I had never heard of Animal Crossing before I turned 12. One day I was at Blockbuster and saw that it was on sale for like $15. Thankfully I had $15 to spare, so I bought it! I couldn't resist the weird looking little animals on the cover. It was so intriguing! I ended up staying up super late that night to see what happened in my new village (which I aptly named "Hell" because I was an edge-lord). And thus began my Animal Crossing adventure...!

The first villager I fell in love with was Bob. I love cats in general, but this one holds a special place in my heart! When I was a really little kid I wrote stories about a magical pink and purple cat. While Bob isn't magical, he followed the color scheme! And turns out, I really like the lazy personality villagers (jocks too), so that helped Bob win me over.





The first game still, to me has the best music out of all the games. It's far more nostalgic than any of the others. I guess it helped to be so young at the time too (and because I didn't know you could time travel), but staying up late to meet Wisp was so spooky!!

I ended up getting a DS the next year, which was when Wild World came out. That was one of the games I had to buy pretty much on release day. I was so excited! However, one of my biggest complaints about WW was that it replaced real-world holidays with really weird fake ones? Like La-Di-Da Day, Yay Day...? WHY NO HALLOWEEN? WHY NO CHRISTMAS!?

The one thing I did love about this game though was that you could visit your friends! I talked all my girlfriends into getting this game so we could visit each other's villages. This time I wasn't so edgy and I named mine "The Shire" (I was in my Lord of The Rings phase at the time). My younger sister later got a DS and a copy of the game as well, and we ended up harassing each other and vandalizing each other's villages (by laying down ugly patterns and burying pitfalls and such). Anyways, I think I ended up playing this one more, despite liking the GameCube version more, just because this one was portable.

If you're wondering what the Stitches thing is over there, it was a coin purse that my mom bought me for Christmas during that time period. I hadn't had Stitches in my town yet (and won't until New Leaf), so I had no idea who he was, but I'm glad that I got it and I still have it! Although he's kinda dirty now, because I carried that thing around for years...

I also ended up getting City Folk, but probably a year or two after it released. I wasn't too into playing games like this on the Wii (instead I opted for more sports / workout games), but it was alright. At least there were real holidays!

Now New Leaf was a different story, because I didn't own a 3DS until I borrowed took my husband's while we were dating. He actually had the game and hadn't really got into it yet, so he said I could have it! I had to re-learn how to play the game, or really play games in general, since it'd been about 8 or 9 years since I'd really played any games consistently. But I did like New Leaf!

One of the best things about New Leaf was the inclusion of Isabelle! I think she is so cute! Like an animal version of Lucy Moran from Twin Peaks! I was glad to see that Porter was back (I missed him in the last game) and I loved the Welcome Amiibo update that brought along the camp ground! I love the RVs (but not enough to play the phone game lol)! I was Amiibo obsessed! Of course, when we were playing this game, we were broke, so I ended up buying a lot of the Amiibo coins from Etsy, since I couldn't afford the scalped cards.

ACNL introduced me to my best frenemy - Sparro. We'll get into that relationship further down the page...

Another part of ACNL that I loved, despite the fact that it was like paid DLC, was the Happy Home Designer addition! I've always loved decorating houses in The Sims, so why not do it for Animal Crossing characters?! My husband got so excited when he found out the game had come out, he didn't even wait for it to come to the states before buying me a special edition Japanese Animal Crossing 3DS and the game in Japanese. I had no idea what I was reading in my Japanese version, but I did play it for a while before eventually getting the English one!

I don't think I ever bought any other Japanese game to play on this 3DS LL (which we called XL in the U.S.), so this console and my Japanese copy of HHD are locked somewhere in safe-keeping until one day when we can Happy Home Design our OWN house and set up a game room!

Then, of course, we have the global phenomena of New Horizons - The Nintendo Switch version of Animal Crossing that came out during the COVID pandemic. I think a huge part of what made this game popular was both - people needed something to do, and - people find Animal Crossing to be "cozy" and wanted to de-stress from the chaos of the world. I was definitely one of those people who pre-ordered the console and the game, and my husband and I even had a release party of two! We made island-themed foods and drinks, and had a really good time! Too bad the hype I had for the game didn't last... I liked the concept of NH, with the amount of customization, again, I love customizing crap! However, there's something about this game that feels... soulless. I only played it for about a year, and then stopped. Like. Dead stopped.

I think one of my things with Animal Crossing is that to me, it can be a cozy game and still feel mean. In the earlier games (mostly the GameCube one, but also WW for the DS) the animals could be little bastards! And I loved that! I loved wondering what they would do to me after I whacked with them with nets for too long, or pushed them around for too long... It was so funny to me! So, I do miss that. Maybe if they come out with a new one, let's have two different modes - cozy and mean. AND PLEASE, dear God, give the animals some more OOMPH.

Despite my complaints though, I still love this series. I recently re-purchased the GameCube version so I can play it again (when I get that darn game room put together!). But enough rambling from me... Let's introduce you to my villager!

Oh, look! Her name is Moonie! Was she named after me? No! Actually, I took my online persona from my Animal Crossing villager. While I was just playing my real self in the earlier games, starting with New Leaf, I began playing as a fictional character. Moonie fancies herself a private investigator, and somehow ended up living in Snail Village after she heard some "weird" stuff was happening there. I tried to make Snail Village a bit eerie and strange (like Twin Peaks, Gravity Falls, or Night Vale). Hence the spooky flag, which is thankfully, a real image of the flag I saved forever ago!

Moonie was a no-nonsense type of girl who had a rational explanation for everything, but was opened up to new explanations and ideas after her strange experiences in Snail Village.

While in Snail Village, Moonie made frenemies with Sparro. Their relationship was so beautiful (ಥ◡ಥ)

There were other human characters that I made who inhabited Snail Village before Moonie came along and became the Mayor. Fig, the conspiracy theorists (think Dale Gribble from King of the Hill); Chapel (a name I liked before Chappell Roan was a "thing"), she's the town's mysterious beauty; and then there's Bee, the regular, friendly girl that becomes a confidant to Moonie. Sadly, I don't have any screenshots of them. (I actually don't even know if this save file still exists... I'm too scared to check)!




After leaving Snail Village (nobody is sure why) Moonie won the "Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway Package" and ended up on a desserted island with two villagers - Katt and Dom. While Katt wasn't too interested in staying very long, Dom never strayed from the newly named Moonpie Island!

Thankfully, in her older age, Moonie has chilled out a bit and learned how to have more fun. As the Island Representative, she has taken it upon herself to make sure that Moonpie Island has any and all resources that her animal friends may want or need! She ended up inviting an old frenemy to move onto the island, and while there she's also made many new friends!

Here are some* images of Moonie's adventures on Moonpie Island! *This page is VERY image heavy!!