It’s Time For Animal Crossing to Stop Taking a Less is More Approach With One Feature

Nintendo’s Animal Crossing games have become well-loved for their laid back interpretation of the Life Sim genre, but with the genre in a boom, it might be time for a change. Animal Crossing can remain an experience for those who want a simple cozy game, but one mechanic might do better with a more in-depth gameplay system.

Animal Crossing is one of the most popular games in the Life Sim genre, and with good reason. Starting with the earliest entries on the N64 and Gamecube, Animal Crossing has become known for its slow-burn gameplay style, which at the time was a big departure from what players were used to. But as the genre has grown, players have come to expect more from each new game in the series. Rumors suggest that the next Animal Crossing game will add plenty of new content, but those additions shouldn’t come at the cost of existing game mechanics. One activity that many players focus on is planting just the right kinds of plants and flowers in their garden, town, or island. While the current gardening system in the game works fine, an overhaul of the mechanic could lead to a better overall experience for players focused on their plants.

Animal Crossing’s Gardening Doesn’t Make Sense

Over time, farming and gardening have become arguably the most popular activity in the Life Sim genre. Games like Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, and the upcoming Tales of the Shire have placed more of an emphasis on the work that players do while enjoying their cozy life. While Animal Crossing has avoided the work element, a wise choice given its emphasis on relaxation, it has slowly made its gardening mechanic better. But the current system simply doesn’t work as well as it should. Though Animal Crossing is a game parents and children can enjoy together, the gardening system is at times too simple, and at times too hard.

Currently, in order to find the perfect kind of flowers, players need to cross-pollinate them by planting certain colors of the same species near different ones. After planting, they are left to water them daily and wait for them to grow in order to find out if they’ve succeeded in creating a new variety. With all the combinations, a guide to cross-pollination in Animal Crossing is almost required to achieve the desired result. And yet, once the flowers have grown, the job is done. The contrast between the difficulty of breeding new plants and the simplicity of their upkeep leads to the mechanic not quite feeling complete. If players want to reap the reward of excellent plants, they should be required to put in a bit more work for them.

What Animal Crossing’s Gardening Can Learn From Other Games

Even the smallest of Life Sim games now seem to feature gardening or farming mechanics. Sometimes they are a key part of the gameplay loop, like in Stardew Valley, and other times, like in Animal Crossing, they are mostly there to create decoration, but even games with less emphasis on growing things have a cohesive system for doing so. Since Animal Crossing is one of the first games to pioneer the Farming Sim genre, it might be difficult for Nintendo to admit that it needs help from its predecessors, but newer games offer plenty of inspiration for a new gardening system. Of course, new mechanics are always in development, but Animal Crossing can’t forget about improving its existing systems to keep the game fresh.

For an example of a new Life Sim mechanic done right, players need look no further than Tales of the Shire, which has embraced cooking in a way other Life Sims have neglected. It also seems to feature quite an extensive gardening system, as crops are needed in order to cook. Perhaps Animal Crossing can learn from Tales of the Shire’s cooking and gardening systems and use that game’s advancements to further its own mechanics. In this way, by looking to the future, Animal Crossing can improve upon its past.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the fifth major game in the Animal Crossing series. This slice-of-life simulation game tasks the player with developing an abandoned island into a small town for its resident villagers. The game was released at the start of worldwide lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which catapulted it into massive success. It’s currently the best selling game of all time in Japan.

Systems

Released

March 20, 2020

Developer(s)

Nintendo EPD

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer , Local Multiplayer

Engine

Havok

ESRB

E for Everyone: Comic Mischief

How Long To Beat

100 Hours

Steam Deck Compatibility

no

X|S Enhanced

no

Expansions

Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Happy Home Paradise

Cross Save

no

Cross-Platform Play

no

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