Things I Wish They Hadn't Changed in Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing is a (sometimes) amazing franchise; it has many features that cannot be found in other titles, an addictive game loop, and tons of charming aspects. However, despite how incredible it may be, it pales in comparison to the behemoth of a game it could have been had the developers just left some of its best qualities untouched. Here are some of the things I wish Nintendo had kept from the original entry!

Jerkish Attitudes

I'm not going to lie to you, when I first heard fans of the original game complain about the boring and simple personalities the villagers have nowadays, both my wife and I scoffed. How could you mind something that is so cute? Especially if you ignore their forgetful repetition of dialogue. This all came melting away during the first few days of my attempts at playing the original game, as I became immediately enamoured with the abuse Peewee and Mint were dishing out to me. 

There was something very charming and hilarious about the fact that I could never anticipate the amount of insolence and impudence the villagers could reach. It would genuinely shock me how much of a jerk some of these characters were! And as the days went on, I fell more in love with it because, whilst Peewee is very upfront about hating people, Mint has to be triggered into being abusive but will be vile and downright cruel when she is. It didn't stop there, as I soon came to understand how rotten Nibbles was, showing a nice and welcoming front and then blinding you with theft. If that wasn't bad enough, she actually encouraged me to scam my friends. 

I've had an actual war with these villagers in a way I never did in Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I've made both Nibbles and Mint fall into a pit, thrown a shirt I got from Gracie into the dumping area after she was an arse, and I've answered mean things when I've had the chance to with some of the dialogues. My life has felt like a TV drama with just the week I've been playing.

Interactive Situations

Because Animal Crossing is such a hideously old game, I thought it was going to be quite lacking in comparison to the newer titles, especially New Horizon with its terraforming. Although it doesn't have any cool gimmicks like those, the features the original title had made the game feel much more like an actual town and life sim and less of a decor fest. Things like Tom Nook's monthly raffles or the villagers’ many minigames made them feel more alive and real to me than just having them be yet another decoration for my town. I've only had one raffle so far and I freaking lost it — much to my dismay too, as one of the items would have fit gorgeously in my Japanese style home. 

A couple more examples of these realistic interactive features was being able to ask Mabel for suggestions on what to wear, or the animals posting their own notes on the notice board. It wasn't just me writing things about Nook behind his back, it was also villagers letting the rest of the town know that they had hidden a little gift in one of the acres of the town.

More Villagers Per Town

I am used to the 10 villager limit from the newer games and I'm also used to having to work for a few of them to actually fill up the town. In the original Animal Crossing, however, it felt like every day I was finding more and more villagers. One day I found Apollo, stopped, opened the map, and counted the houses because I couldn't believe we weren't already at 10. 13 villagers I had and, according to the wiki, there were two more to find. I loved it so much because the town actually felt like a town, having villagers spread out everywhere I went. Sure, I probably won't talk to nor interact with all of them because there are going to be 15 freaking animals in the town, but that's realistic. 

Town-like Areas

We all know the typical things the franchise offers, such as the museum, Brewster's cafe, and the community centre... but do you know what is missing? A police station and a dumping ground. It sounds silly, underwhelming, and kind of a waste of town space, but without it, I wouldn't have been told by Peewee that I could go digging through the rubbish, especially since I'm "used to being filthy".

Jokes aside, these two features of the game are quite fun to interact with, because you'll be given a cool, random item (or not). Keep it, sell it, gift it through the mail, or even just walk around and wait until an animal asks for it in exchange for another cool, random item. 

That's it for what I've found to be missing from the newer entries of the franchise in just a week of playing. I've yet to experience a single event in the game or meet all the random special guests. Heck, I haven't even checked out the supposed ghost that haunts my town at night, causing Peewee to lose hours of peaceful sleep.

If you're a fan of the franchise you might want to consider trying out the very first game. If you're wondering whether it might be a good idea or not, you can check out our article about whether Animal Crossing holds up in 2022! As for me, I'm going back to finish my day in Animal Crossing.

Have you played the first one? Will you? Which game do you think is the best entry? Feel free to tell me in a comment below, tweet at me, or even join us in the official GameGrin Discord!