Familiar Faces
By this point, if you’re playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’ve likely already realized that a number of iconic faces from the series haven’t made the cut this time. Crazy Redd, Brewster, Joan, Tortimer and Kapp’n all for one reason or another just haven’t shown up on Tom Nook’s deserted island getaway.
While some have naturally been replaced by their offspring in the case of Joan the Turnip Seller, others just haven’t made the cut for whatever reason.
This DLC would see the return of a handful of these creatures. Crazy Redd would stop by with his paintings and rare furniture, Brewster would set-up shop in the Museum basement, Blathers would extend the building to include a new Paintings wing, Tortimer could just rock up offering words of wisdom and cool furniture, and Joan… she could show up spontaneously to offer even better turnip prices than her successor Daisy Mae.
We wouldn’t anticipate this DLC to be paid, instead coming as part of a free seasonal update once Nintendo’s got the first few festive events out of the way. Is it likely? Probably not. Does that make us want this any less? Absolutely not.
Furniture Packs
There’s an absolute ton of furniture in New Horizons, but that doesn’t mean that more couldn’t be added in.
We’re not being fussy here, either. Add in the Froggy Chair (because dammit we need this iconic chair!), and any other bits of furniture from previous games that didn’t make the cut this time around.
Even better, however, would be furniture sets based around popular Nintendo series. I’m talking the Master Sword, Hylian Shield and Rupees from Zelda, or even third-party crossovers like… I don’t know, Doom Eternal? Let’s get Isabelle the Doom Guy statue she needs to be her best self.
Villager Packs
One of my biggest gripes with Animal Crossing: New Horizons so far is that the villagers kinda suck. Part of this has been down to the fact my luck has been terrible. I don’t currently have a single villager that I actually like, and conversations with them feel like the most boring in the series thus far.
Perhaps that’s just me growing up, but one sentence conversations were seldom par for the course in previous titles, but a frequent occurrence in New Horizons.
The Villager DLC pack would not only add in a bunch of cool, new villagers for players to check out — including the elusive monkey villagers from Wild World — but would give them a new lease of life in new dialogue and new ways to interact with your villagers.
Considering your anthropomorphic buddies are one of the big focal points of the series, a Villager DLC would definitely see them return to their rightful place as the jewel in the Animal Crossing crown in New Horizons.
Bugs, Fish, Fossils & Paintings
I can’t get enough of collecting all these damn critters for Blathers. It’s always been the real meat of my Animal Crossing experiences, trying to fill out the museum as best I can. I even place the classic rule on myself of donating anything new I find to the museum rather than selling for some quick bells.
Problem is, once you’ve spent an entire year in the game, experiencing the different seasons and the bugs and fish you can catch, it can get a little old. A year’s often enough to fully upgrade your house, your museum will be at the very least near-complete, and your penchant for fishing, bug catching, and diggin’ up dino bones will begin to wane.
So what better way to revitalize a core part of the Animal Crossing experience than by releasing a swarm of new critters to catch, fossils to find, and even paintings to purchase.
I’ve already moaned about Crazy Redd’s exclusion from New Horizons a bit further up, but this would be another ideal moment to see these potentially forged works of art back into the fold.
Multiplayer Activity Packs
If there’s one major complaint to level against Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the moment, it’s that its multiplayer is poor.
When you finally get you and a friend or two on the same island — which can be an ordeal in and of itself because of the Switch’s makeshift online service — you’ll aimlessly walk around, struggling to figure out what to do. Because that’s the thing, in a game where you don’t have a specific objective… what do you do with friends?
At this moment in time, you have to make your own fun. Some players have been doing Swap Shops, others have done makeshift fish or bug-catching competitions, and you can even do a ‘Capture the Flag’ style game if there’s enough of you. But there’s nothing in the game itself to actually help you do these things.
It’d be great to have just a small toolbox of multiplayer features to help us partake in activities with our buddies. A timer that can be set so everyone knows when their time is up in a fishing comp, or little flags or markers that can be placed around the island for players to pick up. Heck, even letting us explore random islands with friends via Nook Miles Tickets would be welcome.
Please Nintendo, just give us a way to have more fun with our friends on our islands.
What would you like to see in the form of Animal Crossing: New Horizons DLC? Let us know your ideas in the comments section below!
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