What Is Animal Crossing? Learn More About This Popular Series

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The world of Animal Crossing is very unique just like Nintendo's other properties which is definitely part of the overall charm that is on offer.

In each game the player (a human) lives in a community of anthropomorphic animals (a cross between human and animal). These NPCs have evolved gradually throughout the series of games and include all sorts of animals from raccoons, dogs, foxes, turtles and many others.

The physical setting of this community does change depending on the game but is generally a village type small community where the player is either a resident or mayor (Animal Crossing: New Leaf).

Gameplay has stayed pretty consistent over the Animal Crossing franchise with only minor changes and enhancements to the core game mechanics in that time. The focus of all the games in the series are on providing an open ended style of gameplay that allows players to set their own objectives and reach them in a way that suits them.

The mechanics centre around activities such as fishing, using the garden, collecting various items or just talking to the residents to see how you can help them out with a need. During these activities players will get to unlock equipment and customisation options with the in game currency which is earned quite easily in a number of ways.

Most players will spend much of their money on customising their house and the village to create something that the players wants to call home.

One key feature of the Animal Crossing series that has remained constant is the way the game uses an internal clock to monitor both the time of day and the current day. This opens up options for your Animal Crossing world to celebrate different seasons and special holidays like Christmas and Halloween.

The only real evolution to the Animal Crossing series came in the latest game (New Leaf) where instead of players being part of the community they got the option to step into the role of mayor to give them greater control over what shape the town ultimately took. Much of the games long term success stems from the fact that there are very few Animal Crossing competitors.

In terms of critical reception all the games have been able to reach scores in the mid to high 80s (Metacritic) except for Wild World which was due in party to some awkward Wii style controls and lack of adjustments to the previous game.