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Ten Things I Want to See in Animal Crossing Wii U

by Alex Culafi - November 17, 2014, 5:31 am EST
Total comments: 9

NES games, 8-player visits, and more!

It feels like the Wii U version of Animal Crossing is due for an announcement. Thanks to Miyamoto’s recent Amiibo statements, in which he directly suggested implementation into a future Animal Crossing game, there’s very little doubt that the Wii U Animal Crossing is being developed right now. New Leaf finished development in late 2012, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there were a new game on the way for a 2015 announcement and late 2016 release. So of course, in anticipation for this, I came up with a list of ten features I really want to see in the next installment of Animal Crossing.

10) Annual Holiday Updates

Even though many of us played New Leaf for a very long time, most of the beautiful social gatherings died out in about six months, and almost all of them within a year. In the same way some online games offer special item drops and activities during holiday seasons, I think Animal Crossing could benefit from a new event every Christmas Eve alongside a “Holiday 2014” item set that can only be obtained through that event. This could only happen a few times per year, but I like the idea of updates that give people (even time travelers) something new to do. Speaking of which…

9) Limit Time Traveling

Time traveling in Animal Crossing refers to the act of messing with your system’s internal clock (as well as the in-game clock) to move days forward whenever you want. There are light consequences for doing so (like getting weeds in your town), but the act allows you to see holidays and reset shops as often as you want. I’ve done this in every single Animal Crossing as a means to play an expedited version of the game. However, I feel like there should be new checks and balances to limit time traveling as much as possible.

One way to do this is to make it so Animal Crossing Wii U syncs to an online clock once per day. You can still play Animal Crossing with the online on your Wii U disabled and time travel as much as you want, but it provides a greater consequence to have the game adjust the date and time (maybe back or forward several years if you get crazy enough) whenever you turn the online back on.

Maybe this is a little aggressive, hence why it’s #9, but I want the game to go out of its way to keep players playing on the same time clock. This idea falls apart since some people only get the chance to play early in the day or late at night, though New Leaf’s mayor feature was a step in the right direction towards making that no longer an issue.

8) Story Quests

I’m not saying Animal Crossing should be a story driven game, but what if there were little story quests to add context to new villagers every time they move into a town? How many times has a dog wearing bandages or an Egyptian pharaoh cat moved into your town only to never explain their unique circumstances? They can be silly stories with no emotional impact, but a few item quests and mini-games with some dialogue of them telling their story, and maybe giving you their picture at the end of it, would make your neighbors feel more like, well, neighbors.

7) Fully Visit Friend’s Towns

I want to fully use my friend’s town while he’s not there using the power of the Nintendo Network. There would have to be a few ground rules: No tools other than a bug net and fishing pole are allowed, and no stores can be shopped at on a given day until the town’s owner has shopped there, but otherwise the experience would be exactly like visiting a friend’s town in real life.

6) Playable (Fake) NES Games

Since Virtual Console makes actual bonus NES games impossible, the next best thing,or perhaps something even better, is to include “NES games” that are Animal Crossing-style hacks or remakes of Nintendo originals. Redd’s Excitebike, Super Timmy and Tommy Brothers, The Legend of Pelly, you name it. It would probably have to be a handful of levels or areas at most, but the idea can even redirect traffic to the eShop with an NES Remix-style link in each game.

5) Bring the City Back

New Leaf did a good thing in taking everything from the City Folk city and reapplying it to a town area that isn’t a bus ride and a long loading screen away. On the other hand, why not have a city too? I like the idea of a second Animal Crossing location to travel to outside of towns because it makes the greater world feel more alive.

How about a shopping mall with five or six specialized boutiques that sell items you can’t get from Nook (while changing stock more than once per season)? How about more events like the comedy shows to get expressions from? How about concerts from animals other than K.K.? I understand and appreciate the value of making things more compact, but I want my Animal Crossing world to be as sprawling as possible.

4) Enormous Online Auction Exchange

Remember the bad auction house from City Folk? I want to buy items from people over the Internet in a way that doesn’t require me reactivating my dinosaur of a GameFAQs account, and I want a way to do it efficiently in game. The new auction house could allow you to search any item in your catalog, including ones you can’t rebuy normally from Nook, or any item that you can search so long as you know the exact case-sensitive name of it. As a rule, the auction house should only open up after you’ve paid off your house completely, mainly so people can’t get crazy good items extremely early.

Creating a living eBay market for Animal Crossing items can even go beyond selling and auctioning items. Let’s say someone’s town is buying turnips (AKA the in-game version of stock) for 782 bells each. If the player puts up a listing on the auction house people can bid for the privilege of selling their turnips in the lucky player’s town. The game should handle all transactions too, so the owed amount is automatically deducted and transferred from the auction winner’s profits to your bank account.

3) Random Wi-Fi Encounters (Animal Crossing Roulette)

There’s no way this will ever happen, but I want random encounters a la Omegle where you can connect to a random player’s town and chat with them (full voice and text chat) and properly visit. The scumbags of the world would ruin this for everyone, but the potential for fun is incredible.

2) 8-player Visits

Pull a Smash Bros. Wii U and make 8-player online play a reality. It probably isn’t feasible or even possible; even so, think of the hide-and-seek possibilities

1) Animal Crossing Dark Souls

Hear me out. My ultimate goal for Animal Crossing Wii U is to make it an online, living world at its central core. To do that, Animal Crossing should do what many games should and take cues from Dark Souls on how to create a persistent living world.

In Dark Souls, you can leave text messages on the ground that can show up in other player’s worlds and act as hints, banter, advice, or general silliness. Why not do the same in Animal Crossing via Miiverse? One message could be “go to the fountain at 2 a.m. for a surprise,” while another could be, “check the nose to see if Redd’s Mona Lisa painting is a fake.” Alternatively, you could send a letter with an item that goes to 10 random players and you can see if any write or send anything back.

In Dark Souls players can invade other player’s worlds and attempt to kill them for loot. In Animal Crossing maybe you can leave your “Tourist Gate” open and let people come in with full access. Sometimes you make a friend, sometimes they come dressed as Santa Claus and give you gifts, and sometimes an axe-fiend makes sure you lose all of your trees.

In Animal Crossing: Living Life on Wii U, anything is possible.

Talkback

Triforce HermitNovember 17, 2014

I demand that if the #1 happens, there be a version of the Darkmoon Covenant where restitution is carried out and all your items turn into gyroids. Every single one.

buttleNovember 17, 2014

I would like to sell my house and move towns.  The animals get to do it.  I'd also love for the towns to have different sizes and to just completely change up.

ejamerNovember 17, 2014

Numbers 6-8 are all items I really want to see happen.


Getting some collectible video games to use in your house would be awesome, even if they are just silly little mini-games and not real NES titles.  That was arguably one of the coolest parts from the original game, and has been sorely missed ever since.


Odds of happening?  I'm not holding my breath.


Persistent towns existing in the cloud and able to be accessed (by trusted friends) in a limited manner even when the owner isn't around would also be great. Animal Crossing is supposed to be a communication game, so anytime the ability to communicate is expanded that's a good thing in my opinion.


Odds of happening?  Hahaha... Nintendo doing a cloud-based game?  (Honestly, I'm not really even sure I really want this, since it would mean Animal Crossing dies off when cloud support is removed.)

And the idea of story quests - or really any villager requests that aren't three-minute fetch quests or similarly random and silly nonsense - is awesome. Right now villagers always ask for the same random, silly things over and over. Giving each villager a unique "story quest" that they could ask you about once you are friends would be a great way to add character and give players something interesting to discover.


Odds of happening?  Seems very possible, but would require a moderate amount of effort from Nintendo. I'll cross my fingers now.

Spak-SpangNovember 17, 2014

You know the one thing I would like to see happen...would require a drastic change in the game.


I would love to see Aging.  I would love for time to have real effect in the game.  Now I know that means the game would have to be designed differently, but how cool would it be to see your neighbors and yourself grow older in the game? 


So how would I implement aging in this game.  I would 1) Sync the game to clock that can't be tampered with.  Then when you boot up the game, you could tell the game what speed you want to play the game at.  Normal, 4X Times the Speed, and 8 or 16 X Speed.  When you up speed the game takes this into account and adjusts the daily activities you need to do...and the daily relationships.  But also if you speed through too fast you may miss something, or people may move out because the townie is too busy for them...and other characters may move in wanting to have a busier life.  Basically customizing your character interactions with how you play the game.


Another thing I would like to see is jobs.  Now they could be simple jobs, and designed around more mini-game type things for fun.  But the idea of even competing with Nook in creating a store sounds like fun. 



Ian SaneNovember 17, 2014

What quickly turned me off of the Animal Crossing series was that the sequels came across as re-releases with a few new features included.  The Gamecube one was effectively that but I figured at the time it was because the N64 one wasn't released here so I figured that was just their way to release it to this market.  I didn't think for a second that making changes an inch at a time would be the future of the series.  Maybe it's improved?  I don't know.  Once I found out the details of the DS and Wii versions I stopped paying attention.

So for me to pay attention again I need Animal Crossing 2.  I want it full 3D like you're playing a console Zelda game, instead of being restricted to an overhead view.  Basically I want them to start from scratch taking the basic concept and redeveloping it fully to make full use of the Wii U hardware.  What would AC be NOW if you first created it in 2014 instead of just tacking on to a template from 2000?

Another feature I would like is the ability to not have to play the game in real time.  As a grown-up I don't have the time to play such a game they way it's "meant" to be played.  So why not allow me to play it with videogame time like Majora's Mask?  Let me choose how long a day is and be able to cater the game to my playing style.  Why do we have to time travel by goofing with system settings?  Just let us do it in game!  If I'm going to, you know, spend Christmas with my family instead of a damn videogame why can't Nintendo be flexible with letting me celebrate Animal Crossing Christmas when it is convenient?  I gave up the first game because I realized I was coordinating real life around it and that was idiotic.

Spak-SpangNovember 17, 2014

Ian Sane:  I kinda agree with the real time idea...which is why I thought of sped up time as a good compromise.

Mop it upNovember 18, 2014

I don't think most of these will happen. Numbers 8, 7, 5, and 4 seem like the only ones Nintendo might do, as these are ideas that already existed in previous games in a more limited form.

I'm not sure what I want out of the series, but after playing City Folk and then New Leaf, I know that I need there to be more/better/different stuff than what New Leaf offered in order to get me interested in the game again. If my friend didn't "force" me to get New Leaf then I wouldn't have.

ObbyDentNovember 18, 2014

I want the ability to be able to own my own business.

AVNovember 18, 2014

I posted about this a few months ago but I'll include it within this discussison too.


1) When you pick up money's from floor it goes automatically into your wallet (no need to go inventory, than drag to wallet) 2) Earn money from winning fishing /bug tournaments and more ways overall ways to make money easier  3) Auto stack fruits and items in inventory4) Tools have a specific section in inventory so you don't accidentally sell them and don't take room5)View other people recycle shop and buy items from them or have massive online auction house system for selling products6) More random weather and town events like a tornado happening or cat burglar in town 7) Able to send letters to best friends in other towns Expand housing to include a backyard and front yard, you can have pool, porch, trees, fences, yard furniture9) Better way for villagers to give you works projects 10) More works projects and interactivity 11) Allow product placement from big companies like ikea, mcdonalds, levi12) Grid like system to see where works projects and items will be so you know how it fits before you put it down 13) Add nintendodogs and cats to the game just take the entire game and put inside of Animal crossing, need to buy home owners insurance to protect furniture, walk dog around in your town, pet shop in town, you need to potty train them or else poop all over the house 14) My town tv where you showcase your house and town and post to YouTube 15) Allow you to optionally have same speaking found in tamachaci life for animals 16) more variety to what villagers say and ask you to do and what they talk about17) Better Facebook, Miiverse and Twitter integration 18) Furniture items are playable, dart board is mini game you can play with friends or by yourself19) More mini games for island and diversity on who lives on island20) Give Isabel her own nice house have the shop animals have more lives and walk around town and do stuffThoughts? Ideas?

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