. Wild world was really fun back then but the graphics and pixelation kind of hurt my eyes and reminded me of Minecraft a little now xD
My favorite would have to be New Leaf, followed by the first one (Population Growing). I wasn't a huge fan of City Folk or Wild World, and I haven't yet played Happy Home Designer.
Wild World, simply because it was the first game I played. Although I love New Leaf, I'll never get the same experience as the first time I played and everything was new and exciting.