Why Animal Crossing: New Leaf is EASILY the Best Game in the Series

I just want to have a conversation with my villagers that I haven't had with 5 other villagers that day.

a nice detail from new leaf is that villagers who have moved away can be found in main street or in the shops its so cute and makes it feel like they’ve visited on the train to say hi

The problem with NH is that it feels hollow, it doesn’t feel like an Animal Crossing game, it feels like a shell of what the series once was, and instead of being about the town, its about customisation. It wasn’t a sequel to New Leaf, it felt more like a sequel to Happy Home Designer.

I'm surprised you didn't talk about how when villagers move out, they often move to your friend's towns and will actually recognize you when you talk to them. It blew my friggin mind when I first realized it. I've never felt more connected to another person's game before this

im mad they didn't bring back the island fruit. Like we are literally on an island! and we don't have Durians or lychees or bananas??!!

I miss being able to meet random players on tortimer’s island :( I wish Nintendo wasn’t so sensitive with its online nowadays

Honestly the fact that Pelly and Phyllis were replaced WITH A STAND makes me tear up. I loved those characters so much. And I remember the first time I went to the island in NH, I got so emotional when I heard Kappn’ sing his little shanty. New leaf was TOO GOOD.

Main Street was something I thought had THEE most potential for expanding in new leafs successor and to my surprise they just removed it completely 😭

Honestly, the limited public works projects and inability to terraform or relocate houses in New Leaf kinda inspires creativity, I think. Like, seeing how people bent custom design paths to wrap around rocks that spawned in the way, or created parks with a windmill in the centre, was what made people's towns really charming. I think it was very grounding, in a way, that even though you were the mayor, there were still some things you couldn't change.

New leaf is just so magical bro. I’ve played New Leaf since I was little, it will always have a place in my heart. Me, my little brother, and my dad all had New Leaf towns, and we’d join eachother and play all sorts of games. We’d play hide n seek on our towns, and go on tours. When New Horizons came out, all three of us were excited and we put our nintendos down and ditched them for horizons. We played horizons for awhile, it was great, don’t get me wrong the game was amazing. All three of us still played together, and we forgot about New Leaf. Back in November of 2021 my dad passed away due to some health problems and such, and watching this video made me cry. I found my Nintendo and opened it, and I left my house and saw my town for the first time in awhile. New Leaf gave me so many memories about my dad that I’ll never forget, it seems like New Leaf is a part of my dad, something I can’t lose while I lost him. I love New Leaf :)

This was my first animal crossing game, and it got me through a lot. I am Puerto Rican and for those that don't know, we got hit with hurricane Maria in 2017, which left the island in a state of disrepair. I was left without electricity or water for 3 months. Amidst all the chaos, this was my comfort game, the one place I could escape to. Getting my 3ds charged was a bit tricky, but I always found a way. The one thing I looked forward to when I got back home from school was playing new leaf.

Man as a kid I loved staying up past 8 to catch the rare beetles on Tortimers island 🏝️

I've never even thought about how contextless New Horizons is in handing you special privileges, it doesn't even try to immerse you- you're just God, island version. But New Leaf's mayor stance is balanced, letting you change things about yourself but restricting your influence on your neighbors. Helps make them feel like they're their own people making their own decisions compared to New Horizons' dolls. Solid analysis, dude. ALSO NEW LEAF 5 PM IS THE BEST NO CAP BB BOSSA BIAS

i remember getting this game during quarantine because i didn’t have a switch and saw everyone enjoying new horizons and wanted in on the fun so i got new leaf on my 3ds and honestly expected the game to be worse than new horizons but i’m so glad i was wrong that was probably the best summer of my life despite the state of the world, just staying isolated in my room having a nocturnal sleep schedule and playing new leaf all the time while listening to mac miller’s posthumous album that dropped recently at the time. man i kinda wish i could go back to that summer and relive it i never felt so relaxed. Around the end of that summer in 2020 i finally got enough money for a switch and new horizons and i was shocked to find out that new leaf a way older game on a weaker console had more features and personality and fun with its dialogue, i still love new horizons but honestly it just can’t compete with new leaf, in all fairness when i started new leaf i happened to be in a low point of my life and new leaf being the only thing i had is probably making me biased but tbh if that’s the case then oh well, watching kapp’n drive a boat and sing will forever be one of my comfiest experiences 💯

I don’t think there is a word to describe how new leaf makes us feel. Even thinking of the game, I just feel so warm and spirited. It genuinely changed my life. I think it’s saved me on multiple occasions and that sounds a little silly but from the age of 7 it has been my remedy for everything. The music like you said was quite something. The closeness to your villagers and the detail of all parts of their personality was a major part of the game, whilst nh feels so distant and robotic. On my way to play.

I have never, in my life, hear someone talk as passionately as you did about Animal Crossing, and thank you for that.

New Leaf was my whole childhood If I'm being dramatic it had a huge Impact on my life and it will always be my favorite game. When New Leaf lovers talk about New Horizons it often sounds like we are just complaining about it. We are complaining about it, but only because we are used to better with New Leaf. When you describe Acnh you would say it's a game where you live on a deserted island and build it up to anything you want. Basically a building simulator. And that's just not Animal Crossing. The old Animal Crossing games were about connecting with your villagers and living a dream life in your cute little town which you could mostly only customize with plants. The majority of acnh players are resetting their island as soon as they have filled every corner of it because it feels like the game is over as soon as you reach that point. And that's just making me so sad because I know the old Animal Crossing games had a completely different intention. I apologize for this huge text😅😂

I played New Leaf for the first time at a very low point in my life. In 2018, I developed a rare disease that took 13 months for doctors to diagnose. In 2019, a medication that I was given relieved the pain but also gave me severe depression and insomnia. It was around this time that my family Chihuahua, Ditty was dying. This furthered the depression. I decided to play New Leaf as a distraction from all that was around me and it gave me the escapism that I absolutely needed. I met both Stinky and Lobo and the two became my closest friends in the game. I loved to power walk, so Stinky’s exercise comments made me laugh. I was also moody, so seeing a cranky villager like Lobo made me see myself, in a way. In 2020, Ditty passed away and I again used the game to escape that pain. I wrote letters to Stinky and Lobo about how I felt. Despite the fact that the game is not programmed for villagers to understand, to me, they did. Their warmth and kindness got me over a huge hurdle. Then New Horizons came out and I stopped playing New Leaf. My depression had subsided and my medication regimen changed. New Horizons was great during the pandemic, but it lacked the heart and warm fuzzies that New Leaf had. I can have Stinky and Lobo on my island with me, but their banal dialogue and lack of depth take me away from the characters they were in New Leaf. It’s a great game, don’t get me wrong, but it cannot hold up to New Leaf. There is such a cozy atmosphere to New Leaf that will never be overridden. I would love to see it remastered/ported for the Switch since New Horizons is finished with major updates. I doubt it will happen, but who knows. Excellent video!

ill always miss the friends i made on the new leaf islands when i was 12, they made my life for such a long time and i loved them. i wish i could find them again

I have very fond memories of playing this game in the dark of my bedroom on a summer's night listening to that beautiful 1am soundtrack while trying to catch scorpions. I'm glad someone else feels that New Leaf is the height of the franchise.