As of today, April 14, 2026, it has been exactly 25 years since Animal Crossing debuted in Japan with the original Dōbutsu no Mori on the Nintendo 64, which would later become Animal Crossing worldwide on the GameCube. An officially licensed Animal Crossing manga is out now to mark the occasion, but Nintendo has a surprise of its own as well.
A whopping 158 music tracks from the original Animal Crossing have been added to Nintendo Music, combining for an astounding five hours and 18 minutes of total runtime, per Nintendo Life. Nintendo Music is an iOS and Android app that is the official streaming service for the gaming giant's proprietary music. The deluge of Animal Crossing tracks includes music from Dōbutsu no Mori e+, which was a subsequent, Japan-only release that included new content.
There's no denying how popular the series is now, since Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the second best-selling Nintendo Switch game (behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe), but it's interesting to look back and see how little its foundations have changed. Most subsequent titles are better than the original Animal Crossing, but that's largely due to iterative improvement, rather than anything specifically being wrong with...
