The

life simulation Life simulation games form a subgenre of simulation video games in which the player lives or controls one or more virtual characters (human or otherwise). Such a game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation ...

video game series ''

Animal Crossing is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo. The series was conceptualized and created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. In ''Animal Crossing'', the player character is a human who lives in a village inhabi ...

'', created by

Katsuya Eguchi is a Japanese game designer, director and producer, most known for being a creator of the ''Animal Crossing'' series. He was born in 1965 in Tokyo, Japan and grew up in Chiba Prefecture. He began work at Nintendo in 1986 and spent some time do ...

and first released in 2001 by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

, features an assortment of recurring characters. Titles in the series follow the player character as they live in a village populated by

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

, with gameplay that proceeds in a

nonlinear In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...

fashion and in-game events that occur in

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

. As of '' Animal Crossing: New Horizons'', the most recent release in the series, there are over 400 animal characters that can potentially populate a player's village. In addition to these villager characters, ''Animal Crossing'' features characters that appear in the villages of all players; these characters typically serve a particular gameplay function, or appear at a specific in-game event.

Characters

Introduced in ''Animal Forest'' and ''Animal Crossing''

was released for the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...

in 2001 exclusively in Japan. An

enhanced remake A video game remake is a video game closely adapted from an earlier title, usually for the purpose of modernizing a game with updated graphics for newer hardware and gameplay for contemporary audiences. Typically, a remake of such game software sh ...

of the game for

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

was released as ''Animal Forest+'' in Japan, and as ''Animal Crossing'' worldwide. The games introduce many of the series' core recurring characters, notably businessman

Tom Nook Tom Nook, known in Japan as , is a fictional character in the ''Animal Crossing'' series who operates the village store (or the Resident Services building in '' Animal Crossing: New Horizons''). He first appeared in the Nintendo 64 game ''Dōbut ...

, traveling musician

K.K. Slider , more commonly known as K.K. Slider or K.K., is a Character (arts), fictional character within the ''Animal Crossing'' franchise. One of the franchise's most popular characters, he debuted in the title ''Animal Crossing (video game), Animal Cross ...

, and

Mr. Resetti Mr. Resetti, full name Sonny Resetti (also known in Japan as ), is a fictional character from the ''Animal Crossing'' series of video games by Nintendo. His first appearance was in the Nintendo 64 game ''Dōbutsu no Mori'', released in Europe and ...

, who lectures the player if they reset the game.

Introduced in ''Animal Crossing: Wild World''

'' Animal Crossing: Wild World'' was released on the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

in 2005.

Introduced in ''Animal Crossing: City Folk''

'' Animal Crossing: City Folk'' was released on the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

in 2008.

Introduced in ''Animal Crossing: New Leaf''

'' Animal Crossing: New Leaf'' was released on the

Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...

in 2012. The game introduces

Isabelle Isabel is a female name of Spanish origin. Isabelle is a name that is similar, but it is of French origin. It originates as the medieval Spanish form of '' Elisabeth'' (ultimately Hebrew ''Elisheva''), Arising in the 12th century, it became popul ...

, a secretary at the town hall who has been described as a "fan-favorite" and a

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

of the ''Animal Crossing'' series. Additional content and characters were added to the game in ''Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome Amiibo'', a free update for the game released in late 2016.

Introduced in ''Animal Crossing: New Horizons''

'' Animal Crossing: New Horizons'' was released on the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

on March 20, 2020. Certain characters introduced in previous ''Animal Crossing'' titles were not present in the game at launch, but have been added through free

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...

(DLC) updates. Other characters were added in ''Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise'', a paid DLC update slated for release on November 5, 2021.

Introduced in spin-off titles

Several spin-off ''Animal Crossing'' series titles have been produced, which feature their own original characters.

Characters

Introduced in ''Animal Forest'' and ''Animal Crossing''

Introduced in ''Animal Crossing: Wild World''

Introduced in ''Animal Crossing: City Folk''

Introduced in ''Animal Crossing: New Leaf''

Introduced in ''Animal Crossing: New Horizons''

Introduced in spin-off titles

Appearances by title

Notes

References

External links