The next iteration of Animal Crossing was announced in a Nintendo Direct in September 2018 in the way of a short teaser trailer – We know it’s coming sometime in 2019, but we aren’t sure when in the next 7 months that will be…
…However I’m thinking we will probably have to wait to the later part of the year to make new animal buddies. Probably around September time; we haven’t had a main Animal Crossing game since 2012 when New Leaf was released on the 3DS. Sure we’ve had Happy Home Designer and Pocket Camp to tide us over, but we all know that’s not enough. It comes as no real surprise that the franchise will release its next major game on the Switch due to the hugely popular nature of Animal Crossing. It’s so loved due to its adorable characters and the fact that a game session can be as long or as short as you like; I know it’s not for everybody, but for those of us that still check in on all of our villages, here’s my hopes for the Switch version.
Firstly I’d like to see some kind of multiple town option. In previous games you could add extra players to your town, but they would be villagers and not mayors. Sure, in New Leaf you got to have multiple houses, but I think it would be nice to be able to expand this and add to the game saves you can have on it. This just seems to be the logical next step… Just means that if you’re sharing your Switch everyone can have their own town and there’s no fighting for the resources. However I’m 50/50 about whether this will become a feature due to the ability to create multiple profiles on one Switch… So perhaps it’s not needed.
Secondly I’d like to see an expansion to the existing catalogues of everything. I’m expecting more fish, more bugs, more shells, more fossils, more art and more furniture than ever before. I’d especially like to see new furniture sets as they are definitely one of my favourite things to collect in-game… Especially the special sets like the snowman and balloon sets. Customization is basically a key draw for this game, so the more options you have the better. In New Leaf you had the option to change the colour scheme of furniture; it may be cool if they took this a step further and had a furniture set that you could customise with your own patterns… Like you can do for clothes.
More in-depth characterization would be a great addition to the game. Sure all the different animals have their different personalities, but these tend to become a bit samey samey. I’d like to see the characters personalities have greater depth and breadth and also I’d like to see and increase in the types of interactions.
To add-on from that a little, I’d like to see the relationships you build with each character in a more tangible and meaningful way. Now I’m not saying you should be able to build romantic relationships… That may be a little problematic, but some kind of marker or tracker on your relationship with each villager would be nice.
Next I’d like to see more ways to interact with your town as mayor. The building projects and the campsite in New Leaf were great, and the Welcome Amiibo addition was fun – This time round I’m excited to see what new stuff they may add to the way in which you interact.
Lastly I would really like it if they kept the whole island concept and expanded on the mini games that were there. These were super fun and they added a little bit of interest to the game instead of leaving it just as a life sim; more little fun bits like that… And also just adding to the online multiplayer experience would be great!
Overall I’m excited to see all our favourite NPCs come back, and excited to see the new ones that may be added. I’m sure whatever the new Animal Crossing looks like it will be a hit!