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 - and I bought it all by chance. I got it alongside the very first edition pink Nintendo DS back in March 2005. It was my 8th birthday. I saved up for ages and paid in mostly pound coins! I remember seeing the game in the shop and having no idea what it was, but the art on the game box was simply mesmerising. I vividly remember being transfixed by a rich dark green and brown globe dotted with little houses, animals and flowers. It had a pink and dark blue pixelated sky with little flashing stars in the distance. My little mind decided upon it, and I convinced my Dad to get the bundle that came with Wild World AND Nintendogs, even though it was way out of my price range. He wasn't happy, but it was worth it.

The second I booted up the game, there was just something about it that sucked me right in. The richness of the opening tune, the little pitpats of the players feet trundling along the grass. It was a place to get lost within the pixelated metaphor of it all. It felt magical and I became lost within it. I called my town SunnyGo. It grew pears and had a forked river with three seperate sections. I designed a little golden yellow flag for it. Just a giant "S" & "G". My favourite character became Puddles, a peppy pink frog with lovely style furniture.

I remember playing Nintendogs first and that had a save button in game - so I figured thats how ALL games must save. However, when I went to turn Animal Crossing off for the first time, it didn't have a save feature like Nintendogs did! I didn't realise you had to press "start" to save. I remember Resetti the mole coming to my town and being so scared!

During the summer of 2005, I played Animal Crossing multiplayer with my childhood friend Ellie at our family caravan site. I was 8 and she was 6. Our DS's still connected, even while we were under the covers in our prospective caravans - a few metres away from each other - with just a couple sheets of tin and a patch of grass to seperate 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. They were expecting me to relay some rules back to them like you would for a more traditional game. When you're 8 and you try and 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 still 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 had set up the console in my Grandma's conservatory on her giant cube shaped TV. I called my town SunnyGo again, but this time I had peach trees. I was incredibly excited, as I hated having 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 Nook 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 SunnyGo. Instead, I named it "Peachy". You guessed it, I had peach trees again.

When Animal Crossing New Horizons came out in March 2020, I was 22. I was insanely excited and preordered it to come with a tote bag and a badge. I was planning to go to the midnight release at the GAME shop...but then COVID hit. Instead, I downloaded it onto my switch at midnight and 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'd town, once again, was named Sunny Go.