I've played GameCube, DS, and 3DS, but not Wii. I've heard that City Folk was great and I've seen why. I would rate the games like this:
1)New Leaf
2)City Folk
3)GameCube
4)Wild World
I didn't really like wild world,it was missing a lot of things that the GameCube had :/ Plus, the GameCube AC was so nostalgic to me and it celebrated holidays perfectly.
I'm in the same boat as Monalu. I've never played City Folk due to not owning a Wii, but I got my start when I was younger with the GC version.
I'd rate the 3 that I've played in this order:
1: New Leaf
2: AC:GC
3: AC: Wild World
New leaf has really gotten me into landscaping and making my towns look good. Where as in the past, I just didn't care about hybrids, etc. It's really opened up a whole new area of animal crossing for me, and for that reason it is definitely my favorite of the series. The Gamecube version hold a ton of nostalgia and memories for me though. The original game (along with Pikmin) are easily in my favorite games ever list.
City Folk was really...lackluster for me? There was barely anything different from Wild World, the city was only cool for the first two weeks, and I found that I preferred playing AC on a handheld system rather than a console.
I really loved ACGC's holidays and special characters, though. ;w; Wisp was my favorite.
New Leaf is the best. I obviously has the most content out of them all, although that doesn't mean that the older ones are bed. I just think that if you go back to the Gamecube version after playing so much of New Leaf, you do feel kind of spoiled in the amount of things you have and can do.
the only one i didn't completely fall in love with was city folk, i'm kind of over animal crossing if they're not on handhelds, i just struggle to find the time
It's probably Wild World just because it was the first one I played, that's the only reason. New Leaf is better in every conceivable way I can think of but I still have that soft spot for Wild World.
The series keeps getting better with each release in my opinion new leaf is by far my favourite just because of all the customisation features, although each game does have its flaws too :>