Summary
- The success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons has raised expectations for the next game in the series, and Nintendo could learn from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's approach to push boundaries and overcome series fatigue.
- While Animal Crossing's traditional formula has been successful, there is a risk of the series becoming stale over time if it doesn't introduce significant changes.
- The next Animal Crossing game should maintain its momentum by implementing a design overhaul while still incorporating key features like customization, but it could also explore new settings, introduce a story, or revisit older games to better recognize their potential.
While Animal Crossing: New Horizons received critical acclaim and became the best-selling game of the series, the sequel may want to look to Nintendo's other trailblazers like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for ideas about where to take the wholesome slice-of-life simulator next. With a development and release cycle hovering between three and five years, some are already anticipating that a new Animal Crossing game will be announced soon since Animal Crossing: New Horizons was launched in 2020. But with the Switch's future and its potential successor still uncertain, so too is the future of the Animal Crossing series.
Whether the next Animal Crossing will coincide with the Switch 2 or another next-gen console, Nintendo might benefit from adopting the ambitious yet promising approach it once took with Breath of the Wild. Like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Breath of the Wild quickly became one of the most successful and beloved Zelda games ever, despite its significant departure from the series' traditional design. With Animal Crossing facing the same challenge that Zelda had to overcome, it could be time for Nintendo to learn from Breath of the Wild's success as the series' next game aims to go even further beyond its once-new horizons.
The Case for an Animal Crossing GameCube Remake After New Horizons
While fans wait for the sequel to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendo should remake the original GameCube title to tide fans over in the meantime.
Animal Crossing Needs An Overhaul
Though it's undeniable that the Animal Crossing series has continuously enhanced players' experiences since its first game in 2001, it's also clear that, by contrast, the series' traditional formula has remained fundamentally the same. Ranging from gathering collectibles, becoming homeowners, and bonding with other characters, each Animal Crossing game is virtually the same - albeit with new and improved gameplay features. For some players, this familiarity could arguably be one of the series' key selling points owing to its continued success, but this same familiarity runs the risk of future Animal Crossing games eventually becoming flawed and stale over time.
Animal Crossing is Already Following The Legend of Zelda's Footsteps
With various Zelda games being considered as the series' best, such as Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past, it's possibly no surprise that Nintendo felt it needed a completely new approach for the series, especially when its other recent games at the time like Skyward Sword did poorly. Recognizing that sticking so closely to Zelda's overused formula would always result in new games being overshadowed by earlier successes, the only option left was to break from tradition and do something completely different. In doing so, Breath of the Wild demonstrated how to overcome the stalemate of series fatigue that Animal Crossing finds itself approaching.
Animal Crossing Could Borrow Breath of the Wild's Blueprint
Fortunately, Animal Crossing: New Horizons' success means that the series is currently enjoying a grace period before it begins to see the same kind of frustrations that players once had with each new Zelda game that came up short. However, this same success has set a near-impossible standard for the next Animal Crossing game to meet player expectations, let alone surpass them, ultimately putting the risks of series fatigue at an all-time high. Therefore, the next Animal Crossing shouldn't pass on the opportunity to maintain this momentum by cutting to the chase of a huge design overhaul, just as Breath of the Wild did for Zelda.
How exactly the next Animal Crossing game will achieve this will be up to Nintendo, as even though Breath of the Wild was hugely different from other Zelda games, it was still a recognizable part of the broader series. Likewise, even with a design overhaul, the next Animal Crossing should still share key features such as character, home, and world customization. However, there are also some obvious new directions the next game could take. For example, it could be time for Animal Crossing to have a proper story, explore all-new settings, or even revisit older games to both recapture and revamp their original potential.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
- Released
- March 20, 2020
- ESRB
- Everyone / Comic Mischief, Mild Fantasy Violence, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EPD
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- Havok
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer
- Expansions
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Happy Home Paradise
WHERE TO PLAY
- Franchise
- Animal Crossing
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
- How Long To Beat
- 100 Hours
