Animal Crossing: New Horizons didn’t add any new villager animal species, giving New Horizons' sequel ample opportunity to add new kinds of real-world animals. Although New Horizons didn’t introduce any new villager species, the game added 16 new villagers to the series. The previous game in the series, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, added hamster and deer villagers to the series for the first time.
With New Leaf’s additions, there are 35 different species of animal villagers that can be categorized in the Animal Crossing series. Some may overlap realistically, such as penguins, ostriches, ducks, eagles, and chickens all being different species of bird while a general “bird” is also its own villager species. But within the world of Animal Crossing, all these villagers have very distinct appearances from each other and are recognizable at a glance due to their very unique silhouettes and heights.
While 35 different species can already seem like a lot, there are always more kinds of animals that villagers can be based on. Some animals are used as the basis for various Animal Crossing NPCs but haven’t yet been made into villagers, while other animals don’t appear as characters in the games at all. Whether the next Animal Crossing game is a direct sequel to the wildly successful New Horizons or simply another entry in the long-running series, there are plenty of animals that new villager species can be based on. There are so many possibilities, in fact, that fans have made their own Animal Crossing villagers based both on pre-existing species and entirely new ones. The cute style of the Animal Crossing games means almost anything can be made to work, opening up the possibilities for new villager species even further.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Sequel Should Add Shark Villagers
Sharks would be a fun addition to the Animal Crossing collection of villager species if they were stylized and made bipedal. Their body shape could be used to make different kinds of villagers, such as dolphins, similar to how Animal Crossing alligators and crocodiles are interchangeable, how some deer villagers more closely resemble antelopes, and how the ostrich villagers encom a wide variety of non-ostrich birds such as peafowl and flamingos. Although it may seem a bit awkward considering players can fish up sharks with their fishing rods, it’s still a possibility for shark villagers to exist. After all, Animal Crossing players can also fish up frogs even though there are 20 different frog villagers.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Sequel Should Have Bat Villagers
Bats come in all shapes and sizes, from the pom-pom-like Honduran white bat to the what-it-says-on-the-tin wrinkle-faced bat, and this diversity could translate well into an Animal Crossing villager species. Although real bats have a wide variety of body lengths, the Animal Crossing bat villager may have a smaller, rounder body and large, pointy ears to maximize their cute factor, similar to the mouse villagers. ittedly, many mouse villagers are among the series’ less popular, but this is usually due to individual design choices rather than the mouse villager base. Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0’s new villager Petri, for example, is well-loved for her smart and stylish design. Bat villagers that take a more cute and clever approach to their design would make fantastic additions to the series.
Lizards Would Be A Great Villager Species To Add After Animal Crossing: New Horizons
There are a lot of possibilities for lizard villagers in the Animal Crossing universe. Flick in New Horizons already serves as a great example of how stylish lizards can be in the Animal Crossing visual style. Different kinds of lizards can be designed by building on the same base. There are many opportunities for colorful, diverse lizard designs, both based on real lizard colorings and fantastical designs.
Both approaches can also incorporate embellishments such as frills and horns to reference all sorts of reptilian creatures from the realistic to the mythological. Colorful and adorable Animal Crossing villager designs like Judy the bear cub or Ione the squirrel have proven to be very popular, and similar approaches can easily be applied to lizard villagers when real lizards already have a wide variety of scale colors and patterns.
Axolotls Should Be Added As A Villager Species In New Horizons' Sequel
Although lizard villagers in Animal Crossing have the potential to be shaped into other kinds of animals, like the non-ostriches mentioned before, it may be better to keep lizards limited to reptiles and dragons. Their frills could potentially be shaped to make a villager or two look like an axolotl, but axolotls should really be their own villager species. Not only are axolotls not reptiles, but they’re also incredibly cute - which explains axolotls’ inclusion in other games such as Minecraft - warranting their own villager species altogether. So far, Dr. Shrunk is the only axolotl in the Animal Crossing universe, and a sequel to New Horizons could be a great opportunity to remedy this. Like lizards, axolotls would work wonderfully with all sorts of color schemes and would make a fun addition to the series.
There Should Be Fox Villagers In The Sequel To Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Foxes are a very popular animal, so it’s almost shocking that they haven’t been made into an Animal Crossing villager species yet. Thus far, Redd is the only fox to appear in the Animal Crossing series. His rivalry with Tom Nook is based on the traditional rivalry that is said to exist between the kitsune, or Japanese fox spirit - the inspiration for many characters across many games, such as Gorou in Genshin Impact - and the tanuki, the Japanese raccoon dog.
In myth, these creatures can shapeshift and oftentimes are at odds with each other, both being mischievous in their own ways. In some such encounters, the tanuki may be portrayed as slightly more heroic or sympathetic, and this is represented in the Animal Crossing series as well: Redd is infamous for selling counterfeit paintings and overall shady behavior. On the other hand, while Tom Nook is notorious for his expensive loans, he never charges players interest, and they can always pay him back at their own pace rather than at required intervals.
This rivalry may explain why foxes haven’t been added as villagers in Animal Crossing yet, but their popularity as a species is too great to ignore. Some series NPCs share their species with villagers, such as Animal Crossing’s cat NPCs Rover and Blanca. It’s possible for foxes to appear in the sequel to Animal Crossing: New Horizons as their own villager species while keeping the rivalry between Tom Nook and Redd. With a cute base design, fox villagers would surely rival the popularity of other well-loved villager species, such as squirrels, cats, rabbits, and wolves.
Sloth Villagers Should Be Added To Animal Crossing After New Horizons
Sloths are another animal that would make a fantastic villager species in an Animal Crossing: New Horizons sequel. Leif is an adorable sloth NPC who shows that sloths in the Animal Crossing style are guaranteed to be cute and lovable. It would be amusing to see the different villager personalities on the sloths in addition to the clever designs they could each have.