In the Animal Crossing series, there are lots of different villager species for you to live alongside in your town or island. Penguins in Animal Crossing are known for their round design, although they all feature unique characteristics that set them apart from one another, too.

Related: Animal Crossing: The Best Villagers Ever, Ranked

Whether you’re a penguin lover, looking to start a wintry-themed island, or simply enjoy these villagers, they’d make great choices as your new neighbors. These are your best options in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and you’ll want to save up your Nook Miles Tickets to find them on Mystery Island Tours.

Puck’s name and appearance is a reference to ice hockey, a perfect sport for penguins considering it’s often played in snowy regions. He’s definitely feeling the cold, though, as his initial catchphrase is “brrrrrrrrr”.

His house interior in New Horizons is an icy gym. It's the ideal place for Puck to practice for his hockey games, honing his skills using various gym equipment. If you’re not a fan of Puck’s ice hockey helmet, New Horizons is also the first game where he can remove it — during rainy weather, he’ll wear a rain hat instead, for example.

Boomer’s passion is clear from the very first glance — he looks exactly like a pilot, complete with a bomber hat, goggles, and aviator jacket. Boomer’s favorite saying, “Flying is believing”, also showcases his love of flying aircraft; however, this is somewhat ironic, as penguins are famously known for their inability to fly. This hasn’t stopped Boomer from reaching large heights, though.

Weirdly, Boomer’s initial catchphrase is “human”, which seems strange. It’s actually a reference to a character in Battlestar Galactica of the same name, who is non-human but living alongside humans.

A penguin known for his distinct, plus-shaped pupils, Cube is a Lazy villager who first appeared in Animal Forest and has returned for each iteration of the series since. In Animal Crossing on the GameCube, he wears a blue t-shirt with the GameCube logo on it, suggesting that this is where his name comes from. However, his t-shirt has since been changed in later entries, to match his blue and yellow color scheme.

Related: Animal Crossing: Hidden Details Everyone Missed About The Island

Funnily enough, Cube’s Japanese catchphrase “penpen” might also be a reference to the penguin character Pen Pen in Neon Genesis Evangelion — meaning this penguin is full of fun references.

The bad boy of the penguin species, Tex is a Smug villager whose favorite saying is “Rules were made to be broken” — a rather alarming statement, considering you’re the one in charge of keeping the peace on the island as the Resident Representative. If you can get past this penguin’s Smug exterior, though, he’ll be a friend for life.

Tex’s design is taken from the Humboldt penguin, which have similar pink under-eye markings. Tex’s house interior in New Horizons also suggests that he’s part of a band, adding even more depth to this penguin.

Appearing in every game in the Animal Crossing series thus far, Aurora is the only Normal penguin villager to date. She’s named after the aurora borealis, dancing waves of light that appear in the polar regions, and a phenomenon that’s emulated in New Horizons during the winter season.

Design-wise, Aurora looks like the quintessential cartoon penguin. However, her pure black eyes set her apart from other penguin villagers, blurring the line between cute and creepy. In fact, when Aurora feels a strong emotion, her eyes turn red, giving her a slightly startling appearance the first time you see this happen.

Roald is one of the most popular penguin villagers in the series, all thanks to a meme of him sitting with an orange on his head. He's also the star of lots of fanart. A navy-colored penguin, Roald’s cutest feature is his large black eyes that give him an innocent look, as though there’s nothing going on behind them.

Related: Animal Crossing New Horizons: Best Jock Villagers

Despite his unassuming appearance, Roald is a Jock villager, meaning that if you have him on your island, he’ll persuade you into taking part in a midnight jog.

Hopper is named and designed after the Rockhopper, a type of penguin known for its unique yellow feathers on its head. Hopper also shares this characteristic, along with the Rockhopper penguin’s blood-red eyes — a look that is befitting of his Cranky personality. According to Pocket Camp, Hopper has tried to use eye drops for his red eyes, but they had no effect.

Hopper also has a small part in the Animal Crossing movie, where he’s seen fishing day and night to very little success. He’s an underrated Cranky villager, and the perfect choice for any penguin lover.

First introduced to the series as Nobuo in Animal Forest e+, this Lazy penguin made a return in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0 update, where he was renamed Chabwick. His house also received an update, favoring an ice theme that makes his house look like an ice cream parlor. Chabwick also holds an ice lolly in his Amiibo card artwork, showing his love for this frozen treat.

Strangely, though, Chabwick’s favorite saying is “live, laugh, lasagna.” However, this may just be alluding to the Lazy villagers’ love of food in general. Chabwick’s cutest design features are his red earmuffs and his cross-shaped belly button.

With a design just as sweet as her name, Sprinkle is the perfect choice for any winter-themed island, as her blue and white color scheme gives her a wintry look. The swirl on her head is reminiscent of ice cream, a design feature which makes perfect sense when paired with her name. In New Horizons, Sprinkle wears the Snowy Sweater, giving her a cozy appearance.

Related: Animal Crossing: The Best Peppy Villagers

Her house interior in New Horizons is befitting of her icy theme, as it resembles an ice palace. It uses the Shell set, alongside some Frozen furniture items, to give an overall regal look.

Unlike the other penguin villagers, Wade’s design takes inspiration from a penguin chick with grey, white, and black coloring. Wade is just as cute as a real-world baby penguin, having large cartoony eyes and wearing the Froggy Tee.

Wade’s house interior also suggests that he’s hoarding fish — a delicacy for any penguin — and saving them to eat later. However, it’s possible Wade is just keeping these sea creatures as pets, proudly showing them off to whoever visits his home. He fits in well with other baby villagers, such as Joey.

Next: Animal Crossing: Underrated Snooty Villagers

Casey is a first-class English Literature graduate with a love for both gaming and writing creative pieces. After university, she shared her passion for Nintendo, horror games, and RPGs through her blog where she writes think pieces and fun top 10s on a wealth of games. As well as new games, she enjoys looking back on classics like Silent Hill, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VII. In her free time, Casey enjoys spending time with her English Bull Terrier, adding to her ever-growing figure collection, and creating embroidery pieces of her favorite characters.