It has been over a year since Animal Crossing: New Horizons released for the Nintendo Switch, inspiring gamers all over the world to create and share unique island homes and collect numerous special villagers. While there have been many exciting events to engage in and collections to complete, New Horizons' gameplay is starting to slow down for many fans of the series. A lack of large content updates, and gameplay goals that are primarily based on completing collections and upgrades, has left longterm playability in New Horizons questionable. To help solve this issue, Nintendo could introduce themed DLC expansion packs, allowing fans to personally tailor their Animal Crossing experience to their own interests.
DLC packs have become a popular way to introduce large content expansion in many modern games. Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town DLC has even brought back characters from previous games, so fans can romance or befriend personal favorites while playing the newest title. Animal Crossing could use DLC to bring back past content still missing from New Horizons or even implement popular mechanics from other slice-of-life games.
The biggest benefit to DLC expansions is that they aren't mandatory to enjoy the base game. Unlike updates, which must be downloaded by all players in order to continue playing, fans who don't feel the game needs anything more to be interesting could simply choose to ignore the release of DLC expansions. However, for those who are looking for something new, expansion packs allow customization and experimentation with new content and give developers the ability to take a risk on new mechanics to see if they are worth implementing in upcoming games. This could greatly improve Animal Crossing's long-term playability, or even entice new gamers to pick up a copy and try the game out. Below are several DLC expansion packs that could improve Animal Crossing gameplay.
During the Fall update of 2020, New Horizons added a pumpkin farming mechanic that was widely enjoyed by most players. New Horizons modeled the care of the pumpkin patches off its existing flower mechanics, with players planting the pumpkins and having the option to water them. Without watering the plants, a single pumpkin would grow every few days, but a regular dousing would allow up to three pumpkins to populate. Many were hopeful that farming would return in the spring with new crop options, but unfortunately, it appears the mechanic will only include pumpkins for the foreseeable future.
Because of the overall success of the pumpkin mechanic, a farming DLC expansion pack for Animal Crossing: New Horizons could be particularly successful. The pack could include new tools for players to craft or purchase from Nook's Cranny, a wide variety of crop seeds, and the ability to breed certain crops for rare colorations or sizes. The DLC could also introduce a number of new DIY recipes for clothing, decorations, and food. Crops grown could be used to pay off debts, or even be used in a DLC pack-exclusive harvest festival event a few times a year.
A mechanic that has been missing from Animal Crossing: New Horizons since the game's release is the ability to cook food. While some food items can be purchased during certain events to use as decoration, and certain items like fruit can be eaten to give players a boost for moving trees, the use of food and food items remains frustratingly sparse in New Horizons. By adding a cooking expansion pack, players could be given the opportunity to craft delicious treats that could grant special buffs to increase luck while fishing or mining. Cooked goods could also be sold to earn Bells.
An Animal Crossing food and cooking DLC could enable players to create a full, working kitchen from the cooking appliances currently only useful as decorations. In this kitchen, they would be able to cook a variety of items on the stove, in the oven, or using a microwave. The DLC could also include a grocery store, where players could purchase ingredients not available while foraging on their islands. To make cooking more exciting, a special DLC event could be introduced allowing players to engage in a cook-off with the town's villagers as the judges.
Currently mining in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is particularly limited. Players can hit rocks to obtain resources like iron ore, clay, stone, and gold ore. These items can be used to craft decorations, or upgrade tools if the player has the DIY recipes needed. However, there are many other ways Nintendo could expand on the mining aspect of New Horizons, and make ore more valuable to players. A mining DLC expansion could introduce new ore types, gemstones, and tool upgrades specifically designed to make mining more fun to engage in.
To allow players to find new rare minerals and ore types, Animal Crossing would need to introduce a new mining system. This could be done by adding a new location like Harv's Island for players to travel to using the Dodo Airlines. This island could have several mines varying in difficulty level.
To get to the next mine, players would need to reach the bottom of the previous one. The mines could take after Story of Seasons, with rare ore types spawning on deeper levels, and requiring upgraded tools to harvest. The DLC pack could also add DIY recipes for jewelry like diamond crowns or ruby rings to give as gifts or sell for a profit.
While any of the above options would help expand already existing content included in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, DLC packs would also be a great way to introduce crossover content between New Horizons and Nintendo franchises like The Legend of Zelda or Pokémon. Expansion packs may also be the perfect opportunity to add a collection of new villagers. New Horizons has introduced several new villagers already, including the popular cat villager Raymond and the brightly-colored bear cub Judy, and would likely benefit from several more new faces for fans to find on mystery islands. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Animal Crossing: New Horizons has plans to add DLC expansion packs any time soon, and the game may continue to rely on event updates to keep gameplay interesting for the months to come.
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