Animal Crossing: New Leaf (2012) may just be my favorite game of all time, and if not, it's definitely top 3!

Like my experience with City Folk, I didn't play New leaf until later on because I did not have a 3DS. I nursed my FOMO by following the ACNL tag on tumblr and checking it religiously. I also watched Zachscottgames' Let's Play on YouTube.

Later, my little brother kindly let me play it on his DS! I started my first town in July 2014, and I got my own 3DS, in 2015. I have over 1,300 hours in this game LOL. Needless to say, New Leaf is easily one of my favorite games of all time if not my #1.

I started my first town in July 2014 and later got my own DS in 2015! I restarted my town in January 2016, shortly after getting my own DS. By that point, I had completed nearly everything in the game and had grown bored of it. Instead of taking a break, I decided to reset my town. New Leaf is the only Animal Crossing game where I reset my village. My new town is nice, but I do miss my old town even all these years later. Oh well! Now I know never to reset my town again. ^^;

Online communities and experiences were a keystone of my enjoyment of New Leaf, similar to City Folk on ACBay. By this time in 2014, I had long abandoned ACBay and moved to The Bell Tree Forums. TBT is a traditional style forum. I was a bit too young for the height of traditional forums, even on ACBay, so TBT was a new experience for me.

A defining trait about the fans on TBT is how positive everyone was. I never experienced anything negative while interacting on the forum or playing online with anyone from TBT. I have never had single bad experience for all the years I have used it! That speaks volumes to the kind of board culture a well-moderated forum can curate, and I think it speaks to the kindness that a game like Animal Crossing can grow.

My favorite thread on TBT was called 'Rate the Dream Town Above You.' Basically, it was a forum game where each player would write a review of the player above them's dream town — as the title would imply lol! I liked it because it encouraged users to write two things they liked and one thing to work on, teaching its players how to give constructive criticism. I had a lot of fun exploring other people's towns and writing about it.

I'm grateful this person took screenshots of my town and that they were still available on the forums. Now my original town is immortalized on my site forever lol.

One story that still sticks with me comes from that Dream Town thread. I shared my town with my little brother. I was happy to share the game with him, especially because he kindly let me use his DS! I was 15 and he was 12 at the time. He was really into Bleach and decorated his house with a bunch of Nintendo items, custom Pokemon patterns, and he even named his character Ichigo. This may be a bit mean, but at the time, I always felt a little embarrassed of his house when I would play with other people because it stuck out so much in my town.

I remember sharing my dream address in that thread one time and someone commented on how my brother's house didn't match, and I explained that I let my little brother play in my town (and felt very embarrassed!). To my 15-year-old self's surprise, that person commented that it was really sweet and special that I played with my little brother.

That changed my perspective on sharing my town. Now, of course, I understand what that stranger meant. I look back on those times fondly, and I'm happy I shared my experience with Animal Crossing with my brother growing up. It's bittersweet to look back now that we're grownups and probably won't ever share a town like that again.

As mentioned above, I was very active on tumblr at the height of ACNL. Tumblr could be more catty than TBT, but it was overall a great experience. Something I appreciated about tumblr AC playerbase in particular is that many people made up stories for their mayors. My AC characters are always avatars of myself. Meanwhile, some people roleplayed as an 'OC' of sorts and would make up stories for their villages. I thought it was really unique and cool! I especially loved all of the artwork people would make of their player characters and the story of their town.

I'm sad to hear that the online play servers are shutting down in 2024. My fondest memories of New Leaf are from the fun times I had with friends and strangers alike. I hope that the online features of the next generation return to Tortimer Island.

New Leaf remains my favorite Animal Crossing game and possibly my favorite game of all time. I will fully admit that this could be nostalgia bias, but I have definitely put in my time — 1300+ hours of it! I will also say that I picked up the game again for a couple weeks in early 2023 (after abandoning my town since the release of New Horizons). While, of course, it lacks many quality of life upgrades introduced in New Horizons, the game held up surprisingly well. New Leaf got me through an unspeakably challenging time in my life as a teenager by giving me a safe, friendly world to exist in outside of my violent reality. This biases my view of the game. But New Leaf has charm that's been lost in New Horizons, and I only hope that the next generation of Animal Crossing returns to the essense of New Leaf's small-town vibes.

Here are all the villagers who lived in my town. Hover for my thoughts on them!