How did you get into Animal Crossing?

[The Loyal Rat]

Was curious about all of your origin stories so to speak haha. I like the series a lot, and I always like hearing people talk about it, so I wanted to know when and how you got into Animal Crossing! Wether it was the original, Wild World, City Folk, New Leaf, or New Horizons, I’d like to hear how it all started and why!

I got into it because my sister played City Folk a lot, and I liked doing her ‘chores’ for her like catching and selling fish and selling fruit. Eventually made my own character! I was waaay into life sims back then since my fav games were Harvest Moon AWL and Rune Factory Frontier at the time, so Animal Crossing certainly fit the bill for me.

 

[Serabee]

Back in the day my dad would occasionally take me to Best Buy to get a new game- I didn't spend time researching games online so the games were always a surprise (and sometimes I'd end up with real duds, but other times I'd start lifelong love affairs like AC or the day I said "that orange dragon looks cool" and discovered the magic of Pokemon).

Anyway, I still remember seeing the box for Animal Crossing. There was a cat on it. And... well, that was really all it took to sell me. I was under the impression you could play as a cat, and was a bit bummed to discover that you couldn't, but that disappointment didn't last too long because I quickly fell in love with the game itself. I personally tend to love open-ended games where you can explore and play your own way, as opposed to "beat this level, move to next, beat that level, etc." (I mean, I sometimes play those games, but I don't get as immersed as I do in other games)

I still have so many good memories from that game! The first villager I ever met was Maple and I squealed when I saw her because she was SO CUTE. I remember my BFF and I choosing in-game boyfriends (mine was Aziz, may he rest in peace since he's never reappeared, and hers was Pierce) and her getting mad at me when hers moved to my island because I "stole" him (it took her a minute or two before she realized she was acting nuts, lol)

I've played every main game since (but not Pocket Camp, I'm not a mobile gamer) and am still just a huge fan of the series!

 

[kemdi]

When I was a little kid I was intrigued by the tagline of the gc commercial. I think it was like 'Welcome to Animal Crossing the game that keeps going whether you're playing or not.' or something like that.' I just wanted to see what it meant. Then I got the game and been stuck in this world ever since.

 

[Licorice]

It was 2005 and I was in 5th grade. I went over to my best friend Katie’s house and she showed me Animal Crossing on her gamecube. I just remember thinking it looked really weird but I was hooked soon after. I borrowed her copy a few times and eventually bought my own. When I got home from school I would visit Billy the goat who was my favorite villager and I also loved Pierce in my town. Billy had his house by the beach and I was so in love with him. I have no clue why I was so attached to that character but I was. In 6th grade I let my friend Tucker borrow my copy and I’ll never forget he called me to tell me he liked the game but that he had chopped down literally every tree in his town because they got in the way while he was running lmao I was like wtf...your town is so ugly now...

Edit: ommgg I still have my copy of harvest moon: awl and I swear harvest moon games since have not been as good. Like not even comparable.

 

[annex]

I thought it was the dumbest, most boring, weirdest game I had ever seen.
My sons friend brought it over and the two of them played and played. This was the game cube version. I thought it was odd that they liked it so much.

One day, my son took me by the hand and had me sit down to play. I didn't want to be bothered by it, but I let him start me up a new character. I picked my house that was next to his. It didn't take long before I was hooked. I played and played. I finished the museum,enlarged and decorated my house to perfection. My favorite furniture was the jingle set and cabin mixed together. My main room was full. I even had the cabin bed in there. I'm not sure why I thought I had to have the full set in my living room. Add the full jingle set, and it was jam packed. I thought it looked great. Lol

I was the first one to get my house paid off. I got a golden statue of my character, displayed near our homes. My son got the silver, and his friend got the bronze? I can't quite remember because my daughter had one too. Was hers copper? I just remember that she had the smallest and mine the biggest, and that I helped her pay her house off because she was so young.

I've been playing every version since then and loved them all. I remember having such a good time in city folk. Running around catching bugs and fish and didn't notice that my entire town had no more grass. Just mud. Didn't notice until winter. You wouldn't get snow on the dirt areas. The only place I had snow was a thin strip next to the cliffs. This made snowman building nearly impossible, but I managed somehow.

 

[The Loyal Rat]

Yo thank you guys for sharing, good wholesome stories like these are just what the doctor ordered for this grouch. I feel like this series brings out the best part of people.

Also it’s a bit funny that Pierce has now been mentioned twice by the first three people!

 

[Rowbowkid800]

It all started a while back I had seen it a bit and I thought ehhh but it didn’t let me get away sometime later I saw my brother and his girlfriend had it and I thought it looked really cool so I checked it out and saw that it was a cool relaxing game I didn’t know about animal crossing till new horizons released and I saw a few adds on YouTube every once in a while and one day I thought I really want this so I spend my 50 bucks on it it also was on sale so it was a bigger sell for me and it was on amazon so I would get it in two days and I love it I play like a hour everyday probably I is not good but who cares I love it I thank my brother for getting me into buying it

 

[Lemurian]

I was buying every major 3DS game I could from like 2011 to 2013, and in 2012 an Animal Crossing trailer dropped on the 3DS eShop. I still have that trailer downloaded to my 3DS! I had never heard of the series before, and the trailer was just kind of hypnotizing. Also the people I asked didn't know how to describe the series, so that made it almost mysterious.

 

[Nooblord]

Wild World just looked like something I’d love. And I was right.

I watched the trailer a bajillion times, I couldn’t get enough of the title screen track.
I remember there was a website for the game that I went on everyday. A balloon would float across the screen and if you click on it, you’d get a gift you can use to customize the webpage. You also had a little mailbox that held letters from special characters. And the time of day would change in the background, just like in the game. It was a really interactive site, and held me over until I could finally get the game, lol.

 

[kiwikenobi]

I was in high school, and I was a subscriber to Nintendo Power magazine, back when that was a thing. And there was an article on an upcoming game called Animal Crossing for the Gamecube, where you lived in a peaceful village of animals as the only human there, and you could do anything you wanted, and, more importantly, you could NOT do anything you didn't want to do. Total freedom. Plus it just looked cute and fun. It sounded amazing to teenage me, so I saved my money and bought a Gamecube specifically so I could play Animal Crossing. And I went on to play it pretty much every day for about a year, so I could see everything it had to offer. I got a Gameboy Advance link cable just so I could go to the island. I got an eReader just so I could scan in the special cards, which I also bought several packs of. I did pretty much everything possible in the game. I was even introduced to a bunch of NES games that I'd missed back in the day because of their inclusion in Animal Crossing, like Wario's Woods. I played the heck out of that.

And then, after a couple years, I kind of burned out on Animal Crossing, and I skipped Wild World and City Folk, but when New Leaf came around, I felt ready for a new Animal Crossing experience, and I loved it. And now here I am playing New Horizons.

 

[xhyloh]

i couldn't afford new leaf at the time it came out and decided to pick up wild world instead (i was maybe 11 or 12). i absolutely fell in love with it and now i'm a fan for life!

 

[-Blue-]

The box art looked cool. That was how I judged most of my games back in the day, because internet wasn't as available as it is nowadays. You could rent games if you were lucky enough to have a rental store/library that actually carried games that weren't just Madden or knock-off crap, knew a friend/family member who owned the game that you could get their opinion on or try it if they were generous enough, or read a magazine about games.

It's so easy and convenient with the internet now. I just went on gut feeling with PG and that the box art looked cute.

 

[Pyoopi]

I found the gamecube title when I was perusing BlockBuster as a kid and I ended up really liking it. Then I asked for it for Christmas or my birthday and always wanted to play it after school. My first buddies in acgc was Kabuki and Tybalt.

 

[th8827]

My mom bought the original Animal Crossing for me. I'm pretty sure that I was in early High School at the time.

My mom, sister, and I each had a villager. It was fun.

 

[Kirbyz]

i got into it because as a small child i always saw my brothers playing ACGC, WW, and CF, and it looked really fun, just my type of game so i decided to try it out. the first game i played was CF because my brothers lent GC and WW to my cousins and they ended up losing it somehow. CF was so addictively fun that i was playing it all day, everyday. we ended up getting another WW copy and i played that for a while as well, but not nearly as long as CF. all the way up until when NL came out, i got it as soon as it released but still continued to play CF too. at some point i stopped playing CF and just straight up played NL, and then got NH right when it released, and here i am still playing NL and NH, but occasionally playing CF and WW every once in a while too. i can definitely say that the animal crossing series has had a big impact on both of my brothers lives as well as my own. it’s just always been there throughout our lives, just like many other game series like zelda, all the mario games, kirby, etc. my sister used to play NL a lot when it released but stopped playing a long time ago, and she hasn’t played any of the other games, she’s not big on games so it hasn’t impacted her much. however, i can still say she still really enjoys the time she used to play NL all the time. overall my whole family really loves animal crossing; my mom even made a character on NH!

 

[DaisyFan]

Few years ago, someone followed me on Instagram, then I checked their profile and saw posts of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (mobile game btw), I decided to follow them. After looking at the posts of how cool the outfits, villagers, and items are, I decided to try Pocket Camp out. After hours of playing, I started to love Animal Crossing so much! Then, I picked up New Leaf and I enjoyed playing it as well.

Now, I am currently playing New Horizons and I still play New Leaf and Pocket Camp!

I am about to start collecting (and perhaps playing) other AC games soon.

 

[DarthGohan1]

The 1st time I heard about Animal Crossing was in an issue of Nintendo Power a few months before the game was released on Gamecube. Knew I had to get the game when it came out, glad I did

 

[annex]

The 1st time I heard about Animal Crossing was in an issue of Nintendo Power a few months before the game was released on Gamecube. Knew I had to get the game when it came out, glad I did

I forgot about Nintendo power. I remember getting my son a subscription, and how excited he got when a new issue arrived. We would always read it together.

 

[jiny]

i honestly dont even know, the first ac game ive ever played was city folk. i was 5 or 6 yrs old and i had no idea how the game really worked so id just run around aimlessly and fall asleep to the music lmao,, but i think when i got a little bit older, around 7 or 8 yrs old?? i asked for wild world for my ds bc i recognized the animal crossing name so i asked for the game. ive loved it ever since! the only ac game i havent played is the gamecube one but i really want to

 

[Xara]

my introduction to the series was back in 2007 when my mom got me wild world for christmas - it was one of my very first video games, too, and even though my love for ac didn’t really form until new leaf, 2007 is where it all began for me.