Summary

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been a massive success, but there are still some features and concepts that didn't make it into the game.
• Expanding some mechanics could alleviate annoyances that currently exist in New Horizons.
• Bringing back classic Animal Crossing features that were cut would help the series maintain all of its strengths.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons includes a lot of Animal Crossing's best elements, but it's definitely not without its limitations. A lot of different concepts and features have shown up in previous games in the franchise, and a select number of great ideas ended up being cut from New Horizons. It does add plenty of its own features, but some of those could still use a few tweaks to access their full potential.

All the same, New Horizons has been enormously successful, and the surge of interest in the Animal Crossing franchise should ensure that another game isn't too far off in the future. With the successor to the Nintendo Switch, a follow-up to New Horizons in the next few years seems like a sure bet. This could be the perfect opportunity to bring back Animal Crossing features that made previous games great or introduce new ideas that build off the strengths of New Horizons, and there are a lot of interesting concepts to toss around as possibilities.

10 Expanded Bridge Options Open Up The Environment

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is full of uneven terrain and winding creeks, and although it's possible to even out the playing field a good bit through the New Horizons terraforming feature, embracing the irregularity of an island can make it look a lot more interesting. Actually navigating it, however, isn't always as easy. There's a limit to how many bridges and stairs can be placed on an island, making practical considerations potentially stop short of the creativity.

Unlocking this limit would be a nice way to open up the art of customizing islands or towns even further in the next Animal Crossing, even if some locales might end up embracing more features than reasonable. Another good addition would be enabling bridges to cross over land, connecting two high points that don't have a river underneath. Most players might never butt up against the current limit as is, but more freedom is almost always a good thing.

9 Item Interactions Make Animal Crossing More Alive

With the increased focus on outdoor decoration in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the ways in which setting up objects and scenes around the island can still be lacking have become more evident. One obvious shortcoming is the overall lack of interactions between villagers and items. They're perfectly willing to do some basic things like sit down on benches, but recreational gear and other objects tend to go unused.

The mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is already beating New Horizons in this regard, so adding more interactions of this nature certainly seems feasible, and it would help incentivize the art of arranging a town for those who haven't yet embraced that aspect. Another nice boost to outdoor decoration would be the ability to use a toolset similar to the interior decoration system, making island customization less of a hassle overall.

8 Online Banking Would Be Seriously Convenient

Animal Crossing: New Horizons centers a lot of features around the NookPhone, a smartphone that provides access to a number of island services and basic gameplay functions. It's already a pretty robust feature, but not every possibility that it opens up is fully explored.

One great option for expanded NookPhone features would be an online banking app, something that's already been proven to be incredibly useful in real life. Considering how large of a role finance plays in Animal Crossing, being able to handle key transactions on the go could save a lot of pointless trips. It's not a big deal as a missing feature, but it's one that simply makes a lot of sense for a future inclusion. An Automatic Bell Dispenser already serves as something of a halfway point, so there's little reason not to take things all the way.

7 Bulk Crafting Would Save A Lot Of Time

Crafting is a major Animal Crossing addition in New Horizons, but it doesn't feel like a fully thought-out feature. In its current state, it feels like a lot of extra menu navigation for minimal reward, adding fluff to basic tasks like acquiring tools or throwing together decorations. Although crafting something every once in a while isn't too much of a hassle, it can seriously bog things down whenever a major operation is in order.

Having an option to craft things in bulk could significantly reduce the amount of time wasted in the crafting system, especially when it comes to repetitive tasks like making bait for fishing. The only option to expedite things in New Horizons is to speed things up by mashing the A button, which does help a bit but leaves much to be desired.

6 Building Expansions Make Progression More Meaningful

A lot of progression in Animal Crossing is traditionally built around an onward and upward approach, slowly expanding both the Villager's own house and facilities like Nook's Cranny. In New Horizons, however, the previous heights of some of these expansions end up being downgraded. None of it is devastating, but it does feel like a minor step backward.

Being able to slowly transform Nook's Cranny from a hole in the wall to a thriving superstore would be a gratifying return to form in a New Horizons sequel. Additional room sizes in the Villager's home are also slightly smaller in New Horizons than in New Leaf, and regaining the option for larger rooms would be nice. A good balance could be found in the option to choose room sizes when paying off the mortgage, as the more spacious approach isn't necessarily for everyone.

5 Gold Tools Should Be Permanent In Animal Crossing

One re-addition to Animal Crossing that would be incredibly easy would be gold tools that never break, which used to be a standard reward for completing the requirements for each upgrade. Getting a gold tool has never had a standard level of difficulty, and could require anything from simply burying a shovel for a day in Wild World to helping Gulliver 30 times for the same reward in New Horizons. At the end of the line, however, the trophy should be something that can be kept and used forever, or the process feels like a complete waste of time.

In New Horizons, golden tools get a buff of double durability compared to iron versions, but they still end up invariably breaking. More can always be crafted with more gold, but it feels punishing for no reason. It's another example of the crafting system feeling like a bit of a forced inconvenience, and considering how easy it would be to add permanent golden weapons back in, it's one choice that the next Animal Crossing should definitely make.

4 Communal Storage Would Be A Huge Help

Despite its variety of missing elements, Animal Crossing: New Horizons does still have a significant number of items, and dealing with storage can sometimes be a hassle. There are a lot of different ways to rework storage, but one useful option would be a communal storage box outside the home for anyone on the island to easily access. Tying certain features directly into storage could also be useful, like making crafting pull from storage to streamline the process.

At the other end of the storage conundrum, it would also be nice to have the option to sort storage more appropriately. Being able to dedicate wardrobes to clothing and refrigerators to food, for example, could help make various pieces of furniture feel more meaningful in their intent. A toggle to switch between appropriate local storage and the full scope of stored items could balance these concepts and potentially make for a better solution overall.

3 Additional Furniture Sets Improve Interior Decoration

Whether going for one cohesive look or mixing and matching in creative ways, collecting items from various furniture sets is a huge part of interior decoration in Animal Crossing. New Horizons has a decent amount of variety to offer in this regard, but it doesn't carry over every classic set from previous games. It isn't necessary for the full library of furniture to appear in every game, but a lot of fan favorites are missing in New Horizons, and adding some back in could make interior decoration a lot more fun.

The 2.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons helped a lot in this regard, adding back some iconic options like the beloved Froggy Chair. Continuing down this road in the next game is definitely the way to go, and having a more complete array at launch than the initially anemic selection in New Horizons feels like a must.

2 More Multiplayer Features Would Go A Long Way

Multiplayer is one of the biggest selling points in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, especially considering that the game released at a time when a lot of people were desperate for social interaction. When it comes to the basic concept of relaxing with friends, New Horizons knocks it out of the park, as hanging out on other islands can always be a great time. In of actual activities to enjoy, however, New Horizons could have definitely done a lot more.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf already offered a better look at how good multiplayer could be, with more distinct gameplay possibilities and some co-op mini-games to enjoy on Tortimer's island. Throwing a few minigames back into the mix could go a long way in a New Horizons successor, especially if it retains the increase to eight possible players in co-op.

1 Complex Villager Dialogue Needs To Return

For a lot of people, interacting with villagers is the main draw of Animal Crossing, and New Horizons definitely doesn't represent a series peak in that regard. Compared to New Leaf, the villagers just don't talk about all that much. Starting up a conversation just to hear the same off-hand remark about a visitor to the island for the fiftieth time is consistently disappointing, and it can seriously distract from the game's stronger features.

Going back further than New Leaf, the earlier games also tended to have more distinct villager personalities. In New Horizons, villagers spend most of their conversations being blandly nice, which can get old quickly. Adding better dialogue options and giving villagers more unique activities to do would inject a lot of life into an Animal Crossing: New Horizons successor, bringing the series back to one of its past strengths.