Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer, the the interior decorator and home designer’s feral fantasy comes out in just ten days. Those familiar with the Animal Crossing series will feel right at home with many characters from the past games returning according to IGN. In fact there is claimed total of three hundred different animals, all with unique personalities which equals unique designs, styles, themes, colors, and even holiday seasonal build options. Ben Davis from Destructoid says it best as for why so many characters is a good thing.
“designing homes for some of the more offbeat villagers like the mad scientists, wrestling fanatics, and criminal masterminds is really fun.”
Happy Home Designer has creativity and building done right. If you’ve previously played animal crossing hand moving furniture and being able to drop it in the right place was extremely difficult and cumbersome. I personally always got frustrated even getting the right camera angle to see it and make sure other items weren’t blocking my view or on top of each other. According to IGN in this one you can simply use the stylus to place furniture with an see through sample displayed before you actually place it. You won’t just be building houses either but the town exterior and even public places like hospitals are designed the way you see fit.
From the videos I’ve watched on destructoid, it appears that there is an endless amount of home styles even before you enter the house. These range from roof colors, to plants and fences on the outside of the house. You can have a a homey little cottage, a Miami mansion, an Arabian themed castle, and everything in between.
Another perk of the game is many of these design options are there for you from the get-go. You don’t have to spend hours picking up seashells, fruit, or other items every day to finally be able to purchase a new items that might appear randomly in Tom Nook’s shop. The down side is that the game can feel less challenging, but remember this is all about designing and building simulation not a regular Animal Crossing game.
The most shocking feature that is lacking is the home scoring system by Happy Home Academy that has been available since City Folk. So now you must go online and have real people rate your house design. Some characters will only be available through Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards which are speculated to be 6 dollars per pack. This is an expensive idea, very similar to the Animal Crossing E-Reader cards from the GameCube version. Owners not using the New 3Ds but any of the other models in the 3DS family will need to purchase the Animal Crossing game with the card reader.
Check out the Nintendo Trailer below to see if Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer is for you. When it comes out digitally and in stores on October 3, 2015.