Animal Crossing (2001 video game)

Animal Crossing is a 2001 social simulation video game developed by Nintendo, released first in Japan on the Nintendo 64 and the following year in North America on the GameCube, in which the player moves into a village of anthropomorphic animal residents and gradually pays off a mortgage on their new home by collecting, growing and selling goods, fishing and interacting with neighbors. The game runs continuously in real time using the console's internal clock, so its world changes with the actual time of day and season regardless of whether the player is present, an unusually low pressure, open ended structure at odds with most games of its era. It is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of the casual game genre, drawing many players who did not otherwise consider themselves video game enthusiasts, and it was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2021.