How did you discover the game series?

[Biyaya]

Does this count? I first had interest when I saw the trophy for K.K. in Smash 64, but I had no idea what it was at the time.

When my brothers and I got Animal Crossing GCN on Christmas of 2002, it was my official introduction!

 

[Haru Okumura]

I've known about Animal Crossing for a few years thanks to some online friends (some on Tumblr, some on Discord) who love the series. Wasn't until last February that I was looking for something relaxing and bought New Leaf.

 

[zissou]

When I was about 7 or 8, my even younger cousin (5 or 6) received a copy of Wild World for their birthday. Being a barely-literate kid at a birthday party, they looked at it for 3 seconds and went off to play with the other children. So I sat on the couch and booted up the game on their brick-like DS.

And I was mesmerized. I loved reading, animals, and plain weirdness, which WW delivered on. I probably could have played for hours. The only thing that got in the way was my own damn shame and pride. You see, when Tom Nook asked me to go put my work uniform on, I could not for the life of me figure out how. And I couldn't fathom just going to talk to Nook without the uniform on -- no doubt he would punish me severely. (This was back when I genuinely feared consequences in games.) So I ran around town for a bit, grew frustrated, and finally gave up and joined the other kids for games and cake.

I asked for a copy of WW for my birthday the following year. I figured out how to put on the uniform. And I’ve been playing ever since. :’)

P.S. I used to be completely obsessed with this old Animal Crossing website, Animal Crossing Ahead. It had wonderful 2000s graphics, and it was the first "game guide" that I'd ever read. And it had diaries, like the island journals we have here! I'm pretty sure I've read every single word ever written on that site. If you're curious, here's a Wayback link to the front page on June 12, 2006. The good old days.

 

[~Kilza~]

I can't say I remember for certain at this point how I first learned about the series. I want to say it was either through a TV ad or through Nintendo Power. What I know for sure is my sister learned of it at the same time and wanted the original Animal Crossing more than me, lol

 

[Kamex]

I saw online back in 2014 that New Leaf got a lot of good reviews online and people praised Animal Crossing for its simplicity and charm. I was amazed at how you can customize your town and design your house to convey your personality. Plus I love animals, so naturally I fell in love with Animal Crossing.

 

[UglyMonsterFace]

I discovered New Leaf because of Street Pass on the 3DS. It was literally the game everyone was playing. Before that point, I had seen the game art in stores but I had always brushed it off as a game for kids, probably educational and very simplistic. The fact that so many adults were playing it sparked my interest. I watched some Let's Plays of the beginning and when I found out about how the time progressed like real life and how the stores actually had closing times and stuff, I was immediately interested and bought the game. Very happy street pass clued me into how this game was well loved with people my age cuz otherwise I would have never given it a second thought.

 

[Shipper-Girl-27]

Huh…honestly I don’t remember. All I know, it was always in my house ever since my dad had the GameCube. Back then we only had a few games and AC was one of them. To think, I was a kid then, now I’m older and probably not wiser

 

[fairysyndrome]

i came across population growing at my local gamestop while i was looking for gamecube games back in 2003 when i first got mine :') got obsessed with it and i've loved the series since!

 

[ChocoPie22]

I played City Folk after New Leaf came out, I had City Folk on the Wii but had never played it until a few years after I got it (my family always hogged the Wii and we got a PS4, so I started playing on that instead.) I got NH about a year ago and remembered how much I love the Animal Crossing games.

 

[Sidney]

I found a copy of new leaf for cheap and decided to test it out on my 3DS...I fell in love pretty quickly! I started branching out into the communities, including here, and soon found myself an avid animal crossing fan

 

[cherrysmilesonice]

I’ve seen friends play it but I never really gave it a chance till my best friend mailed me a spare copy of new leaf she had and made me play the game. I’ve been obsessed with the game since and have played some of the other titles too.

 

[StarlitGlitch]

When I was a kid after GC came out I remember one of my friends talking about it and saying how it was bad because you could write bad words in it (her older brother would use swear words in letters apparently).

Later on, when I was at her house I saw the game and wanted to try playing it with her but she couldn't find the game disk so eventually we had to give up. But I still remember looking at the back and thinking that K.K. looked cool.

I really wanted a GC as a kid but never got one, and once the WW commercials started to play I really wanted to get it. Since I got a DS the summer before, I was finally able to start playing AC that Christmas!

 

[islandprincess]

.

 

[iiyyja]

Since gamecube. My sister introduced it to me when I was little. I have a lot of fond memories playing it with her and my brother

 

[salty-]

When I was younger, I can't remember the year but to age myself a bit it was when blockbuster was still a thing, I remember seeing animal crossing city folk for sale by the counter and I always wanted to play it, then 2 years later I found it again at a flea market and convinced my mom to get it for my wii. I was bad at the game and I didn't understand how to play, but I played it for a long long time. Then in 2018 after I graduated high school, I randomly got into animal crossing stuff again and got New Leaf for my new 3DS.

 

[ZeldaCrossing64]

I saw some old Animal Crossing animations on YouTube in the 6th grade. I don't know what made me drawn to the videos, but I watched them and was like "Oh that's pretty cool." I asked my best friend the next day about Animal Crossing, saying "the only thing I know about the game is a yellow dog named Isabelle and a blue cat named Rover". Then she started talking about Wild World, and I didn't think much of it until later that year when New Horizons was announced.

I was ecstatic. I was also watching a lot of New Leaf videos at the time, and convinced my parents to get me a 3DS for Christmas, which I also got that year. (I didn't get New Leaf until 2021 though.) I got Wild World with my 3DS, and I managed to buy New Horizons four months after its initial release. I also played Pocket Camp for a bit in the meantime.

 

[Khaoticnoize187]

Super Smash Brothers just like how i learned about many other franchises through the trophies and stickers.

 

[TN4U]

When I was 10 years old, I saw City Folk at my Toys "R" Us and became interested because it had that game's yellow bus on the cover (I was into school buses pretty hard). My Mom then bought the game and the rest was history. Even though New Leaf was being talked about just over a year or two later, I never followed that game's hype because I didn't have a smart phone or social media accounts until midway through Middle School, and only started getting into the series for real after graduating High School in 2018. Even then, I started to have a high interest in other video games my friends were playing, such as Grand Theft Auto (IV, obviously V, and even San Andreas as I installed an online multiplayer client on my PC to play that old game with real players) and Call of Duty. Nowadays, they're too busy to play online with me, and my interest in those games just sort of dropped. Maybe it's for the best, as I've grown to admire Animal Crossing way more these days.