Nintendo

Year Released: 2001 Platform: Nintendo GameCube

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To a hardcore gamer Animal Crossing barely looks like a game at all.

You’re a child. You move into a little house in a tiny village. The village is inhabited by talking animals. You decorate your house. You grow a garden. You design your clothes. You do your hair. Other players can visit you in your village.

Originally for the Nintendo 64 and the GameCube, Animal Crossing built a rich world around things that most people thought of as secondary in games: customizing, socializing, and managing your resources. Animal Crossing ran on real time, so many a parent was forced to nurse a virtual garden for a month, while the kid was away at camp.

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