Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing
The Animal Crossing series logo.
Genres	Community simulation
Developers	Nintendo
Publishers	Nintendo
Platforms	Nintendo 64, iQue Player, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, iOS, Android
Platform of origin	Nintendo 64
First release	Animal Crossing April 14, 2001
Latest release	Animal Crossing: New Leaf Welcome Amiibo December 2, 2016
Spin-offs	Happy Home Designer Amiibo Festival

Animal Crossing (どうぶつの森, Dōbutsu no Mori^?, lit. "Animal Forest"), is a community simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo, in which the human player lives in a village inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, carrying out various activities including fishing, bug catching, fossil hunting, etc. The series is notable for its open-ended gameplay and extensive use of the game systems' internal clock and calendar to simulate real passage of time. Four Animal Crossing games have been released worldwide, one each for the GameCube (originally Nintendo 64), Nintendo DS, Wii, and the Nintendo 3DS. The series has been both critically and commercially successful and has sold over 30 million units worldwide. Two new spin-off games, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer and Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, were released for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U respectively in 2015.

In all of the Animal Crossing games, the player assumes the role of a human character, who moves into a rural village populated with anthropomorphic animals and lives there indefinitely. Gameplay is open-ended: players have no defined objectives, but are instead encouraged to spend their time in the village performing any number of activities, which include collecting items, planting plants or other items, and socializing with the village's residents. All Animal Crossing games are played in real time, utilizing the system's internal clock and calendar. Thus, passage of time in the game world reflects that in reality, as well as the current season and time of day. Some in-game events, such as holidays or the growth of a tree, occur at certain times or require some duration of time to have passed.