When it comes to life-sim games, there are few that can match the sheer level of creativity and player freedom that Animal Crossing can provide. Over the last two decades, the Animal Crossing franchise has continued to offer some of the best customization options in all of gaming, from character apparel to interior design, and now even landscaping options. Every element of Animal Crossing comes together with the sole purpose of trying to make the player feel like they're living out their island or village fantasies. But while this works very well for the most part, it isn't perfect, and there are still some areas future Animal Crossing games can innovate on.
Despite being the most successful game in the franchise by far, Animal Crossing: New Horizons still had its fair share of criticisms on its initial release. While new players were simply delighted to hop onto their own island and design it to their heart's content, long-time Animal Crossing fans expressed their disappointment over the lack of features and customization options that were instead present in the prior entry. While Animal Crossing: New Horizons has rectified many of these issues with post-launch updates, there's still one big area that the game's successor can improve upon, and that's exterior house customization.
The Next Animal Crossing Should Let Players Customize House Exteriors
The Animal Crossing franchise has always made interior house design its focus. While the series has plenty of life-sim elements, like helping out neighbors and fixing up the town, it's all usually in service to expanding and customizing the player's home, with these activities rewarding the player with a plethora of furniture items. Over the years, Animal Crossing's interior customization options have evolved quite a bit, with players now being able to fully customize multiple rooms on different floors in a vast number of ways, with countless items of varying furniture being available.
But while players can customize house interiors with ease, the same can't be said for the outside of their abode. For a while now, Animal Crossing players have been able to place furniture just outside their houses. The big catch here, however, is that most of Animal Crossing's furniture items aren't really intended for outdoor use, therefore making them look a little strange in a front garden setting. Animal Crossing: New Horizons gave players a little more options than previous games, with fences, outdoor seats, and a few other garden-specific items, but there's still one big area of exterior design that the series hasn't dived into.
When players first create their house in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, they're only given the option to change the house's overall color. Players will then be stuck with this design until they progress further in the game, and pay off a few of Tom Nook's loans. As of the New Horizons 2.0 update, paying off these property loans will eventually let players choose a different kind of mailbox, a different front door design, different roof options, and then finally, a different front-of-house design. While these options are nice, they're extremely limited, and this area is definitely something the next Animal Crossing game can improve upon.
In the next Animal Crossing game, players should have more freedom to customize the exterior of their house, and a lot of it should be available from the get-go. Players should be able to choose the house's construction material and the overall shape of the building. On top of that, players should be able to create their own designs for the front of their house, in a similar vein to creating items of clothing. For a series that's always trying to expand on its customization options, this seems like the natural next step.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for Nintendo Switch.
