Summary
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons introduced enhanced customization, allowing players to customize their entire island and create unique spaces, but legacy design choices from previous titles held it back.
- A tool wheel in the next Animal Crossing game would greatly improve the controls and gameplay experience. It would make tool selection faster, solve inventory space issues, and eliminate the need for organizing items for efficient tool switching.
- After the success of New Horizons, the next Animal Crossing game should prioritize functionality and quality-of-life updates. Adding a tool wheel should be a top priority to enhance the gameplay experience.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons expanded on previous entries in the franchise greatly. While past Animal Crossing titles allowed players to customize the interior of their home, the latest entry invited them to customize the entire island where they resided. Enhanced customization was the crux of Animal Crossing: New Horizons new content. Players could live on an island and truly make it their own. This change meant the introduction of a bevy of new tools and features. Despite leading the way in the cozy genre in terms of customization and the ability to create unique spaces, New Horizons was held back by some of the legacy design choices carried over from previous titles.
Animal Crossing has come a long way in the over 20 years since the original release. A port of the Japan-exclusive Animal Forest, Animal Crossing was an enhanced rerelease for GameCube. Katsuya Eguchi created the game in response to the urbanization of Japan and his own loneliness after moving to Kyoto. Eguchi wanted to create something to provide players with the joy of finding friendships and becoming part of a community. While the original Animal Crossing was barebones compared to New Horizons, the central premise has remained untouched. Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows players to craft a community and the space in which it resides more than any previous entry.
Animal Crossing Needs a Tool Wheel
In spite of Animal Crossing: New Horizons' enhanced ambitions in terms of the customizability of the world, its controls remained similar to previous entries. The D-Pad can be used to cycle through tools, but this follows the order of how items are stored and requires inventory management. Furthermore, tools in Animal Crossing: New Horizons will break with sustained use, meaning that players may opt to carry duplicates, making navigating tools even more cumbersome. The game is a strange combination of being one of the most ambitious titles in the cozy life-sim genre and being stuck in the past regarding controls and how the player interfaces with the game. A tool wheel could fix all of those issues and more.
Why a Tool Wheel in Animal Crossing Would Be Great
Adding a tool wheel to the next Animal Crossing game would be a massive upgrade that would solve many issues. On top of clunky navigation without opening up the inventory to equip items, New Horizons suffers from limited inventory space even after upgrades. This problem is compounded by the tool switching system, which is ordered by how things are stored in the inventory. Making a tool wheel separate from the inventory system would do a lot of help with all of these issues, with being able to select tools more quickly being the most apparent quality of life improvement this feature would provide.
On top of making tool selection less time-consuming, a tool wheel would make the inventory system much more intuitive. In New Horizons, players will often fill their inventory and be unable to unequip tools. Placing tools in a tool wheel outside the main inventory would solve this annoyance. There could even be upgrades to store duplicates on the wheel so that new tools automatically equip after an old one breaks. If tools could be stored outside the standard inventory, it would also remove the necessity to organize one's items around efficient tool switching. When gathering, bug catching, or fishing in Animal Crossing, organization outside of tools is often frivolous, so removing the need to organize for the sake of tool management would save a lot of time spent in menus.
Quality of Life After Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Now that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has innovated so much on the game's core systems and concepts, the next game in the series needs to take a step back and focus on functionality first before expanding. There are plenty of small quality-of-life updates that would help to make the game a smoother experience for players. Adding things like a tool wheel would allow for the other elements of the experience to stand out. There are plenty of features the next Animal Crossing needs, but a tool wheel should be near the top of the list.
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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
Escape to a deserted island and create your own paradise as you explore, create, and customize in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game. Your island getaway has a wealth of natural resources that can be used to craft everything from tools to creature comforts. You can hunt down insects at the crack of dawn, decorate your paradise throughout the day, or enjoy sunset on the beach while fishing in the ocean. The time of day and season match real life, so each day on your island is a chance to check in and find new surprises all year round.
Show off your island utopia to family and friends—or pack your bags and visit theirs. Whether playing online** or with others beside you***, island living is even better when you can share it. Even without hopping on a flight, you’ll meet a cast of charming animal residents bursting with personality. Friendly faces like Tom Nook and Isabelle will lend their services and happily help you grow your budding community. Escape to your island getaway—however, whenever, and wherever you want.
- Franchise
- Animal Crossing
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
- How Long To Beat
- 100 Hours
