There’s been so much hate over Happy Home Designer–“why is it a price of a full game”, “we don’t want spin-off games”, “what is the point” and while I can understand some frustration on the Wii U game (although, I personally still think it looks fun), I don’t feel Happy Home Designer deserves it. I feel like if it’s successful, it could bring a lot of really awesome things to the Animal Crossing series. Because I really want to get people looking at a bigger picture (and maybe I’m the only AC fan who didn’t expect to hear about a new AC game just yet), I wanted to list some of the reasons that not only makes me excited for Happy Home Designer, but makes me excited thinking of what this could mean for the next Animal Crossing game.
- You’re in charge of people’s houses. Maybe it’s just me, but there was something super disheartening about setting up an area and then having someone plop their house in the center of it. Finally getting to decide where people go is such a relief. And if this is in this game and the Mayor Function continues, what’s to say this kind of thing won’t be in the next “main” Animal Crossing game?
- You can still do a lot of things from normal Animal Crossing games. The big things that are gone are fishing & bug catching along with a “smaller” area, but you still build the town up.
You still help villagers.
You still decorate houses (even if it may not be for you).
And you still make friends as you fill up the town. While it may be a bit lessened in some ways, the fun is still there in a lot of areas. And maybe it’s just me, but the home decorating was always my favorite part too. - You have a company car.
Just imagine being the Mayor of multiple villages nearby and being able to use some kind of travel to help out in each one. You can have your own Animal Crossing World and not just a town. - You can place Villager’s Houses.
As mentioned above, this is a beautiful feature and I hope it makes it in the new game. - You can decorate the exterior of various buildings…
…around your Villager’s houses….
and pick various environments to place it in.
While the latter will probably never make it into the main game, so much more exterior customization in various areas can really help make a town more unique. - The new character!
Lottie is adorable. - You can set up houses for the NPCs!
Wouldn’t it be nice to have an area where the NPCs live? - You can finally decorate houses how you want–no more needing to send furniture and hope they use it and don’t replace something you wanted them to keep.
- You can help out all your favorite villagers. Have more than 10-12 favorites? No worries about needing to send one away for another as they can all come and get their house decorated. And even come party:
- New furniture items:
- Plus the ability to place things on the ceiling!:
- You no longer need a full space in front–you can squeeze through and place chairs and couches at appropriate lengths away from a table:
- Furniture items can be placed outside like Public Works. Furniture is not exclusively for interiors:
- And vice versa, things that may have only been able to go outside can be inside too:
- Villagers can have jobs! They can be students, they can be a cook, they can be a doctor. No longer will they just bum around and ask you for things.
- Villagers can have bigger houses.
- Villagers houses in general have much more customization with the ability to pick the style and color:
And even decorate their fences:
And switch things near their houses like bridges:
- There are separate carpets and floors:
And you can even choose what size you want them to be:
- Easy rotating without having to be up against the object.
- Items can be moved in bulk:
- There’s different room sizes–they aren’t all perfectly square/cubes. Some can be rectangular.
- You can select Nature sounds if you don’t want music.
- Villagers can wear head accessories/hats.
In short: Besides so many of these features being great in themselves, many (obviously, not all) of these same things could be previews of what’s to come (and what could happen) with a newer Animal Crossing game as well. And maybe it’s just me, but if I can be the Mayor and work at various places with the NPCs, I think that’d be pretty amazing. And when it comes to your character, they can still dress-up too and change their appearance! And you have more character customizations in general too.
Give the game a try–while it’s still missing some features of a “normal” Animal Crossing game, it brings so many amazing things that could make the next full Animal Crossing game phenomenal. Happy Home Designer is so much more than just interior decorating–you just need to take the time to look.