How did you get into Animal Crossing?

[Cyku]

I got into New Horizons pretty simply - it was quite loud around the game after the release, but I wasn't really that much interested until I heard on a website a story of a girl who let her villager call her "Mountain" to be nice to that villager and she regretted it so much xD And that was something that made me thought "OKAY, I NEED THAT GAME". xD

 

[Burumun]

Everyone has such interesting stories, I just got WW because the commercials looked interesting, and I've played every game since.

 

[Living Fossil]

I'm not sure what specifically made me buy a copy of Wild World back in 2006, but I think it was because of the back of the box art. It said you could customize your house, and that the game was running in real life time... That to me was just a "whoa" moment since I've never played a video game like that before.

I was also heavily into "Habbo Hotel" for PC back in 2004 to god knows when. So I liked games were you created yourself and your room.

Little did I know how addicted I would get to this franchise and buy so many games. City Folk to this day is the superior Animal Crossing game to me. It has the classic Wild World music, updated graphics, rude and abusive villager dialogue, and a whole area outside of your town to visit with shops and events. New Leaf tried to make a better game but failed. The only thing they get credit from me is making the player taller so we could have pants and long sleeves haha.

 

[LeenaM]

What always makes me laugh is thinking about the fact that I understood that time traveling was a thing after ONE whole year into new leaf and back there I was something like 14/15 I’m pretty sure. Before that, I didn’t know it was a thing so I can say that I’ve never time travelled playing Wild world because I didn’t even know it was possible

I think I only learned about it thanks to a friend, she had this cartridge thing that you can use with DS games to hack them. You could hack WW to instantaneously get millions of bells, that's when she showed me you could time travel and upgrade your house fully in a matter of minutes! And then it all went downhill from there .

The funny thing is even then I'd still reset my game everytime I got bored, so the only time I had a fully upgraded house (or just a house that had more than the 1st floor) was when my game was hacked for like a week .

 

[daffodilcrossing]

When I was younger my house only had a wii, which was super fun but we weren’t allowed to have DS’ because my mom thought we would be too distracted (this was pre-cellphones). When I was a senior in high school I finally bought myself my first DS, a red 3DS. The only game I bought for it was animal crossing new leaf, and that was the only game I had for a long time. I fell in love instantly. I do regret never playing the earlier games but I’m glad I got to play new leaf before new horizons.

 

[Pendragon1980]

Totally blame my sister @Alphapack for this addiction. And now I play it more than her.

 

[Kristea]

I started on the Game Cube because I had gotten really sick and was home from school a lot. I didn't really play that much until Wild World when my mom got it for me. Still, I played a lil. It wasn't until City Folk that my love for it REALLY took off. My mom had bought me a copy for my birthday and it was my first birthday after my Grandma's passing (who I called Nana) - was so upset and sad and my first villager in town that I see is Nana. Lol just felt like a happy birthday wish. Brightened my day up, and I've always had to have Nana in one of my towns ever since. She's so special to meeeee. Anyway it was downhill from there. ACNL and ACNH are my life :3 I do miss my CF town though a lot and wish I could find my game.

 

[Klauser_Bateson]

I hadn't heard of Animal Crossing until I watched the trailer for New Leaf. It reminded me of the many city building games I was playing on my iPad and it piqued my interest (at the time I mostly played games on the iPad while the 3DS was put to the side collecting dust).

I went to the Nintendo store in NYC for the New Leaf launch event, assuming the line was going to be short and there would be a lot of copies available. The line was LONG, longer than I anticipated. I almost didn't get a copy. I really thought they would sell out of the limited edition AC 3DS but they had plenty. I guess the design really put people off.

After about a week of playing New Leaf, I thought to myself, "where has this series been all my life?" and was instantly hooked. I was so obsessed with this game, it made me forget I even had an iPad for a while.

 

[. Rarity .]

The first time I played animal crossing, was Amiibo festival, with my friend. We both really enjoyed the game, and we ended up getting cards, my favorite card was Bunnie. Then my fond memory of playing it, is how whenever we played with Bill, he would fall in every hole, and kinda became a running joke between us, whenever we think of that duck.

She had been playing the 3ds game for years. Loved it, and I never touched it. But loved Amiibo festival, and the cards. We played it for about a year before stopping.

She got me it for the 3ds two years ago, and i still havent touched it. But then came isolation. Not being able to talk with anyone, and really only connecting through text. But all my friends were playing Animal crossing: New horizons.

So I got it to stay in conntact. I didnt really like it at first. But it grew on me, and it was my way of staying in touch with people. But I've since then grown to love the game, and I've played it alot. Started over a few times, but Im happy with my current game.

During Amiibo festival my first character I played with was Bunnie, and my favorite at that time was/still is Kid Cat. Who I only have Kid Cat right now, but hopefully will complete my villagers with Bunnie soon

But that's probably my favorite part about animal crossing, or one of them. Is the fact you make connections, and be really close to your villagers. Which I love, and I love gifting, and building connections. Marshal gave me his photo yesterday, and I didnt realize that it basically meant your practically best friends with him. Which made me really happy, also ironic because before I got him I made fun of him, and now hes my closest friend on Animal Crossing, villager wise.

Im very happy to have it, and its built alot of memories, with the villagers, as well as friends and helped me with isolation. I think I'll also like it for many years to come.

 

[DrewAC]

I played the GameCube version at a friend’s house briefly and had so much fun with it, however never purchased my own copy or learned that much about it.

Wild World then came out and I remember visiting the website for it before buying. I loved everything about it! Being able to write and send mail, a museum, shops, presents tied to balloons, etc - it all sounded so exciting! I got it for my birthday and remember not being able to put it down at all. I’d even hide my DS fishing late at night for sharks during the summer when I was supposed to be sleeping.

Then City Folk, New Leaf, and New Horizons came out and the rest was history. I definitely feel this is my favorite video game series.

 

[That Marshal Fangirl]

It was fall 2013 (making me 13 as well), and my younger brother showed me the trailer for Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I said, "That looks boring and dumb." Fast forward to Christmas of that same year and I opened a 3DS XL along with several games, including the one I had badmouthed. It took me about a week to finally try it because I had also gotten Scribblenauts Unlimited and I beat that all the way through first. When I loaded up my very first Animal Crossing game and saw those cute little animals waiting for me at the train station, I was hooked. The game was cute, charming, and full of fun activities to do. I became emotionally attached to my villagers, so much so that I cried when my first few moved out without my consent. My original town is fully developed and decorated. I have a basically completed catalog, I finished my encyclopedias, and the museum has every possible exhibit. I've also played every Animal Crossing since, including the one on the WiiU we pretend doesn't exist. New Horizons is a lot of fun and I love it, but I don't think anything will ever give me as much joyful nostalgia as New Leaf does.

 

[Skyfall]

My then boyfriend/now husband. He was spending, ahem, considerable amount of time on Call of Duty nightly. He bought me the game so we can game side by side. (Joke’s on him, he doesn’t game that much these days... but I do!!! Every night. )

 

[Snek]

New Leaf came with the 3DS that I bought. I didn't plan to play it at first because I was still heavily into Pokemon...but eventually I got burnt from X&Y and decided to try it out. I ended up loving it and playing ever since.

 

[tiffanistarr]

The first AC game I played was AC on the GC. I remember in my first “town” “village” i got the villager Huggy, she was such a cutie! She was a Koala sadly she’s wasn’t in any other games after that. I remember having Fang, Tangy, and Bones! Ugh it was such a great game! Then I played Wild World and City Folk, i always hated seeing Kapp’n drive a taxi instead of being on his boat lol it just never felt right.

AC for the GC is just so nostalgic now and such a wonderful relic. I mean Booker and Copper?? they were great! And you had to wash Gracies car! So many fun things to look back on with that game.

I will say i have a lot of fond New Leaf memories as well, My first initial town Hogwarts thrived and i like to think it’s still thriving! I would also go out buy used copies of NL to see what other people’s towns were like.

 

[visibleghost]

I was given City Folk by my uncle in 2011 or 2012 and started playing a lot the summer of 2012. I loved the game and really liked animal crossing but didn't have a 3DS so I didn't get New Leaf until early 2015, which is so weird when I think about it because the Welcome Amiibo update was in 2016 and it felt like I had been playing for ages at that point... anyway. I've been a fan since City Folk but I never played Wild World for more than 2 hours. I was also really into Pocket Camp for a few years when I was too unmotivated to play in my town but didn't want to let go of animal crossing.

 

[LunarMako]

I have never played Animal Crossing until I bought a NIntendo 3DS. My friend told me to get Animal Crossing because it was a good game and she wanted someone to play with. Now I am more obessed then she is.

 

[Tiffany]

I started playing back in the gamecube days. Honestly I wasn't interested initially because the commercials for the gc version looked really dumb to me, they made no sense. But a friend of mine had the game and she really liked it. She would play sometimes when we were on the phone and would tell me about it and it sounded fun so I bought it for myself. And the rest is history as they say

 

[NicksFixed]

I didn't get a DS Lite until Summer 2008 and was looking for games to play on it. I had fallen out of gaming for quite some time because real life got in the way. I started buying ONM and saw a very brief description of WW in it. I thought it sound different and interesting so I got it and loved it.

Only a few months later, LGttC was released, and that's the game that really got me into AC. I already loved the series by then but it was such a step-up to me from WW, and I had Wii Speak, so I had a lot of fun nights playing online and chatting with people all over the world. There was also DLC every month for the first few years, so that kept me coming back to the game. I did miss collecting villager pics, but there was so much more to do and buy, proper events again and new NPCs like Serena and Phineas.

I've loved the series ever since and have played every main game and spinoff !! Hard to believe that the game has seen me through three decades, from my mid-20s to my early 40s !! And it's not over yet !!

 

[Alaina]

GCN was my first game system (that I bought with my "own money" when I was like 10) and the first two games I picked were Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Animal Crossing. I think I had read about Animal Forest and got all excited that a US version was made. I liked games that sounded creative and unique, so I tried it. Loved it! Got hooked right away. I remember playing all weekend while my grandparents were over. Just collecting seashells and fishing for bells.

It was cute staying up for K.K. Slider and Wisp, getting holiday furniture and trading based on codes made for friends' names and town names. I remember everyone was against TTing and universal codes though. I never really read a guide or figured out the ins and outs, I was more in my own world. Loved making custom patterns and did it the pixel by pixel way back then, putting photos of my real life cats into the game haha…and my favorite band musician I think (who coincidentally streams NH on Twitch now).

 

[Louise_]

I saw someone playing new leaf, I though that looks like a fun game, and it was