Animal Crossing: New Horizons has had a strong run, but the free content that kept the game afloat has come to an end. It ends with a bang, as the latest update added the Roost, farming, and cooking. It also comes alongside the paid DLC expansion Happy Home Paradise. With so much added to the game, players find themselves with plenty to do, even if they end up wondering what is coming next for the IP.
Every installment of the Animal Crossing series has brought something new to the table. From becoming a mayor, island life, or camping, it seems this series has showcased most any lifestyle it could manage. There's one avenue that could use a re-visit though: putting players back in a mayor role and letting them manage their own cities.
What Animal Crossing: City Folk Didn't Cover
The concept of an Animal Crossing game based on city living isn't new. The 2008 title Animal Crossing: City Folk had a gimmick in which Kapp'n could take players to the city outside of their town on his bus. There, players would find all sorts of shops, special locations like Mr. Resetti's office, and tons of new villagers to chat with. This came back in a smaller, more manageable scale as Main Street in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which saw fans being asked to help pay for most, if not all of the same shops to return.
What these games didn't capture is what it would be like for players to manage an entire city, and there's a chance that the next game could do just that. New Leaf already had players help choose what facilities to build for Main Street, and the latest DLC for New Horizons deals with designing and renovating facilities for Paradise Planning's archipelago. Even the new adjustments to Harv's Island seems to serve a similar purpose as Main Street, with shops players can pay to add. With this in mind, the next step may deal with having players choose what shops stay permanently in their towns.
Becoming the Mayor of an Animal Crossing City
In theory, running a city in Animal Crossing wouldn't be anything players haven't already experienced, especially when it comes to the newer titles. The biggest thing that being the mayor for this city would ask of players is picking new infrastructure in the form of buildings, and potentially choosing what buildings they want to place in their town to begin with. The idea also would invite the potential for an increased villager count, as mayors could place favorite villagers like Shino in apartment complexes or townhomes.
From there, players might be able to access familiar features such as interior designing, or even important structures such as schools. These features have been seen in Happy Home Paradise, but a new city-based game might invite further customization never before seen in Animal Crossing. This type of game might finally allow players to customize buildings such as their town hall in new and interesting ways, instead of making them permanent preset options.
The Potential to Bring Back Animal Crossing Favorites
With players being able to pick and choose what buildings go into their city, this means structures will need to have value to prospective mayors. Luckily, Animal Crossing and its many characters have captured fans' hearts, and there isn't one villager or NPC that goes without some love. When one NPC is left out of games like New Horizons, many players ask Nintendo when that character will make their return.
Giving fans the option to fund and build structures to their city that feature their favorite characters seems ideal as the next step in the series. Making it easier and faster for gamers to get characters such as Brewster and Katrina in a game following New Horizons sounds perfect. There's even potential to bring back more fan-favorites with facilities such as a comedy club for Dr. Shrunk, or even a park with a special fountain that could bring back City Folk favorite Serena - both of whom are absent in New Horizons.
Animal Crossing may be about finding one's way around a new place out in the countryside, but making the next game deal with players building their own city seems alluring for many reasons. The series has become less focused on the atmosphere of players making it on their own, and instead it focuses more on the customization features. The fact that Happy Home Designer has become more of an expansion to New Horizons only serves as an emblem of this direction.
Ultimately it's up to Nintendo where this series goes next, but as series like Kirby and Pokemon are experimenting with games like Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Pokemon Legends: Arceus, there's a strong chance for this idea to work in the next Animal Crossing. While this title seems promising, it likely won't come out until there's a new Nintendo console on the market. That said, fans shouldn't worry, as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Happy Home Paradise by themselves should keep people busy for quite some time.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for Nintendo Switch.