It is so so hard for me to rank as I think each of the games have their own special charm, however I'm in the minority that voted for City Folk. I'm a tad biased in that it's the first one I ever played, but I have also played every game in the series (recently). The overall aesthetic is cooler than its counterpart Wild World and the music is just awesome. Plus, CF and NL have almost exactly the same furniture and they both have the best furniture in the mainline series bar none.
However, Wild World has the best writing and dialogue in the series and the villagers had never been more alive than in that game.
I've only played New Horizons and New Leaf (played Pocket Camp for like half a minute so not enough to form an opinion on it.)
Between New Leaf and New Horizions, I'd say my favorite is Leaf. Horizons really does leave a lot to be desired. I don't think Horizons is a terrible game, otherwise I wouldn't still be playing it, but in terms of content and events, Leaf has Horizons beat in my opinion.
I’ve been a long time AC fan (like, since 2002 when I first got ACGC), and I’ve loved all a LOT, and I think NH has a LOT of flaws, but I’ve gotta say it’s become my favorite one the more and more I play. I just wish we could have multiple islands per switch.
population growing is my favorite : it was the first animal crossing game i played and it has such a unique, 'sassy' charm that the rest of the games lacked. the soundtrack's also my favorite out of all of them, although wild world / city folk comes extremely close. it meant so much to me as a kid and i still go back to my gc sometimes to play...
I haven't played every AC game, only NL, HHD, and NH, and a tiny bit of WW and CF. My favourite is definitely new leaf though, it was just the perfect mix of things to do and you never got too bored playing. It also wasn't purely about town design like new horizons, but wasn't completely lacking in it like population growing was. Something about my choice might also have to do with nostalgia since it was my first game in the series.
I know the later games have much more to do, but the original will always be #1 for me. It was such a new, unique game and so much fun. Looking back it was pretty simple, but in the Gamecube era it was unlike any other game at the time.
To me, HHD and other games are spinoffs and not core to the series. I just think the original game has a charm that's unmatched by the other games, even if you can't do as much as the game has expanded for you to be able to do now. It's the one game from earlier in the series that I contemplate returning to regularly (and sometimes do when I'm at my parents' house and have access to our old GameCube!).
