Animal Crossing, the game that really kicked off Nintendo’s increasingly popular life simulation franchise back to the GameCube in 2001, could find itself winning a place in The Strong Museum’s World Video Game Hall of Fame.
The Strong is a New York-based museum that “houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of historical materials related to play”, including a large number of toys and video games. For a title to be accepted into the museum’s Hall of Fame, it must have “enjoyed popularity for a long time and had an influence on the video game industry or popular culture and society in general.”
For 2021, twelve games in total were listed as potential candidates for a hall of fame induction:
– Cross between animals
– Call to action
– FarmVille
– FIFA International Soccer
– Guitar Hero
– Football Mattel
– Microsoft Flight Simulator
– First position
– Portal
– StarCraft
– Tron
– Where’s Carmen Sandiego?
Here’s what The Strong has to say about Animal Crossing:
“Nintendo’s Cross between animals debuted in 2001 and found mass appeal with its open social simulation and relaxed gameplay. The players took on the role of a human moving to a village full of anthropomorphic animals. The game had no specific purpose, giving players the freedom to perform activities and collect the objects they wanted. The smooth gameplay proved to be a hit with both casual and advanced players, and spawned countless sequences.
The final installment of the game for the Nintendo Switch proved to be a huge success during the 2020 pandemic isolation, breaking the record for most digital downloads of a console game in a single month. “
The winners will be announced on May 6th, so we’ll have to wait and see if Animal Crossing can grab a spot. In recent years, games like Pokémon Red and Green, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. they were all accepted.
Would you like to see Animal Crossing be included in the hall of fame? Does any other title on this list occupy a special place in your heart? Let us know in the comments.