Platform guide
Animal Crossing DS games
There is one. Animal Crossing: Wild World came out for the Nintendo DS in Europe on 31 March 2006 and nothing else in the series ever appeared on that console — the games people mistake for a second DS entry are on the Wii, the 3DS and the Switch. This page says what Wild World is, what it lost when the servers closed, and what to look at on a second-hand card.
The short answer
One game: Animal Crossing: Wild World, 31 March 2006 in Europe. The next one up is New Leaf on 3DS, which also plays on the console you may already own for this. Wild World still works completely apart from online town visits, which ended with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in May 2014.
Tested Animal Crossing DS cards in stock
Opened, checked against the label and started on a real DS before they are listed.
Animal Crossing: Wild World (2006)
The first portable Animal Crossing and the first with online play. You move into a town, owe Tom Nook for a house, and pay it off by fishing, digging up fossils, catching bugs and running errands for the animals who live there — in real time, against the console’s own clock, so the shops shut at night and the seasons arrive when they arrive.
Against the GameCube game it added Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, dropped the NES games that the first one hid inside it, and shrank the town to one map. Against New Leaf it has no mayor role, no public works, no island and a smaller cast. What it has instead is that it is a DS card: it starts in two seconds, it saves in one, and it goes in a pocket.
Worth knowing before you buy: the game runs on the DS system clock, so a cartridge that has been in a drawer since 2009 will believe you abandoned the town — weeds, moved-away villagers, cockroaches in the house. Nothing is broken. It is the game doing what it was built to do.
Where the rest of the series lives
| Console | Game | Released (EU) |
|---|---|---|
| GameCube | Animal Crossing | 24 September 2004 |
| Nintendo DS | Wild World | 31 March 2006 |
| Wii | Let’s Go to the City | 5 December 2008 |
| Nintendo 3DS | New Leaf | 14 June 2013 |
| Nintendo Switch | New Horizons | 20 March 2020 |
Or buy one that has already been checked
A second-hand DS card arrives with somebody’s town on it, and counterfeit DS cards are common enough that we treat every one as suspect until it is opened. Every card we sell is checked against the label and the shell and started on a real DS before it is listed. We have been doing this since 2019, with 1400+ verified reviews at 5.0★, and we ship tracked to all 27 EU countries.
How to check a used DS cardQuestions we get asked
How many Animal Crossing games are there on the Nintendo DS?
One: Animal Crossing: Wild World, released in Europe on 31 March 2006. There is no second DS entry and no DS port of any other game in the series. The games people confuse it with are on other consoles — Let’s Go to the City is the Wii game, New Leaf and Happy Home Designer are 3DS cartridges, and New Horizons is on Switch.
Is Animal Crossing: Wild World worth playing now?
It is the smallest main-series Animal Crossing and the most portable. One town, a handful of villagers at a time, no public works, no crafting, no island — the loop stripped to fishing, fossils, debt and letters. That is either the purest version of the series or a thin one, depending on what you came for. It is the only one that fits in a coat pocket and runs on a console you can buy for very little.
What did Wild World lose when Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection closed?
The online visits. Wild World was the first Animal Crossing with online play, over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and that service was switched off on 20 May 2014. Visiting a friend’s town over the internet has been impossible since. Local play between two DS consoles in the same room still works, and the single-player game — town, villagers, museum, shops, seasons — is completely unaffected.
What should I check on a used Wild World cartridge?
That it still has somebody’s town on it, and whether you mind. A DS cartridge holds one save, so a second-hand copy usually arrives with a town already lived in; starting fresh means deleting it, which the game lets you do. Then check the label and the shell, as you would with any DS card: a counterfeit usually gives itself away with a glossy or slightly wrong-coloured label, a shell that does not sit flush, and a back sticker with the wrong typography.
Which consoles play a Nintendo DS cartridge?
Every DS model — the original DS, DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL — plus every 3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, 2DS and New 2DS XL, all of which have a DS card slot. It does not work on a Switch: there is no DS slot and no way to add one. Note the direction of that rule: a DS card plays on a 3DS, but a 3DS cartridge never plays on a DS.
Are DS games region-locked?
No. A European DS card plays on an American or Japanese DS or 3DS and the other way round — DS cards are the last Nintendo handheld generation that is fully region-free. The 3DS is different: 3DS cartridges are locked to their region. Everything we sell is the European version unless the product page says otherwise.
Do you ship Animal Crossing DS games across the EU?
Yes — tracked shipping from the Netherlands to all 27 EU countries, no customs charges inside the EU, and 30 days to return an order. Your country’s exact rate appears at checkout before you pay.
One console up: all Animal Crossing 3DS games — or the whole series in order. Same card slot, different franchise: all Pokémon DS games, all Mario DS games and all Professor Layton DS games.
Dutch reader? Nintendo DS-games — het hele aanbod in het Nederlands.