Animal Crossing - Ultimate Quick Comparisons

The ultimate set of Animal Crossing quick comparisons! Updated for version 2.0, combined into one video, sorted into categories, and presented in quick, rapid-fire succession. And yes, there are some new comparisons as well!

The five core, worldwide Animal Crossing games are compared and contrasted here: Animal Crossing (GameCube, 2002), Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo DS, 2005), Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii, 2008), Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS, 2013), and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch, 2020). Release dates listed are based on the American releases, and some may differ in other regions. Spinoffs such as Pocket Camp and Happy Home Designer are not included because they have a limited scope, don't operate the same way, and wouldn't make for fair comparisons in most cases.

Comparisons by category:
0:08 Starting Out
0:36 Villagers
2:46 Town & Shops
3:56 Tools
5:26 Museum & Catches
6:23 Fruit & Flowers
7:26 Features/Miscellaneous
11:06 Events
11:58 Special Characters
17:46 Outro

A couple of minor corrections:
1:30 Villagers can ask to schedule a visit in City Folk, but it's rare.
6:50 There are no roses on GameCube. (Thanks, corinaw9525!)
16:50 Porter can appear in New Horizons if you use an amiibo.

Music:
0.00 Animal Crossing (GameCube) title theme
0.08 1pm theme, GameCube
2.35 5pm theme, GameCube
4.57 11pm snow theme, WW/CF
5.45 11pm snow theme, New Leaf
6.45 5am theme, New Horizons
7.48 9am theme, GameCube
8.42 9am theme, WW/CF
9.49 9am theme, New Leaf
10.52 9am theme, New Horizons
11.47 8pm theme, WW/CF
14.15 9pm theme, WW/CF
15.10 8pm theme, GameCube

New Horizons info is current as of August 30, 2022...and is unlikely to change (barring an unforeseen future update to the game).

Characters marked "amiibo only" require an amiibo card (or figure) and include appearances at the Roost, Photopia, and in the Happy Home Paradise (HHP) DLC.

Regarding villager counts: Many sites report a total of 399 villagers in New Leaf. However, they are wrongly including Filly and Holden, who only appeared as campers (not villagers) during a Japanese promotion. As for New Horizons, the six amiibo-only villagers are the Sanrio card villagers (Chai, Chelsea, Etoile, Marty, Toby, and Rilla).

About the villager personality types, the original six are jock, lazy, cranky, peppy, normal, and snooty. The two types added in New Leaf are smug and sisterly (aka uchi).

For "currency used," I only included currency that was used in-game. So I left out the Nook Points from the Nintendo Switch Online phone app, since they are not used in-game. And I included Play Coins for New Leaf, because they are used to buy fortune cookies in-game, even though they're not acquired in-game.

Thanks for watching! Never Stop Crossing!

[jvgsjeff]

A couple of minor corrections:
1:30 Villagers *can* ask to schedule a visit in City Folk, but it's rare.
6:50 There are no roses on GameCube. (Thanks, corinaw9525!)
16:50 Porter *can* appear in New Horizons if you use an amiibo.

[yeetyeet]

Getting rid of the ability for past villagers to remember you after they leave the island is pretty stupid

[jkazos]

The tools breaking part gave me a sensible chuckle.

[SlamBolts]

I feel this entire video was made with the only purpose of calling out NH's tool durability and I'm all in for it.

[treacherous-doctor]

All previous AC games: Golden tools are a deserved reward for completing a very difficult task in the game, and therefore do not break. In some cases, collecting the golden tools includes certain benefits, such as the golden net having a larger catch radius than the regular nets. There is no reason for golden tools to ever break.
New Horizons: haha crafting mechanic go brrr

[spiritif]

4:12 i still don't understand how watering cans can EXPLODE after you watered a flower

[armintargaryen]

If anything the golden tools breaking make even less sense in NH than in the others. Like, the early game is designed to craft a lot, but then you depend on it less and less as you keep on playing. The golden tools should be a reward in itself because you have reached late game and you can return to traditional AC mechanics

[sven]

I think it’s still incredible how much stuff they crammed on a small ds card

[supervd]

the decrease in fruit variety from new leaf to new horizons and the absence of perfect fruits makes me so irrationally sad. not like it’s important, but i miss having lemon trees. wonder why they got cut.

[princetbug]

can we just acknowledge what a crime it is that the night owl ordinance only changes the closing time by *one hour* now?

[NightTheKittenn]

The obsession with the crafting mechanic in ACNH is i think part of what killed it for me. I don’t want to have to craft recipes i just wanna buy stuff for my house.

[juhbubby]

Fun Fact for 7:11
The Lily-of-the-Valley was in every AC game. However, (Prior to New Horizons) it was deemed as a Jacob’s Ladder and not a Lily-of-the-Valley, as a Jacob’s Ladder is the flower’s one of many aliases.

[dorka]

FUN FACT: In the GameCube/Original Animal Crossing game, you'll occasionally see a soccer ball, a basketball, or a beachball around town. You can bump into it and kick it around- if you do so near a villager, they can even kick it around with you for a short while!

I personally love the OG game, mostly because I grew up with it, but I love how rude the villagers can be. Not to mention that it feels more socially engaging. The festivals were more interactive imo, plus there was a greater variety of them! As much as I love New Leaf and New Horizons, I feel like taking those previous GameCube aspects and fine-tuning them for the modern games would just absolutely rock.

[chillfactory]

Whats up with AC for GameCube being like "Yeah, he'll definetly wanna go into the Able Sisters at 2AM."

[maxpowers]

Correction: At 16:51, New Horizons does have Porter, but he's an amiibo only character. Didn't know if you knew that.

[iamjohnporter]

2:02 Correction with ACNH. You can use their amiibo card to invite the villager who used to live on your island at the Roost. The thing is in order for this to work the villager must move out of your island first and then invite them the next day once they are out of your island and you'll see them at the Roost and they will remember you.

[KellyHodder]

I didn’t realize just how many characters NH made amiibo only until watching this. The game’s always felt kind of empty (esp after unlocking terraforming and redoing your island) and I think the lack of characters from previous games is partially why. Great video!!

[nalaxysketches]

It's baffling that New Leaf had more fruits than New Horizons, let that sink in.

[redkid]

It’s depressing to see main series characters get demoted to just: amiibo. What might’ve been… 😪

[mistysidorov]

I still feel like New Leaf is superior. I don't know why. Maybe because I wasted so many hours on it 😂