My life in Animal Crossing terms: An Ode to SunnyGo.

12 August 2025

Animal Crossing Wild World was the first "proper" video game I ever bought with my own money. It was my 8th birthday, and I bought it alongside the 1st edition pink Nintendo DS back in March 2005. I saved up for ages and paid in mostly pound coins!

I remember seeing the game in the shop, having no idea what it was, but the art on the box was mesmerising. I became transfixed by the rich green and brown globe and its' pink and blue pixelated sky, dotted with flashing stars, houses, animals and flowers. My little mind decided upon it, so I convinced my Dad to get the bundle that came with Animal Crossing AND Nintendogs, even though it was out of my price range. He wasn't happy, but it was worth it.

The second I booted up the game, I was hooked. The richness of the opening theme, the little pitpats of my character's feet trundling along the grass. It was a magicial place to get lost in - the pixelated metaphor of it all. I named my town Sunny Go. Not sure why. Maybe it was just a sunny place I could go to. My town grew pear trees and had a forked river with three seperate sections. I designed a little golden yellow flag for it, with a giant orange "S" and "G". My favourite villager in my town became Puddles, a peppy pink frog with lovely style furniture, pink chairs embossed with red hearts. A little girl's dream.

When I turned the game off for the first time, I didn't realise you had to manually save by pressing "start". It's interesting how something I now view as intuitive, back then, wasn't so much. We have to begin learning somewhere. For those who don't know, if you don't save your game in Animal Crossing, a big scary mole called Resetti visits your town and gives you a good telling off. I remember being so scared. In the newer games they removed this feature. Retrospectively, I think it built character.

During the summer of 2005, I played the game constantly with my childhood friend at our family caravan site. I was 8 and she was 6. Our Dual System's still connected, even while we were under covers in our prospective caravans. We were just a few metres away from each other, a couple sheets of tin and a patch of grass to seperate us. But the game connected us. That summer was filled with animal crossing, bicycle riding, pictochat, jumping over sanddunes on the beach, collecting shells (pixelated AND real), ice-cream, farm animal petting and getting stuck in quicksand.

When I showed the game to adults so excitedly, none of them seemed understand it. They always asked me what the "point" of the game was. I think they were expecting me to relay some rules back to them like you would for a more traditional game. When I tried to explain that "you run around, plant things, decorate your house and make friends with the animals", it was confusing as to why the adults around me viewed this as "not having a point". I didn't get why they didn't get it. But I got it. When you're a child, you don't question point or purpose, you just follow joy. Animal Crossing was a safe wild world for me.

Christmas 2008, I was 11. I got Animal Crossing: City Folk on the Wii! I was so excited to play it, that after Christmas Dinner, I set up the console in my Grandma's conservatory on her giant cube shaped TV. I called my town Sunny Go again, but this time my town grew peach trees. I was incredibly excited, as I hated my last town growing pears. I remember thinking they were an ugly fruit.

When I got Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS in 2012, I was 15. I got the Limited Edition Animal Crossing 3DS to go alongside it. It was white, with pretty little leaves and apples embossed on the lid. By that point I was a teenager and somewhat rejecting my childhood, so I didn't call my Town Sunny Go. Instead, I named it "Peachy". You guessed it, I had peach trees again. Likely because I reset my game until peaches grew. While the child just plays, the teenager curates.

When Animal Crossing New Horizons came out in March 2020, I was 22. I was incredibly excited and preordered it to come with a limited edition tote bag and badge. I was planning to go to the midnight release...but then COVID hit. Instead, I downloaded it onto my Nintendo Switch at midnight. I played it on the floor of my shared accommodation that I was soon due to move out of. It once again became my idyllic childhood escape from the pain of everything. And my pear tree growing town, was once again, named Sunny Go.