Animal Crossing, debuting in 2001, has seen quite a few iterations over the years. The franchise has seen 10 games and has grown in popularity recently, attracting some of the most famous people to play it. While the game is evolving and always moving forward, it’s worth revisiting some of the previous iterations.
Animal Crossing, with each release, has been very popular. Each game has its own unique perks and gameplay abilities that make it fun. The franchise also has several highly rated and notable titles, like New Leaf, New Horizons and Pocket Camp. Here’s how those stack up.
Rating three popular Animal Crossing titles
New Horizons
New Horizons was released in 2020 and quickly rose to the top of most lists. It’s the second best-selling Switch unit (behind Mario Kart 8D, which came out three years earlier) and a top 10 selling Nintendo unit of all time. Animal Crossing: New Horizons received a “Mighty” rating from OpenCritic, with an aggregate score of 90 and a 99% critic recommendation.
The game had several updated features and crafting mechanics to make the game that much better. It’s also heavy on content, giving players plenty to do. This is arguably the best Animal Crossing title they’ve released.
New Leaf
New Leaf was also a fan favorite, though not quite as critically acclaimed as New Horizons has been. It received an aggregate score of 87 on MetaCritic and a 8.7 user rating. Several fans enjoyed it, and its anniversary was very recent! New Leaf represents one of the more popular and fan-favorite iterations that the franchise has released.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf’s Amiibo update allowed fans to do something they couldn’t before: the ability to use amiibos, Nintendo’s form of DLC, to get in-game items and other things.
Pocket Camp
Pocket Camp saw Nintendo do something new with the franchise: release it for platforms other than Nintendo consoles. Pocket Camp was released for iOS and Android devices in 2017, hence the name. Nintendo currently has other titles available there, like Mario Kart Tour, Super Mario Run and others, but this was a first for the Animal Crossing franchise.
The game is still active, giving fans a chance to play the game even if they don’t have a Nintendo device, which is valuable in itself. That said, many critics and fans didn’t love this iteration. It’s still one of the more notable iterations to date.
