I fell in love with the series back to when I first started playing Animal Crossing City Folk on the Wii. There was so much charm and a good amount of things to do in the game at the time. Since then, I’ve played Animal Crossing Wild World, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp (a mobile spinoff), and now a ton of time into Animal Crossing New Horizons.
While there have been some changes between titles, New Horizons is still missing a considerable amount of features, items/multiple furniture series, and even some villagers and notable main characters we have yet to see return so far in the updates. Quite a bit to report below!
Missing Features
Animal Crossing New Horizons brought with it the ability to truly place anything outside when before in New Leaf you could only have certain “Public Works” projects placed, and gratefully carried over customization through the big emphasis on crafting nearly everything. However, here is a list of missing features:
- Island Minigames (Tortimer’s Island in New Leaf)
- Happy Home Designer‘s Small and Big Innovations
- Different floor layouts, actually having hallways, doors inside, etc.
- Ceiling objects (Chandeliers, hanging plants, etc.)
- Window customization (not locked or changed by wallpapers)
- Actually having a city center akin to City Folk, but with more buildings!
- Designing/creating villagers’ homes and properties, taking on design challenges
- Missing Places
- Further upgrades to Nook’s Cranny
- Nook’s Homes (Had more exterior house customizations!)
- Club 101 (Comedy/Music Stage)
- Shampoodle (Hair Salon)
- GracieGrace (High-End Furniture)
- Leif’s Flower Shop
- Kicks (Shoe Store)
- Post Office (Replaced by airport)
- Auction House (City Folk)
- Fortune Teller (Who doesn’t miss tripping all the time?)
- Dream Suite (Replaced by dreaming, Luna moved on to a higher plane of existence lol)
- Missing Furniture Series
- Modern
- Modern Wood
- Alpine
- Polka-dot
- Green and Blue (Somewhat replaced with “wooden,” though the unique pieces like the green pantry and the blue clock are gone.)
- Gracie, Princess, Gorgeous, Card, Sweet (GracieGrace)
- Old versions of seasonal themes (Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc.)
- I miss one of my old favorites, the Jingle series that got replaced by toys…
- Stripe
- 7-Eleven (Yes, that actually happened.)
- Ranch
- Regal
- Robo
- Rococo
- More I probably forgot…
- 56 missing villagers!
The elephant in the room… Animal Crossing Pocket Camp.
One of the reasons the Animal Crossing franchise is so beloved is because of how you can decorate with things that are “out of this world” or not normally seen/made. A criticism many could debate is whether New Horizons became too realistic from its “deserted island getaway” introduction. However, Pocket Camp has a ton of fun pieces that should’ve all (or mostly) been carried over into the main series title in my opinion.
I want to be able to create a grand library with stairs leading up to ceiling-high bookcases. A witch’s hut containing a brewing pot of questionable green liquid. An enchanted forest with glowing, floating crystals within. These ideas and more are made possible in a free-to-play mobile game but somehow absent in the Nintendo Switch game, which doesn’t feel right to many fans.
Wish I kept my screenshots of my campsite because I had fun with some of the new stuff that came in regularly from the events and fortune cookies (though the luck on those were worse than any gacha…).
Undeniable Potential
There is no doubt that Animal Crossing could do more crossovers and references beyond mainly the Mario and Legend of Zelda (sadly not yet in New Horizons) franchises. Maybe not on the level of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but it would be so neat to see stuff from Fire Emblem, more from Metroid and Star Fox, Xenoblade Chronicles, Monster Hunter, and so on.
One of my best friends and I once had a fun brainstorming idea session for a bunch of things they could do with the Animal Crossing series, listing what we’d love to see from suspension bridges between cliffs and canyons to having explorable mining caves and underground passages. I think more people who may only be interested in other life simulations like The Sims, Rune Factory, Story of Seasons, and Stardew Valley might actually give Animal Crossing a chance if there were more creative possibilities, adding more to its strengths (what uniquely separates this franchise from the rest). Also, I’m not necessarily saying New Horizons or future installments should add RPG elements, but… it’s a thought. 😉
Alright, that’s it for tonight. Hope you enjoyed this article and I’ll be back soon with reviews of Bravely Default II and Octopath Traveler and more, so stay tuned! Thank you so much for reading and have a great day! 🙂
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