Animal Crossing: New Leaf Critic Reviews

Every time you open your 3DS to play New Leaf, you know you’re almost certain to experience something new or surprising. And how many games can you say that about?

Animal Crossing: New Leaf finally evolves and revitalizes the formula, expands on the way you interact with your town in meaningful ways, and more importantly returns the series to portable hardware.

There’s charm oozing out of every single corner (across both screens!), and even if you’re not a long-time fan there’s a good chance this will be the entry that draws you in.

The best Animal Crossing yet, a real oasis in the videogame industry.

New Leaf is a world on a cartridge slightly bigger than a stamp, one full of beautiful, wise and hopelessly optimistic observation of humans as social animals. It is a magical creation.

Well, we could go on and on, except, to be honest, we'd rather get back to playing it than talking about it. After all, we just need a few more bells to pay off our house and start on an expansion. So we'll just say that Animal Crossing New Leaf is the best of its franchise and highly recommend it.

It’s not a complete overhaul of the series, but it’s an entry that intelligently pushes Animal Crossing into new areas of control and creativity.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf represents not only the pinnacle of the series, but also the ingenuity of the life simulation genre.

It’s not something that you can marathon, it’s not something you can “beat,” and going in without those expectations will ruin it for you. Its portable nature, plus all of the extra features that they’ve been adding since the first game on the GameCube make this not only the best game in the series, but also a perfect starting point for newcomers.

New Leaf is a truly magical game, one that you can easily expect to invest hundreds of hours in over the course of years. Anyone with access to a 3DS should absolutely give this game a try - just be prepared to kiss your “real” life goodbye.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is arguably the best in the series so far and is a welcome addition to anyone’s 3DS library.

This might be the brightest of 2013's 3DS stars. A beautiful, generous, warm-hearted game in every way and a worthy successor to Wild World's crown.

Along with greater sharing options (clothing designs can be shared with other players via QR codes, and the game even allows you to take your own screenshots by pressing the system’s shoulder buttons), these features make New Leaf the perfect starting point for any player looking to get into the Animal Crossing series for the first time, and they give old fans plenty of incentives to pack up and move to a new city yet again.

An essential purchase for any 3DS owner.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is excellent for meditation, coffee breaks, grinding, goofing around, self-expression and, naturally, having loads of fun.

The definitive version of one of the best feel-good franchises ever.

Playing it my way has lead me to the kind of self-reflection that a man in his 30s can't always afford. Why do I care what this leopard thinks of me? Why am I losing sleep over the construction of a virtual bench?

Animal Crossing: New Leaf has a revitalising new flavour, and in 3DS it’s finally found the ideal place to settle down and make its home.

It is apparent from only a comparably short time — as opposed to months and years — spent with the game that Nintendo has done a great deal to address the complaints of its Wii predecessor, and provided plenty of exciting new features and buildings to enjoy.

This is quite simply the best Animal Crossing has ever been. Fans of the series are in for an expanded treat, and newcomers will find fresh delights in its relaxed gameplay.