The nextAnimal Crossing, whatever that may be, absolutely and undeniably needs to change. It cannot merely be more of the same, another cozy life sim that pulls away from the core principles of the original experience in favor of mindless busy work and island customization. Simply put, at least in my opinion, it can’t beNew Horizonsagain. To avoid that, I strongly believe that Nintendo needs to leave its bubble and look to the competition.
There are so manygames likeAnimal Crossingnow that Nintendo can draw from for inspiration. There is no shame in the original looking to its copycats for ideas, especially when those imitators are often doing it better. Nintendo needs to use its competitors to understand how to better balance player engagement and enjoyment with the cozy, laid-back vibe it’s always aimed for. Fortunately,oneAnimal Crossing-esque game has the perfect idea to both increase the amount of gameplay and value in the next entry, without sacrificing what really matters.
Animal Crossing Feels Too Small
One Town Just Isn’t Enough
Animal Crossinghas felt a little stagnant for a while now. That’s not to say the past handful of entries have been bad, as that is clearly not the case. Rather,Animal Crossinghas stuck to a set formula and not really evolved beyond it, occasionally throwing in a new mechanic, and largely deviating away from the social aspect that defined the original game, but never innovating drastically. It, as a result, has always felt small, constricted to a small town or two that players instantly become familiar with.
That smaller scale was largely driven by the platform thatAnimal Crossinglaunched on, with it predominantly finding success on the Nintendo DS and 3DS. Unfortunately, as charming as it was initially, that smaller scale has quickly become one ofAnimal Crossing’sbiggest problems, as not only is it quite limiting and restrictive, butit also makes each game in the series feel far too familiar. Your town inNew Horizonsmay be more decorated, but I can assure you, in scale and structure, it resembles your one inWild World.
The nextAnimal Crossingcan’t resembleNew Horizons, not just in its clunky implementation of gameplay to satiate those who want to spend more than 15 minutes playing it at a time, but also in terms of its scale. In order to move away from that size of experience,Nintendo needs to turn to a recentAnimal Crossingcompetitor, and, frankly, one of thebest life sim gameson the market,Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Animal Crossing Needs To Borrow From Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Its Open World Opens More Possibilities
Hello Kitty Island Adventureis, in many ways,better thanAnimal Crossing, and I think that’s largely thanks to its significantly larger scale.Island Adventureis an open-world game, one that more closely resemblesBreath of the Wildthan it doesAnimal Crossing. Yet, this world facilitates not bashing Bokoblins with a sword, but fishing, finding and helping friends, foraging, and, admittedly, a little dungeon crawling now and then.
That larger scope allowsIsland Adventureto feature more content while also offering better world diversity, the likes of whichAnimal Crossinghas never seen. There are multiple biomes, dungeons in each one, quests to complete, unique items and loot to find, and more. All of this makesIsland Adventuresound like a completely different experience fromAnimal Crossing, but, at the heart of it, there is still that life-sim charm and a focus on building up bonds with your fellow furry friends.
Similarly,Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Timefeatures aBreath of the Wild-style open-world filled with monsters to fight and loot to uncover, alongside a town-building component that more or less replicates theAnimal Crossingexperience.Disney Dreamlight Valleyhas several different islands you can go to where you’ll meet new characters, complete puzzles, and engage in more narrative-focused fare.
Then there’sCult of the Lamb, which manages to broaden itsAnimal Crossing-esque elements with dungeon crawling and all manner of delightfully twisted details. All of these games show that, with a larger scope,the nextAnimal Crossingcould be so much more. While bigger isn’t always better, especially when stuffing a game full of unnecessary features can detract from the original purpose,inAnimal Crossing’scase, a more ambitious scope would open it up to more exciting possibilities.
Animal Crossing On The Switch 2 Must Be Bigger
It Can’t Be More Of The Same
It definitely feels like Nintendo is already beginning to see the value in expanding its current IPs beyond their previous limitations.Zeldawent open-world, followed shortly byPokémon. EvenMario Karthas an open world now, and there are fewer good reasons why it deserves one thanAnimal Crossing.I can absolutely see Nintendo shifting to an open-world format withAnimal Crossing, and I sincerely hope it does. Because, if it sticks to the current formula, whatever the nextAnimal Crossinggame is will feel like more of the same.
However,I don’t wantAnimal Crossing’stransition into an open world to mean the complete death of its best element: villager interactions. InHello Kitty Island Adventure, everything from exploration, questing, and item foraging is in service of building up your bonds with the other characters. The nextAnimal Crossingneeds to make its villagers feel more alive and believable while similarly weaving its core gameplay and exploration into better establishing them as characters.
The villagers could wander the open world too, forage for resources to help build new structures, or go on questswith the player. There could be multiple towns in the open world, and the villagers from each one could be friends with one another and even visit from time to time. All of this would help make villagers feel more tangible and a part of theAnimal Crossingexperience in a way they haven’t in a long time. Of course, none of that is possible unless thenextAnimal Crossingis bigger.
Not everything needs to be open-world, and I don’t want everything to be open-world. However, I do feel like the competition is moving towards that formula, or at least expanding the base gameplay of town building and villager interactions with additional exploration or dungeon crawling.Animal Crossingwould absolutely benefit from something a little more than what it offers right now, and I hope we’re heading in that direction, so long as it doesn’t come at the cost of the one good thing it has always done better than its competitors.
