16 Games Like Animal Crossing
These games like Animal Crossing offer open ended social adventures where you can build your own virtual community for a range of platforms including PC and mobile.
Animal Crossing is a long running game series from Nintendo which launched in 2001 and allows players to develop their own towns or villages in an open ended world that opens up new opportunities over time. Released primarily for various Nintendo consoles including the Wii, DS, 3DS and the Switch games like Animal Crossing for PC are highly sought after by the Animal Crossing community.
While the Animal Crossing games vary in gameplay based on the particular entry in the franchise there are a number of core elements that remained stable throughout the series. This includes using anthropomorphic animals for NPCs, changing seasons, activities, holidays, communication with other players, long term collectible goals and most importantly a huge amount of customisation to your avatar, your house and the wider virtual game world. The games also emphasise real time gameplay where day, night and the seasons transition based on the real world passage of time.
The games like Animal Crossing on this page offer other simulation games that place a high level of customisation in the hands of the player as you shape the world around you and embark on your own goals.
Rune Factory 3
Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon sends the well known popular Harvest Moon series into the fantasy realm with an adventure that offers a familiar blend of simulation and role playing content for players on the Nintendo DS platform. In 2023 Rune Factory 3 was also revived with a special edition that transported the game into the newer Nintendo Switch platform. Released in 2010 this title is actually the fourth in the game franchise despite its name suggesting it is the third with a number o...[Read Review]
Stardew Valley
Drawing inspiration from the Harvest Moon franchise Stardew Valley puts you at the centre of your own farming adventure. Using the well known as a foundation Stardew Valley takes the experience further than ever before with its own unique mechanics and superb game design which were refined throughout the games lengthy original development. Starting your adventure in the countryside players inherent a vast plot of land from their grandfather in the area known as Stardew Valley. At this stage char...[Read Review]
Rune Factory 4
Rune Factory 4 continues the popular mix of farm simulation and role playing game that its predecessors set with a 2013 North American release for the Nintendo 3DS platform. Nearly a decade later a remastered enhanced version known as Rune Factory 4 Special was released on modern platforms of Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and and PlayStation 4. Rune Factory 4 features some of the biggest overhauls to the Rune Factory series yet to ensure that the game is both enjoyable for long-time fans and new com...[Read Review]
Dragon Quest Builders
Progressing the Dragon Quest franchise by blending new sandbox mechanics into the core satisfying adventure you’ll find a unique journey ahead on your PlayStation or Nintendo console. With a familiar game world to explore, enemies to defeat and a town waiting to be restored Dragon Quest Builders has a number of familiar design tropes from other popular titles. Dragon Quest Builders takes players back to Alefgard which is the world of the original Dragon Quest video game where the player ac...[Read Review]
Gemini Lost
Gemini Lost opens with a beam of light transferring you and your friends to a mysterious world where players must pick up the pieces and find their way home. Along the way you’ll rebuild a civilization, conduct research, gather resources and keep your small community of characters happy in the Gemini Lost’s blend of time management, strategy and light touches of life/village simulation. Gemini Lost delivers this experience through a highly structure puzzle and objective based offering whic...[Read Review]
Fantasy Life
Fantasy Life packs in a huge amount of customisation, cute graphics and a large open world for Nintendo 3DS players to explore with the game drawing inspiration from similar simulation role playing titles for this portable console. With a dozen different lives (classes) that each have their own activities and quests it’s easy to get lots of replay value from Fantasy Life as each life promises a unique experience that builds on similar adventures in this gaming sub genre. Set in the world of Reve...[Read Review]
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise is the Xbox 360 exclusive sequel to the widely popular Viva Pinata. With similar gameplay but additional biomes and co-operative play the title is everything you loved from the original plus a little extra. The game was eventually made available on Xbox One through the Rare Replay compilation allowing Xbox users broader accessibility to the adventure.. In Trouble in Paradise players will return to the magical island of the original Viva Pinata game and once again...[Read Review]
Farm For Your Life
Farm For Your Life is an interesting indie experience that combines zombies, farming, tower defence and even running your own restaurant into a single game experience. All of these gameplay elements are wrapped together into a cute graphical package and an affordable price that encourages gamers of all backgrounds to step into the colourful world. Set in a game world where a heavy storm has struck your quiet town and in turn unleashed the living dead it’s up to you the player and the few survivo...[Read Review]
Shepherd’s Crossing 2
Shepherd’s Crossing 2 is farm simulation game available on the Nintendo DS that has many similarities to the popular Harvest Moon series and challenges players to efficiently develop their own farm. Released in 2010 for the Nintendo DS the game also serves as a sequel to the PlayStation 2 Shepherd’s Crossing title that was English released in 2008 (originally developed in 2003). At the heart of Shepherd’s Crossing 2 players will find a beautifully crafted anime themed graphic design that h...[Read Review]
Viva Pinata
Viva Pinata turns a unique game concept into a fun sandbox simulation game with beautifully crafted graphics that can be enjoyed by all ages. Challenging players to design their own dream garden and fill it with pinata animals based on real life counterparts. Published by Microsoft Game Studios Viva Pinata is available on PC and Xbox 360 (later Xbox One as well) with some spin-off titles with similar gameplay on alternative handheld consoles like the Nintendo DS. The focus in Viva Pinata is on d...[Read Review]
World’s Dawn
Inspired by Harvest Moon and other farming based simulation titles, World’s Dawn offers up a colourful seaside village in need of player assistance in a social simulation game that will pull you in for over two dozen hours of gameplay as you revive the surrounding village areas. Funded out of a Kickstarter campaign World’s Dawn shows all the signs of a game that was meticulously created which comes through most notably in the writing and design of the townsfolk who all feel unique. T...[Read Review]
A Kingdom For Keflings
A Kingdom for Keflings is predominantly a city builder with sandbox elements developed by Ninja Bee that was released on the Xbox 360 in 2008 with a PC and Xbox One release several years later. The success of this experiment between two genres also led to a sequel which featured similar fundamentals albeit on a larger scale. In A Kingdom for Keflings you’ll take control of a giant in the land of Keflings who has the ability to command and instruct them to build their society from a sky view. T...[Read Review]
Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning
Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning is the second game in the franchise of farming and life simulation roleplaying titles to land for the Nintendo 3DS. Opting to introduce new customisation depth to the widely praised Harvest Moon franchise you’ll otherwise experience a similar but highly polished adventure to the previous titles. With these new upgrades its the same Harvest Moon as always but with enough new content that long term fans will enjoy their farming adventure. This time around pla...[Read Review]
A World of Keflings
A World of Keflings is the second game in the series and builds on the original to once again combine the management and building genres successfully into a single gaming adventure. Originally launched on the Xbox 360 the game was subsequently released on Windows and Wii U. Similar to the original A World of Keflings is all about the charming little characters known as Keflings who resemble humans but are small and clueless and require direction from the player otherwise are hopelessly lost. Thi...[Read Review]
Funky Barn
Armed with a strange name and Nintendo exclusivity Funky Barn enters into the farming simulation genre, challenging players to build a farm of cute animals and while managing your farm economy on your handheld Nintendo device. Starting at the basics as one would expect players are given a fairly barren plot of farm land, limited resources and only a small number of tools which is built upon slowly throughout the story. Taking over after your uncle Hatsworth’s who died from staying out in the col...[Read Review]
Castaway Paradise
Castaway Paradise brings an Animal Crossing like experience to your mobile device with a game set on your own tropical island. From helping the animal like villagers to catching fish and planting crops there is a lot to do in this free to play experience (on mobile devices) with a paid offering on PC, Mac and consoles which fundamentally similar gameplay between the releases. At the start of the game players will land on the shores of a tropical island and be introduced to Viktoria, a pig lady w...[Read Review]