zpires

Summary

Animal Crossing is a series of casual social simulation games created by Nintendo where you play as a human character living in the same area as animal people (colloquially called "villagers"). You live an easy life of catching fish and insects, picking fruit, digging for fossils, collecting items, designing interior spaces, and hanging out with your fellow villagers. When online play is available, you can visit the towns and islands of other players.

One of the game's core mechanics is that it is played in real time, synched to the console's internal clock. Shops keep certain hours, villagers move on a schedule, and the day-night cycle moves in step with the 24-hour day.

They're some of our absolute favorite games. There's always something to do, and there are events scattered throughout the year to keep things fresh, like competitions like the Bug Off or Fishing Tourney or holidays like Toy Day. We've gotten very attached to some of our villagers, and we look forward to playing it when we can. We usually play at least one Animal Crossing game a day.

Villagers

antonio's, phil's, and doc's amiibo cards

There are 488 different villagers between all of the games, spread across 35 species, with over 100 villagers that have been in every game. That's so many animals to make friends with, run errands for, and gossip about. Each villager has a personality that dictates their dialogue and behavior.

There are 8 personality types, four for each gender: lazy, jock, cranky, and smug for male villagers and normal, peppy, snooty, and big sister for female ones. The villager personality determines their dialogue and behavior toward the player.

If pressed to name our favorite personality, it'd be really hard. We'd probably say snooty because they're sassy opinionated women, but they're all fun. Jocks are great, especially when they're not animals traditionally associated with a lot of muscle, like hamsters. They gotta get their reps in, too. Smug villagers are also so cute as they wallow in their pride. Big sister types (formerly called "uchi" in the Animal Crossing fandom because that's their first-person pronoun in Japanese) are fiery and independent, and they're the first ones to give you medicine if you get stung by a wasp. Peppy villagers love their video games and fashion magazines. Crankies have such delightfully deep voices.

Music

Animal Crossing music is beautiful. Each hour has its own theme, so every game has 24 tracks of in-game music that play whenever you're outside. If you usually play at the same time of day every day, you'll become intimately familiar with the theme of those hours. 7 PM is the staple of our experience, in both New Leaf and New Horizons.

New Leaf hourly music, ranked
  1. 12 AM
  2. 7 PM
  3. 3 AM
  4. 8 AM
  5. 11 AM
  6. 1 AM
  7. 1 PM
  8. 9 AM
  9. 2 PM
  10. 9 PM
  11. 10 AM
  12. 3 PM
  13. 2 AM
  14. 7 AM
  15. 4 AM
  16. 4 PM
  17. 5 PM
  18. 6 AM
  19. 5 AM
  20. 12 PM
  21. 6 PM
  22. 8 PM
  23. 10 PM
  24. 11 PM
New Horizons hourly music, ranked
  1. 1 AM
  2. 8 AM
  3. 2 PM (this is controversial; many people really hate 2 PM, but it's so jazzy)
  4. 12 AM
  5. 7 AM
  6. 9 AM
  7. 10 AM
  8. 2 AM
  9. 11 AM
  10. 12 PM
  11. 3 AM
  12. 9 PM
  13. 10 PM
  14. 4 AM
  15. 5 AM
  16. 11 PM
  17. 6 PM
  18. 4 PM
  19. 7 PM
  20. 1 PM
  21. 3 PM
  22. 5 PM
  23. 6 AM
  24. 8 PM

Our Experiences

baby sitting in front of a very large tree in the town square

Our first game was Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS. We bought it a couple of years after it was released, but it became a game that we played every single day for almost two years just because it's fun.

Animal Crossing became a more significant game to us in mid-2015 when we began to feel the presence of a new member of our system, but they were having trouble coming to be. Ora decided to let them use Animal Crossing to experiment with their appearance and interactions with the characters and game. It was this exploration that helped Thyme separate themselves from the rest of us and adopt an identity of their own.

This idea came up again when our youngest system member, Mimi, wanted to explore himself and have more time for him to have the front. We downloaded a digital copy of the game and let Mimi become the Mayor of Tuesday. He loved it. He loved it a lot.

Pocket Camp was released in 2017, and it was a new game while we waited for Animal Crossing to come to the Switch. Mimi took the reins again and had a lot of fun with it, but the worst of mobile game psychology started to take its toll. In-app purchase opportunities abounded, and there was a lot of FOMO-bait in limited time offerings. It became too exhausting to keep up with, so we eventually deleted the app and stopped using it.

Tom Nook, the Nooklings, Cherry, Hamlet, and Georgie in the town square. Tom Nook says 'Splendid! Then, from now on, this island will be known as Space.'

Animal Crossing came to our system's defense a third time when D was trying to understand his gender stuff—more on that here. But Animal Crossing let her experiment with dress and name and gave her something to do that he enjoyed even in the worst of his depression.

We bought a Nintendo Switch to play New Horizons. It was the only reason we wanted the console. It would be bigger and better than New Leaf, surely! We noticed a few things about New Horizons that we didn't like, but the game is still very fun.

Tom Nook, the Nooklings, Cherry, Hamlet, and Georgie in the town square. Tom Nook says 'Splendid! Then, from now on, this island will be known as Space.'

We still play New Horizons, especially since the Happy Home Paradise DLC was added that added a new decorating side system. Unfortunately, when the Virtual Game Cards were added to the Switch software, we lost the ability to play on our main save. In our frustration, we bought Pocket Camp and a new cartridge of New Leaf.

Having since regained the ability to play New Horizons on our main save, we now play up to three Animal Crossing games every day.

Tips and Tricks

Here's some little things we've learned along the way.

  • Set your time to match your schedule. If you can only play in the evenings, set your clock back a few hours so that the in-game time is the middle of the day. This gives you more hours to get stuff done before things close. Just be sure the game is closed when you reset the time.
  • When catching fish, use the audio cue to know when to pull. Look away or close your eyes to prevent yourself from pulling too early when the fish touches the bobber.
  • Shake your trees as often as possible. There's bells and furniture in there. In New Horizons, you can shake trees over and over for more resources.
  • Hold your net when shaking trees. When a wasp nest falls out, you'll turn to face it, so you can press A immediately to catch the wasp before it stings you.
  • If you're holding a net, put it away before you respond to a villager ping. Accidentally hitting them resets what they were going to say.
  • Before hitting a rock with your shovel, dig holes that will stop you from moving backwards. Wedging yourself between two holes will make it much easier to hit the rock for the maximum eight times.
  • Donate the first of every type of critter you catch to Blathers. The Museum is very fun to explore, and populating it with critters as soon as possible makes the Museum look even better.
  • If you want to make a lot of money very quickly in New Leaf, farm beetles and sharks on Tortimer's Island.
  • If someone asks you to bury a time capsule for them, bury it right next to their house. Burying it far away in a random location will make it easy to mistake for a fossil or gyroid later.
  • The Bell Tree Forums are the go-to forums for everything Animal Crossing.

New Leaf

animal crossing new leaf box art

In New Leaf, you take a train to a new town, and once there you're welcomed as the new mayor. Despite the mixup, you take the responsibility and join the villagers of the town as it grows and expands.

You can place Public Works Projects around the town and build up Main Street as part of your mayoral duties.

Villagers love getting letters and show them off regularly. They gossip about you and each other, use you as a mailman as they give each other gifts, and request bugs, fruit, fish, and furniture all the time. They're needy creatures, and you're the mayor who must attend to all their needs.

When not in your town, you can visit Tortimer's Island and go on tours (bug catching, whacking a contraption with a hammer, running in a maze of fruit, et al.) or just play on the island itself where it's summer all year round. The best way to make money in New Leaf is catching beetles on the island, where you can easily make several hundred thousand bells a night if you're diligent.

The interactions with the villagers are the best thing about New Leaf. They have ongoing relationships with each other, inspiring presents and arguments. The letters you write to them are kept as special keepsakes that they treasure and show off. Their houses fill with all the stuff you get for them (for better or for worse, it's a sign of just the amount of work you've put into the relationship). It's rewarding building up those relationships by performing acts of service.

Pocket Camp

animal crossing pocket camp box art

Your domain is a camper van and a campsite in Pocket Camp. You can travel to four different locations to fish, gather insects, pick fruit, and collect seashells. At each location, a villager is there that has three requests for collected items. Fulfilling their requests levels up the villagers, and you earn rewards and level up yourself as the villagers level up.

You invite villagers to your campsite and cabin so they can interact with the furniture you put there. As you level up villagers, you can dress them up or they can make new kinds of requests.

There are tons of events and limited-time items. In the original Pocket Camp, there were also a lot of microtransactions and subscription fees that, if you didn't engage with them, you had a significantly lesser experience. As of December 2024, they released Pocket Camp: Complete, a one-time-pay app without online features and reworked mechanics. There's a few things that Complete doesn't have that the original Pocket Camp did, but overall it's a significant improvement in the way we approach the game. We feel far less pressure to get everything, but it's also easier to do so, so it's a lot more fun.

New Horizons

animal crossing new horizons box art

We have complex feelings about New Horizons. It came out right when COVID lockdowns hit, so it quickly became something that we spent a lot of time and energy in. Instead of a town, you run an island that blossoms into a community over time. The initial pace of the game is agonizingly slow, and there's a lot of features that take a while to establish themselves, like the Museum. There were also staples from earlier games missing from the initial release, such as Redd the traveling art salesman and gyroids, that only came about in 2.0, released in November 2021. The DLC, Happy Home Paradise, was also released at the same time as 2.0.

A lot of feelings. Still, it's a very fun game! We would recommend it, especially to people who like playing games that let you customize spaces. That's what New Horizons is best at.

Pros:

  • Beautiful graphics
  • Crafting and cooking are great systems, from resource acquisition to actually preparing items/food
  • Interior decorating is easy and fun
  • the Museum is stunning and exciting to explore
  • Many, many fun reactions/gestures to do with friends or in front of other villagers
  • the Happy Home Paradise DLC makes great use of how easy it is to decorate, and it has great rewards for its completion
  • Nook Miles are a great reward system for daily play, and they are much more flexible and useful than their predecessor (MEOW Coupons, introduced in the update to New Leaf, Welcome Amiibo)
  • Greater control over where villagers live and what their houses look like. Well-loved villagers in earlier games might have very eclectic and unappealing houses because they're filled with random items, but in New Horizons you can directly decorate villagers' interiors if you have the DLC
  • Unprecedented control of exterior spaces, such as placing whatever items outside and literally reshaping rivers and cliffs
  • Lief and Kicks at Harv's Island have expanded stock

Cons:

  • Villagers are shallower and less fun to maintain relationships with (don't show off letters, very repetitive dialogue, fewer requests, fewer games)
  • Some aspects of crafting and cooking are unnecessarily annoying, such as not being able to use items in storage or not being able to make more than one of the same item at a time
  • 2.0 released after a lot of people felt burnt out with the limited experience presented in 1.0, so it was hard to want to jump back into the game to make the most of it
  • Cyrus is relegated to Harv's Island and processes changes immediately. In some ways, the immediate changes are a pro, but it lacks the charm and sense of hard work of waiting for half an hour or so for items to be done.
  • Missing furniture sets from previous games
  • Missing NPCs, like Pete the Pelican mailman and Gracie the giraffe designer

New Leaf: Tuesday

  • Mayor: Mimi
  • Residents: Baby, D
  • Town fruit: Orange
  • Creation date: July 15th, 2017

Villagers

Mimi's House

mimi standing in front of the exterior of his house, which has a blue roof, white siding, pink door, mermaid fence with stars, pink mailbox. the light inside the house is pinkmimi sitting in the main room of his house. it has pink light from three lamps, one orange 4, one blue 2, and one pink lamp shaped like a balloon dog. there are pink and colorful items, including four mannequins with different outfits, sanrio items, a gnome, Wisp's genie lamp, and illuminated signs with stars. olivia's, carmen's, moe's, and antonio's pics are visiblemimi standing in the left room of his house's main floor. it is red, black, and gold primarily with the 'gorgeous' set of furniture and the furniture based on playing cards. deirdre's, antonio's, and kyle's pics are visible. he is looking at a lemon and a thought bubble over mimi's head says 'lemon'mimi sitting in the back room of his house. it is rainbow colored and includes the 'kiddie' set of furniture, a watermelon table, toy day presents, and candy. the floor looks like a field of flowersmimi standing in the right room of his house. the wallpaper and flooring make it look like a jungle. there are mostly halloween furniture along with some plants and gold itemsmimi lying in bed in his upstairs room. it is primarily blue and white with a lot of the blue and 'sloppy' sets of furniture. there are also art supplies, a painting of a sunflower field, scattered art on the floor, a video game arcade machine, and both a regular twin bed and a bunk bed. the light is vaguely teal from the lamp shaped like a 0mimi doing a reaction where he emits stars in the downstairs of his house, designed to look like a junk room or garage. the flooring is sandy and the wallpaper is made of reeds. there are mostly brown, tan, and red items, but the light is vaguely yellow from a yellow lamp shaped like the number 3. furniture items include 2 cars, rice bales, a drum set, a bicycle, and a unicycle.

Baby's House

baby standing in front of the exterior of his house, which has a brown roof, gray siding, brown door, brick fence, red mailbox. the light inside the house is redbaby standing in the main room of his house. it has red light from four lamps, all red 2s. the flooring resembles dirt and there are skeletons, gravestones, 'islands', and naked mannequins surrounding a large bonfirebaby standing in the left room of his house's main floor. it has a rainbow balloon and carnival theme with items like a tea cup ride, balloon furniture, a blue kiddie pool, and an apple tv (tv shaped like an apple)baby standing in the back room of his house. it is blue and green with the light tinged blue from a blue lamp shaped like a 2. the flooring is tatami and the wallpaper looks like a rice paddy landscape.there is a kotatsu, a pear-shaped dresser, and a drum set. he is standing on a piece of paper and a thought bubble above his head says 'expired bingo card'baby standing in the right room of his house doing the Mischievous emotion. the floor resembles clouds and the wallpaper is orange. there are mostly halloween and 'astro' furniture in orange and white. there is a mushroom table and a mushroom chair.baby standing in his upstairs room. it is mostly a collection of random items on a wooden floor with a cityscape wallpaper. there are blue and yellow items, including a kamehameha statue, and two items of 'exotic' furniture. various display heads with feathers on them are visible.baby standing in his downstairs room. it is pink, purple, and white with 'harvest' furniture items, a gravestone, an aquarius jug, a skeleton, an astronaut suit, and a black statue bust with purple eyes

D's House

d standing in front of the exterior of her house, which has a yellow roof, light brown siding with stripes of yellow and pink, brown door, pink and yellow fence with stars, pink and yellow mailbox. the light inside the house is pinkd standing in the main room of her house doing an emotion that emits little stars. the room has dim blue light from a dark blue lamp shaped like the number 8. the flooring looks like paint splatters and the wallpaper is blue and white. there are many pieces of 'alpine' furniture, which has a nordic white and blue pattern. there is a lamp shaped like a seashell, a blue dog house, a white lucky cat, and an ebony piano, among other items.d standing in the left room of her house's main floor with a thought bubble over her head. it has an orange and white theme with an orange floor and yellow rose wallpaper. there are 'astro' pieces of furniture, large white chess pieces, a clothes hanger, a cart of hairstyling equipment, and a blue kiddie poold standing in the back room of her house. it is a blue and white room featuring blue furniture, furniture from the 'princess' series, a white beach chair, a white beach table with blue umbrella, and a medical figure of a human with no skin. the floor is sandy and the wallpaper is a beachscape with a cloudy skyd standing in the right room of her house with a question mark above her head. there is a metal floor and a wallpaper that looks like the sky above the clouds. there are 'modern' pieces of furniture, two hologram machines (one of an alien, one of a globe), and a giant set of tv monitors with hearts on the large screensd standing in her upstairs room with her hands clasped together and a heart over her head. it consists of alpine furniture and sloppy furniture items, with occasional green furniture. there are two 8-shaped lamps, one light blue and one green.d standing in her downstairs room, slumped, with a broken heart over her head. it has deep pink lighting cast from a lamp shaped like the number 8. there are mostly furniture from the 'lovely' series, along with a cat tower, venus de milo statue, and pink exercise ball

New Horizons: Space

  • Resident Representative: Georgie
  • Island fruit: Peach
  • Creation date: November 7th, 2021

Villagers

Georgie's House

georgie standing in front of her house. it has a brown stone roof, white and gray stone siding, and a pale blue door. she is doing a reaction with stars around her.georgie dancing in her main room. it is orange and brown with an orange camo wallpaper on most walls and an orange mod wallpaper on the left wall. it has wood flooring. furniture items include a yellow kid's tent, a brick castle wall, potted plants, mushroom and cube lamps, and glow in the dark stickers on the walls.georgie sitting on the floor in her left room. it has a rough stone floor and mountainous landscape wallpaper with a river. there are large plant furniture, a stone table with plants on it, a camping cot, and a bicycle. there is limited light in the roomgeorgie doing the scare reaction in the back room of her house. it is yellow themed with yellow plant wallpaper and cloudy flooring. there is a moon-shaped chair and yellow lighthouse. a fake copy of the 'motherly' statue is in the cornergeorgie doing the bashful reaction in the right room of her house. it is a red, white, and blue styled kitchen with blue tile floor and red and white tile wallpaper. there is a kitchen cooktop, stacked fish baskets, two tables with food on them, and a mushroom screen, among other things.georgie sitting on the floor of her upstairs room. there is a wildflower floor and a blue mountainous landscape wallpaper. there are many items seem around the house, including mushroom lamps, stacked fish baskets, large plants, and castle walls. there is also glowing moss furniture and bug heads on the wallsgeorgie dancing in the downstairs room. it is styled after a bathhouse with 9 bathtubs along the walls. many many gyroids are displayed on the walls. some, because they are low to the ground, make it look like the gyroids are taking baths. there is a corner with a tape deck and three gyroids surrounding it. wolfgang and hamlet's pictures can be seen on the left wall, along with other pictures not in frame

New Leaf: Gravity

  • Mayor: Georgie
  • Town fruit: Pear
  • Creation date: June 5th, 2025

Villagers