The Animal Crossing series has exploded in popularity over the past few years after the success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and many fans are eager to see what the series has in store next. There are a variety of directions the next game could go as it builds upon the foundation of its predecessor, such as an open-world game or one that emphasizes underground exploration. While the follow-up to Animal Crossing: New Horizons is likely in development, the series should take a page out of the Mario series' book in the meantime.

Despite the Animal Crossing series existing since the GameCube era, the franchise has never seen a remake or remaster of the earlier titles. It can be hard to access some of the older Animal Crossing games since they are relegated to outdated consoles that are no longer supported. Given how many new fans likely jumped into the series with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it would make a lot of sense for Nintendo to remake or remaster the earlier entries in the franchise in order to give these new fans easier access to the series' roots.

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Animal Crossing Should Follow Mario's Lead with Remakes

Fans of the Mario franchise are being treated quite well by Nintendo with remakes and remasters of classic titles like Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door set to release in the near future. The Mario series has historically done a great job at making sure its games are accessible with each new console generation utilizing services like Nintendo's Virtual Console and Nintendo Switch Online. Now the series is bringing more classic titles back into the spotlight with these upcoming remakes, and the Animal Crossing series should follow suit with its classic titles as well.

In contrast to the Mario franchise, Animal Crossing hasn't been made nearly as accessible, likely due to the online multiplayer and real-time gameplay aspects of the series. However, with how popular Animal Crossing has grown in recent years, it would be worth it for Nintendo to put the effort into remastering some of the franchise's older titles. The Animal Crossing series could start by following in the footsteps of Super Mario 3D All-Stars and release a collection that includes the original Animal Crossing for GameCube, Animal Crossing: Wild World, and Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Nintendo Switch.

Many fans consider the 3DS' Animal Crossing: New Leaf to be the best entry in the series, so a remaster of the game on the Nintendo Switch would likely be very popular. Now is the perfect time for Animal Crossing: New Leaf to get a remaster as well since its online component will no longer function once Nintendo shuts down the 3DS servers in Spring 2024. With Animal Crossing: New Leaf getting hard to find physically, and completely unavailable digitally, Nintendo should take this opportunity to remaster the game and preserve its legacy for new fans of the series to enjoy before major aspects of it become unavailable after the 3DS servers are taken offline.

One of the reasons Nintendo likely hasn't remastered or remade any Animal Crossing titles is so as not to undercut the player base of the current game by supporting two games with real-time events simultaneously. However, Animal Crossing: New Horizons existed alongside Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on mobile devices without issue, and barring a surprise update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the Switch title is no longer receiving new content. As the Mario franchise has shown, remastering or remaking the series' classic titles is a great way to fill the gap between mainline releases and help preserve the legacy of these games by making them accessible to modern audiences.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for Nintendo Switch.

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