[[quoteright:205:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Animal_Crossing_Logo.png]]

->''"Yeah, living on your own, being free. It feels great. But living by yourself can be a real drag, too. Still, if you've got some really tight friends somewhere nearby, then you know it'll all work out."''
-->-- '''K.K. Slider''', ''Animal Crossing''

Originally released in Spring of 2001 for the Nintendo 64 as ''Doubutsu no Mori'' ("Animal Forest") [[NoExportForYou in Japan]], most English Speaking players are probably familiar with the GameCube version, ''Doubutsu no Mori+'', which was [[SequelFirst released in the US in 2002]] as ''Animal Crossing''.

''Animal Crossing'' is a simple but entertaining "life sim" game that takes place in a small town in the country. Amusingly enough, you're the only human character (not counting any other players who share your town) in a town populated by eccentric {{Talking Animal}}s. There are pelicans working at the post office, a pair of porcupine sisters who run the tailor's shop, a verbose, bug-phobic owl who runs the museum, and a fox who acts as a shady traveling merchant. Your other, less permanent neighbors are likewise an eclectic assortment of other species, from dogs to cats to cows to elephants to about a dozen other species.

In order to pay off the debt on your house to the local shopkeeper (a tanuki named [[PunnyName Tom Nook]]), you'll have to scrounge up things to sell for the local currency, Bells. You can hunt insects, catch fish, gather fruit, dumpster-dive for old furniture, or sell the stuff you earn running errands for your neighbors. You can also put some of your hard-earned money towards buying new clothes, or furniture for your home.

The game received several versions, including ''Animal Crossing: Wild World'' for the Nintendo DS. It added a few new features such as the ability to get haircuts, hats and accessories to wear, new items to collect, the ability to communicate with friends over Wi-Fi, and a limited increase in interaction with your neighbors.

An anime movie based on ''Wild World'' was released in Japan in 2006, but there are currently no plans to show it elsewhere. The whole thing's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXN7mQE_d6c available on YouTube]], subbed.

The series is one of many represented in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' with a stage based on a generic town, called Smashville. The series also has a minigame based on it in ''VideoGame/NintendoLand'', ''Animal Crossing: Sweet Day''.

Franchise history:
* 1.x
** ''Doubutsu no Mori'' (lit. "Animal Forest") (Nintendo 64; Japan 2001)
** ''Doubutsu no Mori+ '' (GameCube; Japan 2001) Added real-time clock, more characters and activities, more furniture items (such as playable NES Games) and basic e-Reader support.
** ''Animal Crossing'' (sometimes seen as ''Animal Crossing | Population: Growing!'') (GameCube; North America 2002, Australia 2003, Europe 2004) New holidays based on those of the United States, better e-Reader support, and several other enhancements.
** ''Doubutsu no Mori e+ '' (GameCube; Japan 2003) Everything added to the North America, Australia, and Europe versions and more.
* 2.x
** ''Oideyo Doubutsu no Mori'' (Nintendo DS; Japan 2005) Removed several features and playable NES games in favor of online play with friend codes; changed all holidays.
** ''Animal Crossing: Wild World'' (Nintendo DS; North America 2005, Australia 2005, Europe 2006) Nearly identical to [=ODnM=], but not interoperable with the Japanese game due to character encoding differences and different sizes of various data structures.
** ''Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori'' (Movie; Japan 2006)
* 3.x
** ''Animal Crossing: City Folk'' (North America)/''Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City'' (PAL territories) (Wii; 2008) As well as the town, the player can now visit a city full of different shops including ones from previous games as well as some new ones. Online play is once again included and the game is the first Wii game to support voice chat and the first online game in the series that supports interoperability between Japanese and Western versions of the game. Holidays return, with versions of the game from different countries having their own sets. Region-specific holidays can still be experienced by people outside the holiday's region using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to visit the town of a friend from another country. Highlands and lowlands in the town return from 1.x.
* 4.x
** ''Animal Crossing: New Leaf'' (Nintendo3DS; Japan 2012, Europe 2013, North America 2013) This incarnation of the series is making the most changes since Wild World. Besides a complete redesign of graphics, the game boasts several new features. More clothing and customization, wall furniture, and even swimming! You are even the mayor of your town! See the trailer [[http://e3src.nintendo.com/games/detail/#/3ds/animalcrossing here]].
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!!This game features examples of:
* AddressingThePlayer
* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: Blue, purple, whatever--there's a townsperson for every color of the rainbow! (Of course, there are ordinarily colored animals as well -- for example, Goose is white like roosters often are in real life; he's just named after a completely different kind of fowl for some reason.)
* AmbiguouslyGay: With plumage like he's got (and the fact that he refers to himself as male), there's no denying that Pavo's a pea''cock...'' But with his sparkly white muscle tee, flamboyant dance moves, and ''female'' [[SpeakingSimlish voice]], well...
** Also Gracie. ShesAManInJapan. The fact that they changed his gender for the international release must mean something, most likely that people are just [[PinkGirlBlueBoy way too hung up over gender roles]]...
* AnInteriorDesignerIsYou:
** Furniture and other items can be placed, moved, rotated, etc. in your house. You can also change the wallpaper and flooring using any number of preset (or even custom) designs in every room except your basement, which has a permanent wood wall and stone floor. New Leaf adds wall-hung decorations to the mix.
** In New Leaf, Timmy and Tommy run the general store from the start and Tom Nook is a real estate agent with a separate store that sells various exterior items including different styles of fencing, roofs, doors, exterior walls, and ground paving (for the area inside your house's fence), as well as complete shape changes for your house's exterior, so An Exterior Designer Is You.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: The trope namer.
-->--"And your reward.... Is clothes!"
* AndYourRewardIsInteriorDecorating: Some villager rewards can be furniture, carpet, and wallpaper.
* TheAnimeOfTheGame: TheMovie particularly picks up on the SliceOfLife elements of the games and manages to come up with an original story with its own central character, Ai.
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: No more than four humans and 15 (GCN), 8 (DS) or 10 (Wii) animal neighbors per town, not counting the permanent residents such as Tom Nook et al.
* ArtificialAtmosphericActions: Neighbors will sometimes talk to each other, and randomly end up happy, sad, or angry; in ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk'' you get to listen in on their conversations.
* ArtEvolution: So far, there have been two major changes to the series' art style: ''Wild World'' added the now-famous "rolling log effect", and ''3DS'' features redone, slightly less SuperDeformed character models.
* AscendedMeme:
** Not an internal meme, but a meme from another popular Nintendo series. If you talk to Grumpy male villagers during the Festivale, they may tell you to [[VideoGame/StarFox DO A BARREL ROLL!]]
** The way to obtain Nintendo items was changed in ''New Leaf''. The Player must spend Play Coins to buy fortune cookies, and then the fortune can be exchanged for an item. If the play receives "[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda It's dangerous to go alone. Take this.]]", they'll get the Master Sword.
* AuthorAvatar: Composer avatar, in this case - [[http://www.offworld.com/oimages/totakeke.jpg Totakeke/K. K. Slider]]. They even have the same theme song, which must be requested as a secret. The theme song also appears in other games by this composer.
* BandagedFace: You have the option of wearing bandages on your head.
* BehindTheBlack: The "Hide and Seek" mini-game from ''City Folk'' makes no ''sense'' without taking this into consideration.
* BirdRun: The animals do this when they're running.
* TheBlank: A blank-faced cat named Blanca.
* BraggingRightsReward: Various holiday items. But since there's no real goal to the game, nor an [[HundredPercentCompletion achievement counter]], arguably ''every'' reward is for bragging rights, or at least for leading you to ''other'' rewards.
* BreakableWeapons: Regular Axe.
* BrickJoke: Fishing up a squid in ''Wild World'' results in the player character saying "[[{{Pun}} Oh no you squidn't!]]" Three years later, in ''City Folk'', when you catch a squid, you say "Oh yes I squid!"
* BugCatching: You'll spend a lot of time doing this.
* ButThouMust: Whenever you pay off your current house, Tom Nook will insist on upgrading your house, and ''charging you for it'', whether you want him to or not. This continues until you fully upgrade your house.
** This is averted in 4.x. You can find Tom at his new job selling house upgrades that you can purchase and expand at your own pace.
** Similarly, if you talk to Lyle in ''Wild World'', you HAVE to buy the insurance he's selling. The only way he'll let you go is if you don't have enough Bells. Probably a TakeThat against real life insurance salesmen.
* CarnivoreConfusion:
** The game ''attempts'' to avert this in ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk'' by making sure the "random foods" the townspeople talk about are all either vegetarian or [[NoCartoonFish only contain fish]]. But some of the fish you can catch (which are edible) are frogs and octopi, and some of your neighbors are... frogs and octopi. [[FridgeLogic Erm...]]
** There's also Franklin, a turkey who visits on Thanksgiving. Most of your townsfolk just want to meet him. The mayor, Tortimer, pretty clearly wants to ''eat'' him. Franklin is ''not'' pleased.
** Blathers will [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this in City Folk when describing the Dynastid Beetle.
---> "Many species hunt this beetle. Examples include moles, crows, and owls... WOT WOT?!"
** It's also lampshaded in Wild World with a female octopus named Marina. Though the thought depresses her.
---> "Do you think it's weird that I like seafood? Since, if you think about it, technically I'M seafood?"
* CharacterDevelopment: Several of the special [=NPCs=] have backstory speeches that can only be triggered on certain days of the year. Sable has several that occur as your relationship with her grows.
* CharacterCustomization: The Rover/Kapp'n Quiz at the start of each game.
* ChasteToons: Tommy and Timmy resemble Tom Nook in miniature, and he says they are his nephews. Various Animal Crossing websites list them as his nephews, however, as does the [[WordOfDante deuterocanonical]] description of their trophy in ''SuperSmashBros Brawl''.
* CheckpointStarvation: A few of Tom Nook's tasks (but not all of them) have to be completed in the first game to be able to save using the Gyroid, but later games, which moved the save function to a menu that can be accessed anywhere, do not have this restriction, though they do have one for traveling between towns.
* CherryBlossom: A festival for them.
* ChestMonster: The Walking Leaf insect in ''City'' looks like a piece of furniture just lying on the ground at first. But if you go to pick it up, it turns into its true form.
* CityGuards: Well, Town Guards but still...
* CloudCuckoolander:
** Most of the villagers have their moments, but ''particularly'' the animals with the "lazy" personality.
** Pascal.
* CompoundInterestTimeTravelGambit: If you "time travel" by resetting your system clock, you can actually pull this off in ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk.'' Your town will suffer for it, though.
* ConsoleCameo:
** In the first game, you can buy a NES and games for it. [[SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer This was removed because people would spend more time playing them than the actual game.]]
** A GameCube-styled dresser and a DSi bench were once offered as DLC in ''City Folk''.
** The VirtualBoy is a piece of furniture in ''New Leaf'', as well as a Wii Balance Board.
* {{Constellations}}: The games allow the player to create and name their own constellations. At nighttime they're visible in the sky.
* CreepyTwins: Tommy and Timmy, Tom Nook's assistants. Their unblinking stares and single-mindedness are contributing factors. Not to mention the fact that they follow you around everywhere you go.
* DeadpanSnarker: The grumpy animals qualify.
* DesertSkull: This shows up as a furniture item in the "American West/frontier" set. [[FurryConfusion Sometimes cows have them in their homes...]]
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: One of Resetti's rants includes him making you type out a written apology exactly as he dictates it. If you get it wrong, he simply makes you try again. Type in something offensive, however, and he'll get ''furious''.
** Even though Fourth of July isn't celebrated, Apollo's (who is a Bald Eagle) birthday is on July 4th. Bald Eagles are the USA's national bird.
* DialogueTree
* DirtyOldMan: In the original ''Animal Crossing'' Kapp'n will tease your character and sing more "love-oriented" sea ballads if she's female. In ''City Folk,'' he outright hits on female characters. Relentlessly. And possibly the male characters if you read between the lines.
* DownloadableContent: Free stuff in ''City Folk'' forward.
* TheDriver: Kapp'n.
* DreamLand: A new feature in ''New Leaf'' is a building that allows players to travel to dream versions of other player's towns. Since it's a dream, anything done to the town is not permanent.
* DummiedOut: Several items in all versions of ''Animal Crossing'', a left-out item in the original was even called "dummy".
** Ironically, the "dummy" isn't actually dummied out, as it ''can'' be obtained legitimately.
** Monkey villagers were dummied out of ''Wild World'' outside of Japan for no apparent reason, so they wouldn't move in without being hacked in, though oddly enough their pictures had their text translated. However, ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'' did not do this to monkey villagers, so anyone from any part of the world can have one move in.
** The NES Game ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZelda'' is only available in ''Animal Crossing'' and ''Doubutsu no Mori+'' via Action Replay. ''Videogame/MarioBros.'' and ''Videogame/IceClimber'' were available through North American e-Reader cards. Japan received ''Videogame/IceClimber'' as a data transfer "housewarming present", and ''Videogame/SuperMarioBros1'' as a Famitsu prize. These four games were erased in ''Doubutsu no Mori e+'', though the latter three can still be played with Advance Play as an Action Replay code.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The original ''AnimalCrossing'' games are dramatically different from future versions. Many features used in future games weren't implemented until the Japan-only ''Doubutsu no Mori e+'', the first games had acres, Blathers couldn't identify fossils, several special characters didn't exist, you couldn't get photographs...
* EasingIntoTheAdventure: But without the adventure.
* EasterEgg: Where to begin? Also, quite literal in City Folk.
* EccentricTownsfolk
* EdgeGravity: The tools, along with bugs and snowballs, are about the only things in game that can cross over a cliff edge.
* EmbeddedPrecursor: Variation: the [=Nintendo 64=] and [=GameCube=] versions include several NES games as collectible items.
* EmoteAnimation: Originally exclusive to [=NPCs=], ''Wild World'' and later games added Dr. Shrunk and later Frillard so the player can use them as well.
* EruditeStoner: K.K. Slider and Pascal. '''Especially''' Pascal.
* FaceDoodling: Blanca has no face, and will let you draw her one.
* {{Feelies}}: The GameCube edition came with a free 59-block memory card, complete with ''AnimalCrossing''-themed stickers. It seemed like a fantastic deal--[[JustifiedTrope until you saved your game and discovered that one file takes up nearly the whole card by itself]].
* FellOffTheBackOfATruck: Crazy Redd's goods.
* FetchQuest: Getting back loaned items, finding exotic fruit, and delivering packages.
* FishingForSole: Not only do you find boots and tin cans, but TIRES as well.
* ForcedTutorial: One side says "damn you, Tom Nook!" for forcing it on the player in the first place, while the other side is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDpL2vloKxg miffed that it lasts only a half hour]].
* FrogsAndToads: Several villagers and, oddly enough, a species that can be caught with the fishing rod (see below).
* FurryConfusion:
** One of the [[NoCartoonFish fish]] you can catch is a frog, and you can have frogs as townsfolk. If one of your froggy townspeople asks to have a fishing competition with you, and asks for a frog--for sushi--it gets kind of creepy...
** In 2.x onwards, one can also catch an octopus -- and yet a rare few potential neighbors are also octopi. There is also the birdcage item...which comes with a little songbird inside. To add to that is how one duck neighbor, at least in 2.x, actually has one of these birdcages in his house to start out with.
** The doghouse item has [[CaptainObvious a growling dog in it,]] as well...
** Not to mention that Gyroids are actually living creature seen hanging out in front of your house or running the auction house depending on which game you play. Yet, you can still dig them up out of the ground as an item.
** Some cow villagers may even have cow skulls in their home. Yikes.
** 4.x gives us hamster villagers, and there has been an item of the same name ever since 1.x.
* GatelessGhetto: The city in 3.x consists solely of a shopping center.
* GenkiGirl: The villagers with the "peppy" personality all qualify.
* GlobalCurrency: Bells.
* GoshHornet: Every tree you shake has a chance of dropping a beehive on your helpless character. Though the bees can be caught with a net, its always a risky endeavor.
* GottaCatchEmAll: Fish, bugs and fossils, plus all that other collectible stuff.
* GridInventory: Constant size variant, thanks to the ability to transform furniture into leaves for easy transport.
* GrowsOnTrees: You can grow a money tree.
* GrumpyBear: The villagers with the "grumpy" personality. Some of which are actual bears...
* GuideDangIt: There are a handful of K.K. airchecks you can only get by request. Most of them don't follow the "K.K. ____" format, so you would have to have seen a walkthrough to even know they existed.
* HalfDressedCartoonAnimal
* {{Hammerspace}}: Your houses appear bigger on the inside due to the SpaceCompression (details below). Also, the containers that you buy (drawers, dressers, refrigerators) can hold many more items than your actual house.[[hottip:*:Well, except in the Gamecube version, where they hold 4 items each. And they only take up one space.]]
* HeroicMime: Sort of -- when talking to an NPC the player character's side of the conversation isn't shown, but the player character does make comments when interacting with bugs or fish, digging something up, or paying off a debt.
* HolidayMode: Non-fruit trees get lights during the December holiday season. That's just one example.
* HolyHalo: a wearable item from ''Wild World'' onwards.
* HonestAxe:
** Subverted--because the guy who gives you the axe is a CloudCuckoolander, you have to ask for the golden axe to get it.
** ZigZagged in ''City Folk''. Serena, the goddess of the fountain, seems to be a traditional example, before you take into account that she's very fickle about giving you an upgrade to your axe, whether you're honest with her, you sweet talk her, or even flat out say you hate her. More often than not, your axe will simply be returned to you, if that.
* HonestJohnsDealership: Crazy Redd and, to a lesser extent, Tom Nook.
* HotBlooded: Any of the characters with the "jock" personality, particularly in ''City Folk''.
* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: If you leave your town and go to another one, there will ''still'' be a Tom Nook, a Mayor Tortimer, etc.
* {{Irony}}: Resetti telling you to "SCRAM" after his lectures before leaving, even though he's in front of ''your own home''.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** The male animals with the "grumpy" personality type. Deep down, they're real softies. If you become good friends with them, they'll even say things like, "I may not be your dad, [[HelloInsertNameHere Insert Name Here]], but I do want the very best for you!"
** Resetti; He yells at you until he's blue in the face if you don't save your game, but, as his brother Don tells you he only does it "because he cares".
* JustForPun: All of the phrases for catching bugs and fish. Some are just bad...
* JustifiedTutorial: Your tenure at Nook's store at the beginning of the game.
* {{Kappa}}: Kapp'n; the pun in his name makes it obvious. The translated versions try to call him a turtle, but ''City Folk'' also has kappa-branded outfits. He is also referred to as a ''parrot'' in the Player's Guide.
* {{Kawaiiko}}: The "peppy" villagers.
* LateToThePunchline: In the days leading up to Groundhog Day some characters will say that someone should make a movie about Groundhog Day.
* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are more than 300 different villagers that can live in your town, across the series.
* LoveTriangle: Pelly at the post office is in love with Pete the postman, who is in love with Pelly's dour, sarcastic sister Phyllis.
* LuckBasedMission: Most of the game is randomized, so pretty much everything can be considered this to one extent or another, but some examples stand out more than most:
** The Fishing Tournaments, as long as they only ask for one kind of fish. In ''Wild World,'' you could at least try to catch fish that were somewhat bigger to try and get the biggest fish... But in ''City Folk,'' you've got to just keep fishing and hope the fish of type X you angle is the "biggest."
** Trying to get a silver or golden axe in ''City Folk''. It seems to make absolutely no difference what you say; you lose your axe, get your original axe, get a silver axe or a golden axe pretty much at random. So you just have to stock up on axes and keep trying every day.
** The paintings, specifically the usually-forged ones you get from Redd.
* MarketBasedTitle: The Wii installment has the subtitle ''City Folk'' in North America and ''Let's Go to the City'' in PAL countries. The entire series is also called Animal Crossing in both of those regions with its title in its original country being ''Doubutsu no Mori'' (or ''Animal Forest'').
* MascotMook: OK, so there are no {{mook}}s to speak of in ''AnimalCrossing'', but the Gyroids are almost as iconic of the series as the people themselves.
* MisplacedWildlife: The animal neighbors might be justified as immigrants, but the ''fish'' and ''bugs'' you can catch? There are ''piranhas'' in your river. And ''coelacanths.'' As for the bugs? You can catch birdwing butterflies, the largest in the world. And the ''plants'' are wacky, too--if your town is particularly unkempt, a rafflesia will grow there. These towns are weird.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] slightly when you actually catch a piranha - your character asks "What river is this, anyway?" In ''City Folk,'' though, they say "Bite the bait, not me!"
* MissionPackSequel: The changes between the various versions of the games are minimal - usually adding one or two shops, moving the important NPC shops around (for example, City Folk's city is largely made up of shops that belonged to periodical traveling merchants in the previous games, now made permanent) , and adding new items. The game still hasn't progressed beyond the standard six basic personality types from the first game, for instance. 4.x is shaking things up, however.
** ''New Leaf'' adds the first two new personality types since the franchise's inception in 2001. Loosely translated thus far, they are [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman "Gentleman"]] for men and [[CoolBigSis "Big Sis"]] for girls.
* MythologyGag:
** A few "new" K.K. Slider songs in each game after the first were sort of in the previous installment -- K.K. Slider would sing "Forest Life," "To the Edge," or "My Place" in the original game if a non-existent song was requested, while in Wild World they became "official" songs that this time would only play if they were either requested or K.K. Slider is asked to pick the song and could be taken home this time, while different songs replaced those three for when a fake song is requested. The songs in question in ''Wild World'' are "Stale Cupcakes," "Spring Blossoms," and "Wandering," which became "official" songs in ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'' and ''only'' play when requested much like how "Two Days Ago," "I Love You," and "K.K. Song" had to be obtained in the original. Oddly enough, that game ended up having only two truly new K.K. Slider songs -- "K.K. House" and "K.K. Sonata."
** In ''New Leaf'', Rover mentions he hasn't ridden the trains much since 2002.
* NoAntagonist: Unless you view Nook as a greedy bastard, no one is really against what you try to do.
* NoExportForYou:
** The AnimalCrossing Anime Movie doesn't look like it's going to get to US shores anytime soon...if ever.
** ''Dōbutsu no Mori'' for Nintendo 64, though even the first ''AC'' for GameCube is significantly improved such that no one is likely to care except perhaps N64 enthusiasts.
** A more straight example is the third release in Japan ''Doubutsu no Mori e+'' for the Gamecube which only saw a release only in Japan while not all of it's new features that were introduced in it that were not in the N64 and U.S. and European release have been used in future titles in the series (such as hitting Nook's store door with a shovel when he's closed and being able to shop after hours with Nook half asleep and the prices for stuff being inflated when you do this) a select few of it's features have made it in future titles in international releases (such as being able to eavesdrop on animal villager conversations and them asking you stuff during them) making them first introduced to Western audiences in the Wild World and City Folk releases.
** Villagers that only appeared in the original ''Doubutsu no Mori'' and its GameCube updates.
* NonLethalKO:
** If the player character is attacked by a scorpion or tarantula, they pass out and wake up in front of their house.
** In every game, when you find Gulliver, he's knocked out and you have to wake him up.
** If the player goes for a swim in ''New Leaf'', coming in contact with a jellyfish only stuns you momentarily.
* OffScreenTeleportation: All outdoor {{NPC}}s (Except the static ones such as Tortimer, Gracie, et al) possess this ability. Rarely occurs in ''Wild World'' but happens often and particularly jarring in ''City Folk'' since townsfolk rarely run around like they did, and often stand in one place at a time... Before warping ahead of you from the other side of town.
* OldSaveBonus: When you copy your ''Wild World'' character into ''City Folk'', you also copy the character's catalog and can mail-order some relatively rare items.
* OneSteveLimit: Subverted with Tom Nook the shopkeeper and a cat villager named Tom, both of which incidentally have {{Punny Name}}s (the former being a pun on "tanuki" and the latter being a pun on "tomcat"). (Additionally, nothing is stopping players from giving the PlayerCharacter the same name as an NPC.)
* OnlyShopInTown: Nook's shop is this in the original game. From ''Wild World'' onward, the Able Sisters sell pre-made hats and shirts, making it no longer the case.
* OverlyLongGag: Mr. Resetti's speeches just seem to drag on and on and on and on.....
* ParentalAbandonment: Reversed, actually.
* PersonalRaincloud: When a townsfolk is sad.
* {{Pun}}: Your character makes one every time s/he catches a fish or bug.
* PunnyName: Villagers often have names related to their species. In addition, Mr. Resetti and his brother Don have a last name that references the action that players do to make them appear (which happens to be huge pet peeve of the former, though the latter is more mellow about it).
* QuirkyTown: Self-explanatory, and may account for some of the game's appeal.
* RandomlyDrops: Tom Nook's inventory changes daily.
* {{Retcon}}: ''City Folk'' rather clumsily retcons a third Able Sister into the hedgehogs' backgrounds, managing to add quite a soap opera element to the story. One wonders why they didn't just make her an Able Cousin or something.
* RecurringRiff: In the first three games, most of the themes are arranged versions of the title theme.
* RevenueEnhancingDevices: A series of collectible e-Reader cards was released to coincide with the game, and could be used to obtain items in the game.
* RibcageRidge: TheMovie features an enormous, intact Seismosaurus skeleton embedded in the wall of a sea cave.
* SaveGameLimits: Technically, you're never supposed to have more than one save file, to facilitate the SocializationBonus inherent in the game's concept. In actuality this has become more stringent owing to the technical aspects of saving on each system- in the original game you could have as many towns as you had memory cards that could fit them; in ''Wild World'', there are no memory cards so you have to get another copy of the game in order to have multiple towns (and need two DS systems to have the towns interact); ''City Folk'' saves directly to the system and doesn't allow you to copy the file to the memory card, so you'd have to get a separate Wii to have more towns in the same house.
* SaveScumming: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and averted. You're warned the first time you load a saved game by a NPC to not even consider using the reset button or dropping back to the Wii menu without saving (for version 3.x) or turning the console off without saving (all versions). If you do reset the game (by means mentioned above) without saving, expect said NPC to come by and give you an earful, and at one point in all versions, even feigns deleting your save game!
* SchrodingersQuestion: The questions at the beginnings of the games determine your appearance.
* SetBonus: There are several distinct themes of furniture (plus flooring and wallpaper) present in the game, like "Fruit", "Space", and "Snowman". Collecting and decorating your house with all pieces of a given furniture set results in a nice bonus to your [=HRA=] score.
* ShesAManInJapan:
** In ''City Folk'', Saharah and [[WholesomeCrossdresser Gracie, apparently]].
** Blanca too. [[TheBlank Apparently]].
* ShoutOut:
** To a number of other Nintendo games, mostly, but there are a few random pop culture references thrown in here and there. For example, an eagle neighbor whose name is Pierce... and whose VerbalTic is [[Series/{{Mash}} "hawkeye."]] There's also a frog named Jeremiah (whose portrait in ''Wild World'' states that he is, in fact, a bullfrog, with it pointing out that "blue frog" and "bullfrog" sound similar, due to his blue color) and a toad named [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 Wart]] Jr.
** Apparently one of the more active SomethingAwful forum members assisted in the English translation of the DS game. He managed to slip in some subtle references to [[MemeticMutation Internet Memes]] as well.
** Also, there's Sow Joan, the seller of Turnips (treasured for their stalks on the market), who's been in the business for as long as Dow Jones has been on the Stock Market.
** Gulliver the seagull may mention that his stomach hurts because of [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus "a wafer-thin mint" that he shouldn't have eaten when he was already full, and that he'll never forgive the waiter.]]
** Go K.K. Rider is not only a reference to the entire [[Franchise/KamenRider Kamen Rider series]], but its basically a chiptune rendition of the theme to [[KamenRiderV3 Kamen Rider V3]]! [[http://ssmetheblog.tumblr.com/post/37649285362/i-cant-believe-this-actually-synced-up And it actually syncs up too!]]
** There's an anteater named [[Theatre/CyranodeBergerac Cyrano]]
** There's also a horse named [[Series/MisterEd Ed]].
* SingleMindedTwins: Tommy and Timmy, the kids who work in Tom Nook's store once it becomes fully upgraded.
* SliceOfLife: ''"...The game!"''
* {{Snowlem}}: You can create them but unless the proportions aren't perfect they will not be happy about it.
* SoleEntertainmentOption: Speak to a neighbor when an event is coming up in game like a fishing contest.
* SoundtrackDissonance: In the GCN version, the music that plays from 2:00 AM to 2:59 AM is dissonant and upbeat compared to the quieter, more subdued songs that play during the rest of the early morning. If that wasn't enough, the game does this again between 4:00 AM and 4:59 AM, which is also between much calmer songs.
* SpaceCompression: Most buildings' interiors are drawn roughly four times the size of their exteriors in each direction.
* [[SpeakingSimlish Speaking Animalese]]: In the original game and ''City Folk'', the characters read the text in speech bubbles one letter at a time, which is sped up and slightly garbled.
* StepfordSmiler:
** Zipper T. Bunny? A cynical, bitter grouch in a bunny suit who ''really'' hates his job and how "perky" he has to act.
** In that bunny suit there's Phyllis. Talk to her at the Roost after the Bunny Day and she says about how much she hates that Tortimer always makes her wear that bunny costume every year.
** Lyle in ''City Folk''.
* StockDinosaurs: The fossils you can dig up are, for the most part, all stock dinosaurs. Each of the big "dinosaur groups" is represented, with a few ice age prehistoric animals thrown in. Perhaps the most unusual or offbeat animal is the dimetrodon--a sail-backed creature that, while lizardlike in appearance, is actually more closely related to ''mammals'' than dinosaurs (although it still counts for being the best-known of the synapsids).
* StopPokingMe: If you talk to your neighbors several times in succession, they'll get upset and tell you to go away.
* SugarBowl: Such a beautiful setting.
* TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily: Redd is a definite example, but a LOT of the fanbase accuses Tom Nook of running one of these.
* TheQuietOne: Sable
* TheThingThatGoesDoink: The "deer scare" is available as a furniture item.
* TokenHuman: Every NPC is a FunnyAnimal. Only player characters are human.
* {{Tsundere}}:
** The "perky" females and possibly the "snooty" females, particularly in the earlier games.
** "Grumpy" males act this way a lot, too.
* UncannyValley: An in-universe example. On [[YouMeanXmas Bunny Day]], some of your villagers will note that they're ''seriously'' creeped out by how "not right" Zipper T. Bunny looks. It doesn't help that he looks noticeably different from the rabbit neighbors.
* UpdatedRerelease: The first game (originally for the {{Nintendo 64}}) got a couple on the NintendoGameCube, with the first of the two being released internationally and the Japan-only second giving Japanese players access to things added to the international release with some extras. Incidentally, at least the first of the two ended up not using much of the GCN's larger storage -- the entire game is loaded into RAM around the time the Nintendo logo fades out the first time, and can be played without the disc after that.
* VagueAge:
** Your neighbors: They're old enough to be living on their own, but the various birthday messages they get say things like "One step closer to being an adult!" Although this could just be sarcastic humour. About the only characters with even an ''implied'' age are the "grumpy" animals, who are at least suggested to be a bit older than anyone else.
** Joan. She claims to have been selling her turnips 'round these parts for ''over'' sixty years. Assuming she was maybe fifteen when she started her business, she must be pushing the high end of the [=70s=] when you start the game. She's probably an octogenarian in most established games.
** The protagonist themselves. They look prepubescent (though that could be ArtisticAge), have moved out, and are implied to be at least adults.
* VariableMix: A different mix of the game's theme song plays, depending on the time of day, though how many tracks are like this depends on the game (''Wild World'' and ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'' do this more often). In the GameCube game, K.K. Slider would sometimes play a version of that game's theme song if a non-existent song was requested. (This song was made into an "official" K.K. Slider song in ''Wild World'', in which it is called "Forest Life," and the other songs he would play under those circumstances got the same treatment as "To the Edge" and "My Place.")
* VendorTrash: ''Everything,'' mostly, but the most truly Vendor Trash-y items are the mushrooms which grow in the fall in the original, as they literally serve no other purpose. Mushrooms in ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'' serve a similar purpose, though there's actually a reason to pick them in that they sometimes turn out to be special Mushroom-themed furniture that can only be found this way. The fruit in every game is like this as well, but in the original, it ''did'' serve one other, arcane purpose--for use in the Animal Island mini-game.
* VerbalTic: The various "neighbor" animals; you can even give them new phrases, bucko. Permanent [=NPCs=] occasionally have this trait as well (with the exception that their {{Verbal Tic}}s can't be changed), with the owl siblings, Blathers and Celeste saying "hoo" and "hootie-toot," respectively, and Brewster, the pigeon coffee shop clerk in the basement of the museum the owls work in, tending to say "coo" often. Tom Nook also tends to say "yes, yes" and "hm?" often, but unlike the previous examples, this is unrelated to his species.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential:
** You can push your neighbors into holes or hit them with a butterfly net or an [[AxCrazy axe]], deny them medicine when they're sick, let garbage stack up all over town without pulling weeds, and send [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking rage-inducing mail in]] LeetLingo/foreign language.
** You can release fish into any body of water, no matter where they would normally be found. This means you can put a fresh water fish into salt water, and vice versa. Where the cells of the fish will shrivel up/burst and most likely be fatal, causing a slow and painful death for the fish. For an E-Rated game... that's pretty damn cruel.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: In exchange, though, your former "friends" will see you as a {{Jerkass}}. In particular, if you jerk the medicine away from sick villagers, it's positively heartbreaking at times, with the [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold cranky]] villagers especially being a TearJerker.
* VideoGamePerversityPotential: Blanca, period. Said guest shows up in your town either faceless and asks you to give it a face, or walks around with a face that the game downloaded from Nintendo's servers (but allows you to change it) if internet connectivity is available. Now, the game doesn't perform checks to see if you really did draw a face onto Blanca instead of random scribbles (or worse, offensive images). Also, what you draw on Bianca inadvertently gets uploaded onto Nintendo's servers if the console has internet connectivity. And apparently, Nintendo doesn't do random sampling checks on the faces uploaded into their servers, and there is no way to report offensive images. Hilarity ensues.
** Another example would be making a design at the tailor with offensive content in mind, and hope that a NPC buys clothing with said design on it. It's even possible to "nude" an NPC by making a shirt using the NPC's skin color as the base and adding the usual things you would see on a bare chest, be it male or female. Hilarity ensues also.
* VirtualPaperDoll: In the original, you can buy both pre-made clothes and design your own clothing patterns. In ''Wild World,'' hats, masks, and other accessories were added into the mix. ''City Folk'' made it so you could change your shoes as well.
* VisibleSigh
* WastedSong:
** Many (considering that there are some songs that will only play for an hour or so every ''year''), but the most notable is probably the ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prtUeibvZLU 2 AM]] theme. A lovely, thoughtful melody that got hidden away in the wee-est of wee hours of the morning. For the non-insomniac among us, though, it luckily got a remix in ''SuperSmashBrosBrawl.''
** 2 AM in the GameCube version, on the other hand, was a wild, funky melody that like its calmer successor was inexplicably mashed in between the minimal melodies that comprise most extremely late night Animal Crossing melodies.
** 4 AM in the GameCube game, like the track that plays two hours before it, is an upbeat and catchy song that plays when most people won't be playing the game, and is sandwiched between the calmer tracks for 3 AM and 5 AM. 3 AM in ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'' fills a similar role, as it is also oddly upbeat for a track at such an hour, except that the track right before it is also quite complex. (4 AM from the same game, unlike the GameCube game's track, is a typical minimal early morning track.)
** The 9 PM music in ''Wild World'' and ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'' is the inverse of this; a really sleepy, minimal melody for an hour when most players would still be awake (and Tom Nook's store is still open with the odd exception of Nookington's in ''City Folk''/''Let's Go to the City'', which closes precisely when this song starts playing). The music for the same hour in the GameCube game was similarly calm, though slightly more complex.
* WeBuyAnything:
** Tom Nook, naturally. He doesn't technically ''buy'' [[FishingForSole the garbage you might fish up]], but he will take it off your hands for free.
** In ''New Leaf'', you can sell your items to either Reese at Re-Tail or the Nook Bros. The Nook Bros. don't take everything, though. You can also sell items to Kapp'n's daughter, but she only buys them at 5% of there normal value.
* WhatTheHellHero: See VideoGameCrueltyPunishment above.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: This becomes more possible in each game, and is equally available for both sexes. ''Wild World'' allows you to unlock the ability to have opposite-gender haircuts, ''City Folk'' adds the ability to wear opposite-gender shoes, and the 3DS game simply makes skirts, dresses, pants, and shirts different kinds of items rather than altering clothing based on gender. So it's possible to start a game as one gender and eventually work your way to the point where the face is the only thing that shows the original gender.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Blathers is NOT pleased by the fact that the museum has a bug wing. Thankfully, this has been reduced quite a bit since the original game.
** Sometimes he makes attempts to overcome his fear of bugs, such as opening the insect encyclopedia and forcing himself to touch every picture of a bug in it. Thankfully, his sister Celeste put a stop to his self-torture, telling him to just accept himself for who he is.
* WideOpenSandbox
* YouMeanXmas: Toy Day, in the GameCube version- in ''City Folk'', the day is officially referred to as "the night Jingle comes to town", and referred to with a variety of {{Unusual Euphemism}}s by various characters.
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