The first game in this Nintendo franchise to be localized, where your player avatar lives in an idyllic little town full of charming animal residents with distinct personalities. Though the main objective is to pay off your house, the game is all about managing and improving your virtual life, collecting items through activities like fishing and fossil-digging, and interacting with the townsfolk for seasonal events and prizes. Considered one of the best entries in the franchise for its art direction and world. The series continues on NDS and 3DS. The original Animal Crossing (Animal Forest / Doubutsu no Mori) came out for the N64 and received a translation patch later on, but is inferior in every way to the Gamecube port.

I’m currently playing through all the mainline Animal Crossing games and thought it would be best to start with the first entry in the franchise: the original Animal Crossing for the Gamecube.

Having played New Horizons religiously at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and playing bits and pieces of City Folk and New Leaf, Animal Crossing is where the roots start to enrich and implant themselves, the nutrients and progressions that have allowed the series to bear fruit through testing out new activities. Examples include taking away holidays in Wild World and becoming the mayor, the focal piece of the narrative in New Leaf. Furthermore, that goes without saying that Animal Crossing is the least developed and polished game of the mainline franchise, and it makes sense since it is the first game and it serves as a testing ground on whether the game would sell well with the activities provided for us.

Animal Crossing oozes with personality; villagers are a lot more brute and honest yet distinct from the other entries. Many people cite that they miss that Animal Crossing villagers had personalities akin to their personalities in the original Animal Crossing. Yet, these personalities felt organic and interesting to invest yourself into. You’re a new person coming into town, and some villagers will frown on you while others are very kind. Although the dialogues starts to become more repetitive over time, I still wish that the villagers' personalities in the original Animal Crossing were carried over to its successors.

The bug and fish collection in this game is rather small, with only 40 fish and insects to catch in the game. There are only five ocean fish in the entirety of the game, making ocean fishing pretty fruitless and cumbersome. Once you catch the bugs and fish that are in season (which is not very many), it becomes tedious over time. With the museum, instead of having Blathers assess your fossils, Blathers has you send off your fossils to a museum and research facility. After you send your fossils, it takes one day for the facility to return your fossil in its analyzed form. This can be cumbersome since it takes time for you to find out what fossils you find, especially if you only need a few more fossils.

Yet with the lack of variety and activities that Animal Crossing provides, it somehow feels comforting. It feels like a game that I can turn on after work for 30-45 minutes and feel fulfilled by the end. It feels as though I don’t have to overwork myself to achieve my goals. Animal Crossing, to me, encourages you to go at your own pace. Go at your own pace with collecting your bugs and fish, paying off your home loan, upgrading Nooks Cranny, etc. That is a feeling that continues to permeate future Animal Crossing games, but somehow it still resonates with me with Animal Crossing, although it is not as fleshed out as its future successors.

still holds up, and has the best villagers in the series. they are just so joyously and frustratingly unpredictable. outside of the menu being a nightmare to use (handhelds have really spoilt me) and the graphics not being that great this game is still one of the best in the series. it has so many little quirks and charms not seen in any of the others, and feels like the one the devs had the most fun making. they are experimenting, and inviting you into that experimentation with a cosy warm hug. i love it.

Sometimes simple is better! Animal Crossing pushes the limits of the Gamecube with a fully immersive life simulator, complete with (not always so friendly) neighbors of all types! Animal Crossing is about taking what's given to you and adapting your town to what you want, and though it caries more limitations than it's successors, I feel that brings some charm to it. Don't be fooled though, the game's witty writing and diologue is drastically different from later entries, and that alone makes this title worth a go, even for series veterans!

It's favor-based game loop wraps the whole thing up. It gives a constant sense of purpose and serves as a catalyst for you to discover this game's many systems and activities, be it due to the requirements of the favors themselves or the little things on the village that will catch your eye while you're fulfilling them. On top of that, this game's main objectives (namely, paying your house and completing the museum) are all crystal clear and big enough to really make you look forward to them, while letting you slowly progress on them over the days, months or even years. If that wasn't enough, this game stablished one of Nintendo's most special and charming worlds and cast of characters, in a way that gives your village a strong sense of place, be it because of the well-written characters, the periodic events or the wide (though not overwhelming) array of activities you can spend your time on.

The term may seem played out nowadays but no single word better encompasses this release than "cozy". Everything about its simpler artstyle, more mellow sound design, and smaller scope is just so warm. I absolutely adore the soundtrack in this game. The suite of music here would comprise multiple spots of a "most relaxing BGM" list, were I to make one.

Another big point in this game's favor is how unrestrained the villagers are and how quaint it feels. Sometimes that "first entry in a longstanding series" vibe can be clunky and jank, but in this case, it's very charming! With that said, this game is much much lighter on things to do and whenever I start towns in this one, I've never found myself staying attached too long. I would still recommend anyone check this out at least for a week or so. Bask in its classic feel.

The best Animal Crossing. This one meant so much to me growing up in a rural area with few friends.

Getting the gold statue after paying off your home was such an accomplishment. Staying up until 8 PM on Saturdays to hear KK Slider was worth it every time. The little dance you do every loan payoff was worth it.

This game is worth it!