What got you into animal crossing?

[nammie]

One of my close friends in elementary school always had the latest consoles and a lot of cool games, and I used to go play at her house a lot. Her mom bought her animal crossing for gamecube, and after playing it with her the rest was history I guess haha. I still remember looking up the "cheat codes" online with her to get like the golden equipment and stuff!

My other friends always wanted to play like mario kart or smash, but I always wanted to play animal crossing... I thought the game was so cute and all the villagers were so funny! Resetting the game to see Resetti also made us laugh, I remember one time he made us type like "I will not reset" or something, and we typed like "you suck" and he got even angrier at us lol

 

[Halloqueen]

One day back in 2002, in the era of the GameCube, I went over to a friend's house to hang out and my friend was playing the game when I arrived. I liked what I saw and soon thereafter got a copy of my own so we could play together. I still have that town and revisit once in a while every few years.

I was unaware of Wild World's existence, so the next time I got an Animal Crossing game was City Folk. I very much didn't enjoy City Folk because it felt slower, seemed to have worse dialogue, had to be played with the Wiimote as opposed to my preferred GameCube controller, and had a camera I just couldn't get used to.

I don't remember why I gave New Leaf a chance after my distaste for City Folk, maybe just because I wanted games for the 3DS, but I'm glad I did because I love New Leaf.

I didn't get Happy Home Designer, it just didn't interest me. I was really interested in Amiibo Festival because of its Mario Party board game sort of style, until I learned that you were required to have all of the various NPC amiibo if you wanted to actually play it, and with those amiibo each individually being $12 back before people started making fanmade amiibo, I never ended up buying that either. I've also never played Pocket Camp because of a lack of any device to play it on.

Finally we come to New Horizons, which I got because of how much I love New Leaf and because I was sort of holding out hope that some of the cool Pocket Camp items and features might show up. New Horizons isn't what I expected, but it's enjoyable in its own ways.

 

[Bilaz]

Bought wild world because my friend was playing it and it looked cool, she saw it’s advertisement packaged with Nintendogs! I was an instant fan of the series, I found the gamecube version through youtube and bought it, loved it, found let’s go to the city on the official site and loved it. I just followed the series ever since

 

[Fye]

I saw animal crossing the at the checkout counter while buying something else and thought the globe + all the animals running around had had nice nature-y vibes so I bought it. I adored the game and played it for at least 2 years despite TTing heavily, and even bought city folk when it came out. It ended up being my gateway to the harvest moon series and other farming or cute life simulation games, so now that they've added vegetable growing to the game its all come full circle

 

[Le Ham]

My dad bought City Folk one day. After a few months, I was the only one of us who still cared about it. Then I found out Wild World exists, not knowing it was actually the game that came before City Folk, and begged my dad for it and then got it. Messed around with it for a few years. Then my dad showed me the trailer for New Leaf (the one with the weird-looking trees) and so on and so forth

 

[JellyBeans]

I think it was my cousin? she's like 10 years older than me so I absolutely idolised her when I was little, and when I went over for christmas and stuff we'd usually go off while the adults were talking and I watched her play let's go to the city (or city folk) on the wii and I was obsessed with it, so obviously I ended up buying it for myself and loved it sm! I must've gotten wild world a while afterwards just to experience it and also loved that, but my main love was let's go to the city. I played it all the time with my friend so obviously when new leaf was announced we were absolutely over the moon. and now here we are today

 

[Mayor Jack]

I remember watching chuggaaconroy's ACNL let's play and then wanting to play the game so bad. I got new leaf for Christmas that year (2015) and it instantly became my favorite game.

 

[deirdresgf]

i remember overhearing my dad playing new leaf on his 3ds (which he actually gave me his 3ds later, I’m so happy for this because the 3ds is now my favorite console and it holds so much nostalgia <3) for a long period of time, and literally the only context I had of whatever he was playing was the weird animal crossing “abjsjsms” language and I was really confused. one day, i asked him ’what the hec are you playing??” and he said ‘animal crossing’. once again, i was confused because i had never heard of this series before!! this was in 2015, and i was fairly young then. i don’t quite remember what happened in between then and when i started, but he deleted his town so i could try. needless to say, i was starstruck and absolutely in LOVE with this game! i remember the first villager i ever met was annalisa, and i have a huge soft spot for her because of this. even just looking at pictures of her house interior and exterior in new leaf makes me nostalgic. my first town was called SWEETIE in all caps because I was dumb and I didn’t know what i was doing. i got really far in that town, but then i just went on a town-resetting spree for a while. i remember having a town called slothton because i really loved sloths at that time for some reason, and melba was in my town!! i remember just loving her so much and i would always go hang out at her house! melba has always been my best friend and she always will be. in 2016, i made a town called pikachu and that is the one I settled with and currently have. since then, i have played every game except for city folk. i bought wild world and played it on my 3ds, i played gamecube on my dad’s emulator, i am of course currently playing new horizons, etc. i had a wii u when i was younger too (had to give it to my cousins so I don’t have it anymore) and i remember my dad bought me a copy of city folk but the disc was scratched up and it wouldn’t work. i was ALMOST able to play city folk in my childhood but oh well. if you’ve read this far, hello, hope you enjoyed listening to me blab about animal crossing! :’)

 

[DaisyFan]

Last year, I saw someone on Instagram posted stuff about Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. So, I gave myself to try the mobile game, and it was amazing! I have yet to play the Gamecube one, Wild World, and City Folk.

ZackScottGames’s New Leaf playthrough was what got me into it and then I noticed how many people bought the new game, and I decided to get it too.

Me too! Because of that, I decided to get New Leaf, and I enjoyed it.

 

[Tiffany]

I had a friend who got animal crossing for game cube when it was new. I wasn't interested at first because i had seen the commercials and they were weird and made no sense. But I would be on the phone with my friend while she played and she would tell me about the game. It sounded fun so I bought it. I have played every version since except pocket camp. I still remember my original villagers were Lobo, Monique, Pocho, Leigh and Bob.

 

[bestfriendsally]

the first animal crossing game i played was wild world :3... it's the only animal crossing game i have at the moment.... if you don't count new horizons that i got for this christmas...


i love it ^^

 

[Slothicans]

.

 

[eseamir]

I've been playing AC since the original game on the GameCube, my mum bought it when I was about 11 and I've been hooked ever since! Things have changed so much and new features have been added over the years but it's always one of my favourite nostalgic games to play!

 

[Bluebellie]

I first started with wild world. Back then it was in the Game boy advance. I remember I used to sell my Old games at GameStop and try to get new games with the credit. I was about 11 years old (maybe?). I bought a used copy of wild world for very cheap and I loved it! I remember my best friend would come visit my town and vise versa. Then new leaf came out like 7 years later, and I wasn’t playing video games anymore.
Well handheld at least. I was crazy obsessed with the Sims games on the computer. My brother had gotten the 3Ds previously and I decided to try it out on his game. On 2016 the update came out and I got the game. I bought myself a 3DS and started playing new leaf. I loved it! This was my favorite game of the series. A couple of months later, I joined these forums. I played new leaf up until they announced new horizons. I was able to create multiple towns. It kept me entertained for a while resseting my towns every now and then. Once they announced new horizons, I went on a hiatus. That was around the same time my new leaf town Was copied. It made me a bit sad and I took a break. In the mean time, I tried pocket camp for maybe a couple of days ( but it wasn’t the same for me. Same thing with Happy home designer).

Flash forward, I bought myself a switch just to play new horizons and that’s what I’m currently playin. This is how it all started

 

[Clock]

My cousin let me played WW on his DS a long time ago, that's how I actually got into AC.
But I got NL late in 2016 and got into the series more that time.

 

[Noel_in_Sunrise]

I used to stay with my cousin during weekends sometimes. We lived pretty far apart, but our mutual aunt wanted to encourage our friendship and would host us (her house was an hour from both of ours, right in the middle). Her two sons were much older than us, both in college at that point, I believe, but had always let us play their Gamecube whether they were there or not. My cousin wasn't great on sharing, but I got to watch her play. (This is how I got into Harvest Moon too).

My dad really hated videogames, but my mom eventually got us a Gamecube anyway. My brother and I used to play together on Gamecube. I have a bunch of fond memories. (And some rather awful ones. My dad was always a very unpleasant man and we had to be very careful). My mom and I played a bunch of New Horizons together in the first few months of launch. It was nice getting to share stories with her from when my brother and I used to play. We lost him back when he was still in highschool. His birthday was on the first day of the fireworks festival this year, so we made fireworks for him and sat next to each other playing it.

He really liked the bonsai trees in the game. I used to buy them for him when I saw them in the shop and mail them to him. Later in life, as a teenager he cultivated a few.

 

[Islander]

My brother already had a DS and had asked to be given Mario Kart DS when it came out, which he did though it was no special occasion.

A couple of days later it was my birthday so my parents gave me my own DS, along with Mario Kart and some other games including AC. They might have thought I'd be more into Mario Kart but I always enjoyed AC more. I always had trouble making friends growing up especially when I was around that age as my closest friends had moved away and I just didn't have anyone close nearby anymore. I just enjoyed having my animal friends in a relaxed environment and I got hooked.

 

[AmyK]

I don't even remember the details, but it was an article in one of the video game magazines we used to read. It sounded super fun and weird, but in a good way, so we bought the FreeLoader and imported the US version of Animal Crossing for the GameCube. I was in a difficult place back then and the game really helped me find something good to look forward to. It was my safe spot and a nice distraction and I have a lot of great memories about it.

 

[deerteeth]

When the Gamecube was still a thing, my mom bought AC Population Growing along with Paper Mario TTYD and a couple other games (I can't remember what they were, so I mustn't have liked them.) I'm pretty sure they were a family Christmas gift, or at least a random gift for the family. Those games sat untouched for awhile until I noticed them one day and decided to play them.

I was obsessed! I'd play ALL the time. I wasn't very good at filling my museum or collecting all the bugs / fish, but I loved to input codes to get prizes from Nook, make designs, and decorate my house. I also very much enjoy Paper Mario and it's one of my favourites as well. My mom never remembered buying them and my siblings didn't really play games, so I claimed both games as my own. They are both still in my collection today with my other favourite Gamecube games!!

Edit: I just want to add a little more info actually because this thread makes me happy :, ) It's under the spoiler

Spoiler: Just some more rambly info about my love for AC :, )

I was never aware of Wild World so I didn't play that despite having a DS, but when City Folk came out I played that! I didn't enjoy it much so I went back to PG often, but I do love Animal Crossing so I played it anyway. When New Leaf came out, I didn't have a 3DS and couldn't play. One day I was browsing Kijiji (kind of like Canadian Craigslist, but less sketchy) and somebody was selling their pink 3DS XL with a free copy of New Leaf... EXACTLY what I wanted, and it was SUCH a good price!! My dad took me to get it and I was so happy. I love New Leaf.
I showed my best friend, and she ended up buying her own 3DS and a copy of the game as well. I have many happy memories of us playing together!

Then of course NH was announced and I had such a gut feeling there would be a special edition switch. I held off on buying a switch even though I really wanted one because I wanted the Animal Crossing one, assuming they made one, and obviously they did!!! My boyfriend was able to nab one for me the second it came out on EB, it was a complete coincidence we were even there on time... he was on my friend's computer checking something while we were having drinks, then saw some sort of announcement about it, and sat there refreshing for me.
He was going to pay a portion of it for me for Christmas, but my dad sat me down one day and told me he knew just how excited I was about Animal Crossing and knows it's something that really brings me joy, and told me he would pay the entire price of the switch as a birthday gift to me which was EXTREMELY generous. Like, that is a huge, HUGE gift, especially just for a birthday. I am so so so so SO grateful.

When NH came out, my boyfriend and I went to a midnight release to get it And I will do the same if there's ever another AC!

 

[zollers_sporks]

What got you into animal crossing? (that lead up to playing new horizons)

Well back in the past I DESPISED animal crossing. I used to say it was baby-ish and creepy that you talk to animals. I had many arguments with people in my school. Until I downloaded pocket camp. Since I haven't owned a nintendo console (not allowed).

I played pocket camp for months and omg it was amazing.

I started making new friends and I could talk to my friends about it.

In early 2020 I planned what to get. I went to my local CEX store to buy a 3ds. Whilst I was there I picked up Happy home designer and Animal crossing new leaf..

Everything was great up until my family found out I owned a console. I still kept the cartridges but gave the 3ds back to CEX.

My friend made my town better and better. I liked it.

Then came lockdown and boom. Everything bad happened.
I left my cartridges in my locker and after 7 months i'm going to get them.

I made a animal crossing fanpage and got 498 followers. It was fun.

Now my boyfriend is getting me old technology to sell to CEX so I can get a switch and with my CEX voucher I am also going to buy a ds and 3ds with a copy of wild world and new leaf...and then New Horizons!


So I used to hate it but now it's fun. And I've been spending hours planning my island through lockdown!!