Animal Crossing is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo. The series was created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. In Animal Crossing, the player character is a human who lives in a village inhabited by various animals and can do various activities like fishing, bug catching, and fossil hunting. The series has an open-ended gameplay and use of the video game console's internal clock and calendar to simulate real passage of time.
Animal Crossing was released in 2001. Since its release, five Animal Crossing games have been released worldwide, one each for the Nintendo 64/iQue Player, Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch.While the series features various villagers for each title, certain prominent characters return in each series.
In 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. Gameplay is open-ended: players have no defined objectives, they can spend their time in the village performing any activities which include collecting items, planting plants, bug-catching, fishing, and socializing with the village's residents. Animal Crossing games are played in real time, utilizing the video game console'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.
