Since its initial release twenty years ago, the Animal Crossing franchise has become adored, and unsurprisingly so, due to its extremely loveable content. The famous Nintendo franchise is hugely successful and has been since its first release. The latest release to the franchise, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, released in March 2020, has sold over 30 million copies alone.

RELATED: Animal Crossing: 10 Villager Homes That Just Make Sense

It is no secret that the franchise has had so much success over its nine releases. The social simulation game is nothing short of excellence with its carefully crafted gameplay, engaging nature, and playful and soothing atmosphere, all in addition to the creative and imaginative experience. But do all the games meet up to the high expectations that we've come to expect through this franchise? We've ranked each game from worst to best.

9 Animal Crossing: Plaza

Animal Crossing Plaza

Plaza was a spinoff game released on the Wii U that allowed Animal Crossing: New Leaf players to communicate with each other. The game was free-to-play and lasted approximately a year before being discontinued.

The game allowed players to share and see posts, initiate conversations, and showcase dream and QR design codes to other players… but that was pretty much it. The online feature wasn’t new to the Animal Crossing franchise when Animal Crossing Plaza released in 2013.

8 Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival

Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival

Released on the Wii U in 2015, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival was a party video game. The spinoff game moved from the traditional format of the Animal Crossing franchise, introducing a board game-style gameplay for your amiibo characters. You would need to have amiibo to take full advantage of the gameplay.

Having some similarities to Nintendo’s Mario Party, you must race across the interactive board to win, using an electronic and randomised dice in order to determine your movement.

7 Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer

Available on the Nintendo 3DS after its 2015 release, the small addition to the Nintendo franchise allowed players to show off creativity and style by designing the interior and exterior of the houses of your favourite Animal Crossing villagers.

You fulfil and take requests from your villagers, following a brief to obtain furniture with their type of personality and style. Although you can’t design your own home, you can decorate other public facilities such as the school and hospital.

6 Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

animal crossing pocket camp

A free-to-play adaption to the Animal Crossing franchise, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp was the first and only mobile adaption for the game. Released in 2017, and available to play on iOS and Android devices, it was also the first game to introduce crafting to the series.

RELATED: 10 Things Still Missing In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The game consisted of building a fun and visually pleasing campsite for villagers and friends to enjoy. There were missions available every few hours and the game also included some in-game events. This consisted of the scavenger hunt, flowers, and the well-known fishing tourney.

5 Animal Crossing: City Folk

animal crossing city folk

As the third instalment in the franchise, this game was released on the Wii. Animal Crossing: City Folk was very similar to Animal Crossing: Wild World but included a city. The city introduction was a change to the usual scenery of your typical world/island. The city was a dedicated area for activities like shopping, getting your hair cut by Shampoodle, and even purchasing some dodgy art from Redd.

Outside of your town’s gate, you can easily use the free transport from the bus stop and travel to the city. You also can meet some of the town’s residents that don’t reside on your island.

4 Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing

Released in 2001, Animal Crossing was the very start of what would be an extremely successful franchise.

The game was released on the Nintendo 64 and later onto the GameCube. Animal Crossing was the first introduction to a wide selection of villagers in an open-ended social simulation game. Even though it was the first game, it was simple, a bit tedious, but also completely rewarding and nostalgic to all.

3 Animal Crossing: Wild World

Animal Crossing: Wild World

Released on the handheld game console, the Nintendo DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World was released in 2005. Whilst carrying the same mechanics as the Animal Crossing GameCube version, you had new usable tools, new characters, and also new interactive activities.

RELATED: Animal Crossing: 10 Items That Look Cheap (But Are Surprisingly Expensive)

Extremely nostalgic to most who didn’t have access to a GameCube, many feel that Animal Crossing: Wild World is the best Animal Crossing game of the entire franchise. It holds a lot of similarities to the first release of an Animal Crossing game, but with tweaked improvements and changes.

2 Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The promotional cover for the game

Recently, the latest edition of the franchise, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, was released on the Nintendo Switch. Since then, it has sold over 30 million copies. With over a seven-year wait for the release of another Animal Crossing video game, this release was extremely hyped by many fans.

The game has updated graphics and new mechanics. But, Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes in a close second place. Although there are a ton of new things to do in the game compared to other releases, there are also a lot of features that are missing, like the beloved Brewster.

1 Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Animal Crossing: New Leaf
via Nintendo

This Animal Crossing release on the Nintendo 3DS was undoubtedly the most solid and best addition to the entire franchise. It included the improvements and customisation options to make the town your own, which ultimately was all people wanted. It lived up to and exceeded any previous expectations of released games.

Allowing you to play as the mayor of the town, Animal Crossing: New Leaf was extremely open in how much freedom and creativeness it gave the player. There was little that you couldn’t do. Some of these features are yet to be introduced into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so it lacks much of the content that fans have come to love and expect from this Nintendo 3DS release.

NEXT: Animal Crossing: 10 Ways The Older Games Feel More Alive Than New Horizons