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Dōbutsu no Mori
Animal Crossing, then called Dōbutsu no Mori or Animal Forest, was first released exclusively in Japan for Nintendo 64. It was created by Katsuya Eguchi at the age of 21 (Oloman, 2020). According to Eguchi, the three prominent themes of the game include family, friendship, and community; he created the game to help recreate the feeling of spending time with friends and family (Olney & Lane, 2020). -
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Citations
Cashon, J. (2020). Animal Crossing: A Brief History of Nintendo's Beloved Life Sim. https://www.cbr.com/animal-crossing-brief-history/ Olney, A., & Lane, G. (2020). Feature: Animal Crossing: A Brief History. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/03/feature_animal_crossing_a_brief_history Oloman, J. (2020). The Weird and Wonderful History of Animal Crossing. https://www.fandom.com/articles/the-weird-and-wonderful-history-of-animal-crossing -
Animal Crossing
Animal Crossing was released in North America for the first time with additional characters and holidays to make the game more relatable to a western audience (Olney & Lane, 2020). -
Animal Forest e+
A new and improved version of Animal Forest, known as Dōbutsu no Mori+, was released for GameCube. This version later came to be known as the Animal Crossing we know and love (Oloman, 2020 & Cashon, 2020). -
Animal Crossing: Wild World
Animal Crossing: Wild World was released on the Nintendo DS. It was the first time the game was made in a portable format. The release of Wild World also introduced multiplayer gameplay with up to 3 friends via Wi-Fi (Oloman, 2020). There was a lot more interaction and customization introduced with the dual-screen layout of the DS (Cashon, 2020). -
Animal Crossing: City Folk
Animal Crossing: City Folk was released for the Nintendo Wii. With this release came more Wi-Fi services such as voice and text chat. The game was meant to build upon Animal Crossing:Wild World but was not well received because people had a hard time returning to a nonportable format. (Oloman, 2020 & Olney & Lane, 2020). -
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Animal Crossing: New Leaf was released alongside the Nintendo 3DS. The game had many new features added to it and even incorporated some features from the not-so-popular Animal Crossing: City Folk. Animal Crossing: New Leaf grew to popularity due to beloved characters such as Isabelle, Timmy, and Tommy, as well as the ability to share patterns and visit friends' houses (Oloman, 2020). -
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
Animal Crossing: New Leaf was brought to the Wii U and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, a spinoff game, was released for the 3DS. This game allowed players to build homes and create furniture for the villagers based on their personalities. The game also allowed for Animal Crossing Amiibos to be created, which would help players who played Animal Crossing on the Wii U (Oloman, 2020 & Olney & Lane, 2020). -
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, a spinoff game, was released for the Wii U. The game was meant to emulate a board game similar to Mario Party; however, it was not well received, and to date it the lowest-rated Animal Crossing game (Cashon, 2020). -
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was released for mobile devices. The game was not received well due to the lack of charm found in the previous games. Players were also not happy about in-app purchases, this eventually led to a bad reputation (Oloman, 2020 & Olney & Lane, 2020). -
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released for the Nintendo Switch. Animal Crossing: New Horizons introduced the ability to play with up to 8 people at the same time, an auto-save feature, and character customization. (Olney & Lane, 2020).
