Animal Crossing: New Leaf

 3DS
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 920 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 799 out of 920
  2. Mixed: 76 out of 920
  3. Negative: 45 out of 920
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  1. Botwisbestgame
    Sep 1, 2020
    0
    https://youtu.be/NOaSdO5H91M this game sucks its just a mario party wanna be.
  2. Lokathor
    Dec 17, 2013
    4
    For being the fourth entry in the series, the game hasn't advanced much since the first one. You're the mayor of town in this one, which lets you setup Public Works Projects. They're decorations for your town, and they let you customize how your town is. Except you can only make 30 of them, even though there's space for tons and tons of them. Also, the selection of public projects isFor being the fourth entry in the series, the game hasn't advanced much since the first one. You're the mayor of town in this one, which lets you setup Public Works Projects. They're decorations for your town, and they let you customize how your town is. Except you can only make 30 of them, even though there's space for tons and tons of them. Also, the selection of public projects is mostly limited to things like lamps and benches and statues. You can build up to three bridges across your town's river, but you can't divert the river, you can't add a pond or fill in a pond, you can't add or remove a ramp down to the beach. When villagers move in, they just move in any old place that fits, you can't declare where house lots should go. What I'm saying is that, for a game that tries to sell you on the point of being able to customize your town, you don't get access to a lot of very obvious customization options.

    Houses are about the same as before. You can change the outside of your house some, and you can get several rooms inside of your house. All rooms start off at 4x4, then have a 6x6 and 8x8 upgrade you can buy. Always a central room, a room left, back, and right, and an upstairs and downstairs. You can't re-arrange the orientation of your house's rooms, like having it be a long ranch-style house or a tower house where you just stack it five floors high. Even if the exterior didn't change to match it, it would have been nice for your house's rooms to be arrangable.

    Of course there's a ton of goodies to put inside of your house, wallpapers, floors, beds, chairs, etc, etc. Once you've picked up an item once, it goes into your catalog, so you can buy it again from Nook's if you sell or lose it. Except some items are "special event" items, so you can't re-purcahse them from your catalog. It'll show the item, and then not let you buy it. Not being able to just buy anything in your catalog is pretty poop.

    There's a "Mall" section, behind your main town, and you can upgrade it a bit. Re-Tail is in the main area, but all the rest of the stores, and the Museum and Post Office, are in the Mall area. Behind the Mall is the Happy Home section, where the houses of people you Street Pass are displayed, and you can order items that you see in their home. It follows the same rules as the catalog though, so if they have a limited item then you can't order it. Which is, again, poop.

    The villagers in town are kinda alright, some of them are fun characters that I really like (Ken and Bruce). Except they're a little shallow. You interact with them or not, and based on that they'll usually stay in town. If they decide to move, you can tell them to stay, and they'll stay if you've interacted with them a lot. I say "interact" instead of "be nice to" because it doesn't matter what your interaction is. You can talk to them, send them letters, hit them with a net, push them into pit-falls, whatever. It's all the same to them.

    They each start off with a house customized to them when they move into town, but they don't have any sort of style as to what things get replaced with what, so they'll just use anything you give them and anything they see in Re-Tail. Their houses end up looking like weird mish-mashes of all sorts of styles at once. The villagers aren't very distinct in how they act in general. Internally, the game itself has like 6 general personality types, and it kinda shows through even without knowing that. There's apparently 110 or so villagers in the game, but you can only have up to 10 in your town at once. It'd probably have been better for them to make fewer villagers that are each more distinct.

    I guess what I'm getting at in general is that the game has stuff in it, but most of the options are kinda shallow or surface or whatever you wanna call it. There's not many systems driven interactions going on, and the game regularly feels like a disappointment and an "if only they had" sort of a game.    … Expand
  3. thebeautydeb
    Feb 16, 2015
    1
    I know Nintendo DSes don't have many good game options so people got crazy over this game because it's different from most and has more to it than the first Animal Crossing, but I can't give into the hype. Honestly this game made me feel like I was playing a game meant for a 5 to 10 year old. Collect fruit, shells, and fish for money. Upgrade house, build bridges, do ridiculously easyI know Nintendo DSes don't have many good game options so people got crazy over this game because it's different from most and has more to it than the first Animal Crossing, but I can't give into the hype. Honestly this game made me feel like I was playing a game meant for a 5 to 10 year old. Collect fruit, shells, and fish for money. Upgrade house, build bridges, do ridiculously easy favors like give a present to someone in exchange for a t-shirt, dig holes, catch bugs, send letters.. After just a week of playing this game, I was sick of the boring tasks I had to do repeatedly for dosh. I didn't feel like there were any difficult missions or game structure. I know there's more to it when you get deeper into the game but I couldn't tolerate how slow moving it was and the lack of things to do at night. Fantasy Life and Rune Factory 4 basically has the same things included in this game along with in depth missions and hours and hours of gameplay that is enjoyable. A few hours pass by and you're like wow I didn't realize. In Animal Crossing, I struggled to play for more than 30 minutes at a time, I lost interest easily. If you're in the younger crowd, this is for you.… Expand
  4. BulldogReviews
    Oct 20, 2013
    4
    If your a classic traditional Animal Crossing Fan like me. You may find the game wanders away from the original game. You become the mayor of your chosen town which strays away from staring from the bottom as in other Animal Crossing titles such as City Life and Wild World. I felt disappointed with the game and felt the 3D in the game felt as if it was a gimmick.
    4/10 Poor Check    If your a classic traditional Animal Crossing Fan like me. You may find the game wanders away from the original game. You become the mayor of your chosen town which strays away from staring from the bottom as in other Animal Crossing titles such as City Life and Wild World. I felt disappointed with the game and felt the 3D in the game felt as if it was a gimmick.
    4/10 Poor Check Out My other reviews    … Expand
  5. kee113455
    Sep 18, 2017
    0
    Most boring game I've ever played. There is barely anything new you can do each day and nothing you do is engaging or fun. Terrible game, wouldn't recommend.
  6. vodkaffee
    Dec 13, 2019
    2
    I do not understand this game, i literally do not understand why people like it, why would i want to send cards to my own villagers, i can put horrible things about them and they would say they love it and is kawaii, seriously wtf
    maybe is because in my country people dont have 3ds because are very expensive and i dont have any friend with the game.... but the game should still stand on    I do not understand this game, i literally do not understand why people like it, why would i want to send cards to my own villagers, i can put horrible things about them and they would say they love it and is kawaii, seriously wtf
    maybe is because in my country people dont have 3ds because are very expensive and i dont have any friend with the game.... but the game should still stand on it's own without online, and it doesnt, this game is literally "why didnt i buy stardew valley or a harvest moon game, is the same **** thing with better characters and actual fun things to do not just collecting and selling the same fruit everyday"

    EDIT: BTW i have +50 hours in the game dont tell me i didnt try    … Expand
  7. Mrisser
    Mar 28, 2020
    1
    This is exactly the sort of game that I would love. I spent months being excited for the release of this game. I had never played animal crossing before and was excited to experience everything the game offered. Unfortunately, the game is poorly designed and there is only one island PER SWITCH. So while I was working, my girlfriend got the mesume and the shops on her profile. But becauseThis is exactly the sort of game that I would love. I spent months being excited for the release of this game. I had never played animal crossing before and was excited to experience everything the game offered. Unfortunately, the game is poorly designed and there is only one island PER SWITCH. So while I was working, my girlfriend got the mesume and the shops on her profile. But because we share the same island, when I went to play all of those tasks had already been completed. I don't get to play significant portions of the game, it is as simple as that. The game progresses when I am not playing. It is an awful system that makes my girlfriend feel bad for playing and me feel bad for not playing. The gameplay is good, but I have lost all interest from the fact that so much was done without me. I don't know how this game company thought for a second this was an okay thing to do. This is good game that is unnecessarily ruined by an awful decision. I do not recommend this game.… Expand
  8. marcelkuvshee
    Dec 10, 2020
    0
    A very soulful and memorable game, whose virtual world, every sound and every melody remains in the heart for life. Thanks for this miracle!
  9. ZangBang
    Oct 24, 2022
    4
    45/100
    Animal Crossing New Leaf is an immersive experience full of warmth, where the relaxing rhythm of everyday life lulls the player into a state of quietly fulfilling, mundane bliss, surrounded by friendly faces in a charmingly peaceful setting. The villagers are endearingly vibrant and unique thanks to various personality types, even though their presence starts to feel hollow after    45/100
    Animal Crossing New Leaf is an immersive experience full of warmth, where the relaxing rhythm of everyday life lulls the player into a state of quietly fulfilling, mundane bliss, surrounded by friendly faces in a charmingly peaceful setting. The villagers are endearingly vibrant and unique thanks to various personality types, even though their presence starts to feel hollow after some time, mainly due to the lack of many meaningful ways to interact with them and a somewhat disappointing amount of lines of dialogue. Nonetheless, the game partially makes up for it through its astonishingly rich customization options. An immense catalogue of clothes to change your appearance, but also countless furniture and hundreds of items to decorate the interior of your house and the landscape of the town as well, not only through the growth of various kinds of trees and flowers, but also projects that vary from small fountains to new facilities hosting new activities. As time passes, new shops and locals will open allowing the player to shop more, access new features and meet new characters. Slowly but surely, players will discover the incredible richness of the decorative and self-expression options the game has to offer, making for a gratifying long-lasting experience. However, as much as it offers an astounding amount of content and a unique atmosphere, the overly simplistic and excruciatingly repetitive nature of the few available activities, namely fishing and catching bugs, leaves New Leaf thriving more off of ambience than actual content.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best 3DS Game of 2013
4
#4 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2013
4
#4 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 70 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 64 out of 70
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 70
  3. Negative: 0 out of 70
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Oct 7, 2013
    91
    Animal Crossing: New Leaf is excellent for meditation, coffee breaks, grinding, goofing around, self-expression and, naturally, having loads of fun. [Aug 2013]
  2. Level7.nu
    Sep 10, 2013
    70
    It is not too shabby to be a major. Animal Crossing New Leaf continues the series tradition of being as charming as it is relaxing. The repetitive nature of the tasks in the game has an allure that somehow never gets old. Fans will of course feel right at home and welcome the occasional tweaks and news the game has to offer. It’s just too bad that New Leaf while being a game with lots of content still offers very few surprises.
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  3. Universo Nintendo
    Aug 26, 2013
    100
    Animal Crossing: New Leaf represents not only the pinnacle of the series, but also the ingenuity of the life simulation genre.
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