Ooo, this is a nice idea for a thread! Well I only had one other friend who was into ds's at the time and we both wanted to update to a newer console (the new 3ds) so we both saved up for ages in the hope of buying a white New 3ds (not xl) However, we were late to the party as they dis-continued not long after they were released in my country so we searched high and low (in store and online) to find one because we were convinced it was a must have. Finally we found 2 (in completely different areas may I add) but they weren't plain white, it was the animal crossing happy home designer deal. We bought them, thought they were adorable and loved animal crossing happy home designer. We then researched the franchise and saw a long video explanation of new leaf. We bought the game after more saving and loved it immediately. I remember one of the first of the 5 villagers in my town was Apple whom I loved. My local fruit was peaches. I started saving and expanding both my wardrobe and house and before you knew it, I was a full fan of the game. Here I am now, two years later
I didn't get ACNL because I wanted it, it's because my sister requested to get the game on 2014 of the holidays (her other option was Tomodachi Life). During that same time, I also got Super Mario 3d Land and I decided to play that first.
After finishing it, I then played ACNL and felt like, "okay, this is an okay game". My sister became the mayor first and decided to name it Toronto because we initially thought you had to enter a real name of a town or city. During my playthrough, I didn't do too much stuff and I had no idea what bells were and how you can get them. As for villagers I can remember from the top of my head, they were Octavian, Avery, Buck and two others who I forgot. Had a bad experience with Octavian for teasing me for not guessing the right item.
After that, I didn't play the game for a week and decided to start new with the permission from my younger sister. I became the mayor and named the town Lorule, the one that I currently have for a long time now. From there, the rest is history and made lots of memories with this game, with the Amiibo camera making it better.
I got the game and a 2DSXL a couple of years ago. I started Animal Crossing, created a game and then just...didn't get it, I guess. I neglected it until a couple months ago when I realized that hey, I enjoy Pocket Camp and should maybe give NL another try. I did and now I'm working on my town on a daily basis. I just upgraded my town hall! I'm thinking about starting over again, so I can plan out my town a little bit more thoughtfully now--it's a bit haphazard.
my best friend at the time played the game and i always borrowed it from her. my mom couldn't take it anymore how i always desperately waited to play with her so i got a nintendo and the game on my 11th birthday
i immediately started playing, payed off my first loan, learnt about time traveling and everything. i didn't knew about the town name-letter rule so i named my town 'wolles' after some complications. still regret it even tho that card is history.
i made relationships with my villagers, visited my bestie and everything was fine but i didn't know anything more complicated like flower breeds, events, decor etc and my friend wasn't a big help. everything changed five years later when my data got corrupted and i started actually using the internet for the game and started a new town about five months ago called 'lilalia' with way more knowledge lmao
I got ACNL around August 2018. I decided to get a nintendo DS instead of a Switch, since it was dropping a little bit in price. I got ACNL because my sister plays it. (I'm more of a PC / PS girl tbh)
My sister had been playing for probably like 5 years, and she's quite the bell hoarder, so she set me up nicely. She gave me nearly 2 million bells to start out with, all types of fruits, loads of flowers to start up with, etc and basically showed me the ropes and told me how to do what, etc. So we spent almost every day going to the island to hoard bugs to sell, etc. I think Nana was one of the first to move in with to my town, and she came from my sister's game. She was still wearing her designed tee I think, and using the phrases she had gotten from my sis.
(I can't remember who was the absolute first, as they came in quite quickly.) Nana, Flip and Paula are the first ones I remember. I still have all my originals in my town, and space for one more.
I used about half of what my sis gave me of bells to start with, mostly on my own house development.
I played every day for many many months! It was only recently that I was simply so bogged down with things that I didn't get to play for a long time, (but luckily, I had remembered when I played last, so I simply set the date to a date that wouldn't be too far off.)
I got the game back then one day before it's actual release date, as that one shop here in my area mostly put games one or two days earlier in their shelves. I was able to even get a special version of it with a touch pen and stickers. Since I was already a huge fan of Animal Crossing around the time when New Leaf was announced and later also released, it was a must have-game for me, as I also bought my first 3DS mostly because of this game.
In my first days playing the game, I didn't knew you could reset for a town map and so I just pick one which I found quite decent. I actually found a cool spot for my house and just started to get all kind of items I was able to find, plant flowers around my house, talked very often to the villagers and so on. I kinda had no plan to be honest what to do at first, as everything was kinda different compared to the previous game. Unfortunately, I can't remember what villagers I had or what town fruit I got, I know that my character's name was Sherry and the town name Redford? And I also remember that I started to time travel a bit and spending lots of time at Tortimer's Island once I was able to go there and found out that you can collect there rare bugs which you can sell for lots of bells. Probably one of my goals was to get a new bridge as I was annoyed by only having one available at the beginning, lol.
I got ACNL on August 27th 2014. I remember a few weeks prior I was on the Eshop and I saw a video where Reggie was showing his house and I was amazed by the fact that you could have a house in a video game and how there was so much customization. A few weeks later I get the game and I launch ACNL on my 2DS. I remember seeing Rover ask all these questions and I get off the train to see a weird dog and other talking animals speak to me. It was a bit confusing because all these animals were calling me “mayor” and I ended up being the mayor of HOME (what I called my first town) I remember it taking forever to pay my debt to Tom Nook and I had my first town until June of 2016. RIP HOME. A bit weird to say but those moments I had with my town were the most memorable memories I’ve ever had
Such a wholesome thread!
I got NL in June 2013 when it first released in Europe, I had been anticipating the day and had been following its development since the E3 trailer. I had played Wild World to death and was naturally growing bored of what it had to offer so I excited for this instalment. At the time I was at school and thankfully it was released on a Friday so I had Friday after school plus the weekend. I remember begging my mum to go and pick it up for me after she dropped me off at school in the morning, I gave her the money I had saved up for it and she went and picked it up for me, bless her.
New Leaf was literally all I could think about ALL DAY and I was telling my friend how excited I was about it and it influenced her into buying it, so she did the next day (and her sister). We spent all weekend playing it at my friend?s house, my American friend had the island unlocked since the US got it a little earlier so he helped us get our diving suits.
Funny how New Horizons is released on a Friday and now I?ll have to wait until I finish uni to play ;.;
I got New Leaf because I'd played every previous version of the game, so naturally I had to get this one!!
At the time it came out, I didn't own a 3DS though, only my younger sister did. So technically, the first copy of New Leaf I played on was hers. She bought it at the end of June 2013, a few weeks after its' North American release, while I was out of the country on a trip with my choir. I made a character in her town the morning after I got back from the trip. So for my first 9 months of playing the game (I bought my own 3DS + copy in March 2014), I actually was not the mayor of my/our town, but I didn't care. I still had a super fun time just exploring all the new features and especially playing on the island! My strongest memory is playing at 11am every day that summer, listening to the hourly music and feeling super content.
About a month ago, because of some mental struggles, a friend gifted me New Leaf and a 3DS out of the kindness of their heart because they thought it'd help me. (Which it has! And I'm so grateful for their kindness.) I've been binge playing for awhile now, but at first, I was confused. I didn't really know what I was getting into, I guess, because the only AC game I've really ever played was Pocket Camp- and Pocket Camp only gets into the surface of what ACNL and the other games really are. So far, I've loved this game so much, and it's been such a peaceful and relaxing time. And I've gotten attached to so many villagers already!
My family has been into video games since I was a kid. We had the original NES back in the day, and none of us has ever outgrown gaming. Missed out on some of the Nintendo home consoles after Playstation came out, but DS and 3DS pulled us back into Nintendo consoles too. My mom and I love handheld consoles in particular, so when we saw coverage on ACNL leading up to its release we decided that we wanted to try the series and be able to play together on our systems.
Got it the day it released in North America. Mom dove into her game immediately. I took a few more hours to figure out names for my town and character. I didn't know anything about maps, or resetting, or the villagers. I did accidentally reset the first time because I didn't like the name I picked, but I didn't realize it would change anything else.
My mom and I immediately started having a blast noticing stuff like that we had different faces and comparing our towns (villagers, fruit, maps...)... and visiting each other. As we got items and figured things out we would help each other. We played the game just tons after that, and it was just the best gaming experience. Made all kinds of mistakes with placing stuff in my town, and had no clue what I was doing for ages, and loved every second of it with no regrets.
I was into ACWW with a friend from high school, but after we quit and part ways I hadn?t heard any news about animal crossing. Then, during a very busy time in college haha, I somehow found out about ACNL and was flooded with nostalgia. I bought a 3ds specifically to play and soon enough got wayyyy more into the franchise than I ever did with wild world (should have waited until break to actually get into it though ) I remember at the beginning going a bit crazy with custom QRs I saw online on japanese blogs. Then I found this forum and began trading and meeting people online. My favourite thing to do back then was trade perfect fruit with people from different towns!
I received ACNL as a birthday present back in 2014-ish. It was the first Animal Crossing game I'd played. I accidentally made myself a boy but I didn't want to delete my player because... I don't know? I don't really remember. I did delete it eventually though.
I have always been a DS person, I even had 3 DS lites one time! All gifted to me by people who just werent Nintendo fans. Well, in 2014 my DS lites were super worn out, a couple of them no longer charging and my last one had a cracked hinge that always made it shut off as soon as I would open it back up. That year, I asked my then boyfriend-now husband, if I could get a new DS for Christmas. The New 3ds xl came out that year I think! I wasn't really expecting him to get me a new one. It was just a big wish and I honestly would have had been thankful for anything. Come Christmas morning, our family gathered around to open all of our gifts. I had recieved a bunch of makeup and comfort items! I was so happy with my presents already, I got up to go put my gifts away and try out my new things. But my family stopped me before I could, to give me the last gift under the tree. At this point, I honestly didn't expect another gift since I felt like I got more than what I wanted. The box felt heavy and nice, and I slowly opened it, and just went silent. I was entirely in shock! I did not expect to actually get a 3ds because it's such an expensive item in my eyes. Everyone had thought I didn't like my gift but in reality, I just was speechless! I am still addicted to my DS and have not put it down since. I researched up all the 3ds games right away and made a wishlist of games to buy and 2 months later, I went ahead and bought animal crossing when I had some money left over from bills. It just kinda stood out to me and it looked cute on the front but I had no idea what it was about. I actually tried it for an hour, got disappointed and didn't touch it again for another couple weeks. I don't think I actually understood what the game was about or even how to really play it. I thought it was a game more geared towards really little kids and I had wasted my money. (I was 20 at the time.) After I picked it back up the 2nd time, I deleted my town and started a new one. I noticed my animal villagers were different this time, which I thought was cool and didn't expect. I simply accepted I were to have ugly villagers and I had no control over who lived with me. I actually originally thought everyone had the same villagers. But then I deleted my town again. I was irritated that villagers kept moving in front of my house and again, ugly villagers! Plus terrible town layout. It wasn't for another month and a half when I would pick it back up for the final time. I was dedicated to trying to like this game. I watched gameplays, read tutorials, looked up guides of all kinds and took the time to really appreciate animal crossing. I found out about the reset trick and how to use it to get the town I had wanted, and it soon became my favorite game and have soothed me from anxiety and my depression. Animal crossing allowed me to be the perfectionist I am and control the things around me, something I've always struggled with in my personal life. I've made many towns since then, and I actually hated it at first, but I'm definately a fanatic now and always will be!
I didn't get New Leaf until just last year after I had purchased my little brother a Switch on his birthday for that Mario + Rabbids game as he was a fan of the show that aired on Nick. Since it was seen as a hand held to my parents who are less aware of that stuff, they decided to give me the 3ds as a hand me down which upon getting it I immediately purchased ACNL. We already actually had a copy since both my mom and I adore the series, but she has a tendency of making it 2024 in just the span of a week in order to obtain the holiday furniture. Time travelling is something I never do, but as opposed to starting over, I decided to get my own copy entirely. Despite having the game already I barely touched it. It also was a couple of years since last touching it, so I was basically new to the whole thing. That really showing when I accidently sold my only perfect peach that I wouldn't see again until someone provided me one on this very forum, thanks again Laconic. I decided to continue without much knowledge of everything, and even had my friend make her own villager if only for a short time. I find that to be quite difficult for things like Redds, Gulliver, and especially Brewster. I still enjoyed it however. The only thing I knew about from having it before was making money on the island courtesy of my mom telling me. I kept it that way until a full year passed in my town well after completing my house. I like doing the encyclopedia stuff, but for the sake of completing, and for staying true to never time travelling I finally cheated as to not miss another cycle, discovering a lot in everything even beyond the encyclopedia. Because most friends are still in college, and NH for me will be played by my mom first. I eventually joined here to keep New Leaf going in the hopes of finding people to play with, and so here we are now. It's been fun!
I had always loved Animal Crossing (Animal Crossing for Gamecube being my first ever video game that I personally owned) and when Animal Crossing New Leaf came out, I had to have it. I went to the store at 9am with my then-boyfriend and we both bought the only two copies that were received by the store (Kmart). I remember I was wearing a striped dress that went past my knees. I played the game for several hours, my then-boyfriend not so amused and we hardly even played together at all. I put my house by the end of the cliff so when I went inside I could hear the ocean. My first villager I remember interacting with was Opal the snooty elephant. I hated her so much, I wanted her out of my town as soon as possible. A couple of days after picking up ACNL, I went in to have surgery on my ankle/foot, as I'd hurt it and I couldn't walk very well, so it was a repair. All summer I played ACNL, while propped up in bed and having my parents take care of me because I had a hard time getting up (I have a lot of medical issues and it was so hard for me to relearn how to walk).
