Animal Crossingis a beloved franchise that’s used more or less the same formula since the first title came out in the early 2000s. In the main franchise titles, players settle in and make their home among whimsical humanoid animal characters. The game proceeds in real-time, with life continuing on the island, town, or city, even when the player isn’t logged in, with various daily and seasonal activities keeping players logging in regularly to check on their villagers.
Over the years,Animal Crossinghas become a beloved cozy gaming giant with a vibrant community. The last game in the franchise,Animal Crossing: New Horizons,has sold over 45 million copies as of 2023, according toStatista. The games sell well because the formula works, and the few titles that tried something new, likeAmiibo Festival,didn’t sell as well as the main games in the franchise. Despite this,it would be fun to seeAnimal Crossinggames that branch off from the regular game, especially ones that dive into a completely different genre.
10Animal Crossing RPG
This Was The Original Plan For The Series
TheAnimal Crossinggames fans know and love today almost didn’t exist.According to Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata,the originalAnimal Crossinggame was meant to be a dungeon crawlerwhere players commanded villagers to help them through various dungeons. The idea was scrapped due to hardware limitations, but it would be fitting to revisit the game’s origins with anAnimal CrossingRPG spinoff.
Animal Crossing’s Most Underappreciated Game Deserves A Switch 2 Release
One Animal Crossing game has gone underappreciated for too long and deserves a Nintendo Switch 2 port to prove it’s better than people think.
The game would have to focus on traversal over fighting since Nintendo would probably not want to see any of its beloved characters get hurt. Instead, it could adopt anInfinity Nikki-style RPGall about exploration, collecting resources, crafting, and solving puzzles. The villagers could be characters that can be found and “recruited” to the team similar to the 108 heroes ofSuikoden. Players could then choose several villagers to travel with a “party.” A central space would give the rest of the villagers a place to hang out andprovide an opportunity for the decoration and design that are such staples of the franchise.
9Board-Based Party Game
One That’s Better Than Amiibo Festival
In 2015,Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festivalattempted to take the series in a new and fresh direction.The title was a party game likeMario Party, but it hadthe fatal flaw of needing to use Amiibo to add characters. The game was also criticized for being repetitive and not bringing much new to the table. But that doesn’t mean the idea was a bad one, and anAmiibo Festival-style game is worth revisiting. A second chance forAmiibo Festivalwould keep the game’s board game format but address the issues that plagued the title.
It wouldneed to have more variety in its minigames, and more to do in general. A faster pace would also help retain players' attention, as would giving players a chance to play with their favorite characters without having to pay for additional game pieces.Mario Partyhas shown over and over that these types of games do sell, andAnimal Crossinghas all the charm it needs to attract players, so a better-executedAmiibo Festivalcould be a success.
8Villager-Raising Sim
Something Similar To Tomodachi Life
It’s hard to describeTomodachi Life,which wasa strange mix betweenAnimal CrossingandThe Sims.The 3DS title had players engaging with Mii characters on an island, guiding them to resolve their issues and live their lives. Players didn’t control the Miis directly but rather offered them advice through a character they played as.
The idea of anAnimal Crossingspinoff that’s similar to aSimsgame doesn’t feel quite right. Throughout the series, players never directly control any of the villagers, who all have lives and personalities of their own. However,a game similar toTomodachi Lifewould be right at home for theAnimal Crossingfranchise. Villagers could come to the player with their questions and the player would help guide them on the right path for them.
7Animal Crossing Rhythm Game
Jam Along To K.K. Slider’s Hits
Animal Crossinghas a resident musician, a white dog who goes by K.K. Slider. InAnimal Crossing: New Horizons,Slider visits the plaza every Saturday to play his songs, which span a huge variety of genres.There are 110 different songs by K.K. Sliderin the game, more than enough to fill an entire rhythm spinoff game.
A musicalACgame could take on many different styles, from thetraditional style of rhythm gamesto a more unique take on the genre. AnAnimal Crossinggame that incorporates themusic-based mini-games ofRhythm Heavenwould be particularly fun. YouTube creator緑青くれは-Rokusho Kureha-has a fan-made video showcasing what this might look like, and it works remarkably well.
6Harvest Moon Style
Add Farming Into The Mix
Animal Crossingalready has many ofHarvest Moon’selements, including the cute aesthetic and fishing. Since the two games already have a lot in common, it would make sense to adopt more ofHarvest Moon’sfeatures into anAnimal Crossingspinoff. This game couldintegrate farming into the mix, as well as a more robust system of resource gatheringlike mining for ore and more.
10 Lessons The Next Animal Crossing Game Needs To Learn From Its Players
Animal Crossing players have expressed a lot of ideas about how to improve the game, Nintendo should take notes when making the next installment.
A romancing system would be very out of place in anAnimal Crossinggame, but a roommate mechanic would be a fun way to interact with the villagers. Players could choose which villagers they want to share a house with and decorate the space to suit the characters, similar to the wayStardew Valleylets players becomeroommates with the monster Krobus.
5Museum Curator Simulator
Because Blathers Could Use A Hand
The most appealing reason for many players to keep coming back to the title is the museum. InAnimal Crossing,the museum is slowly filled out by playersadding various bugs, dinosaur skeletons, fish, and artwork to the collection. Completing the museum’s collection requires a lot of time and effort since some critters can only be found in certain real-world seasons.
Although the museum design has evolved over time,there’s no way currently to customize, change the layout, or add or remove decor in the building.A museum and gallery curation spinoff would let players work alongside Blathers on the receiving end of the bug, fish, dino, and art hunt. A curation game would allow players to decide the museum’s layout, choose where and how to display certain artifacts, and decorate the space.
4Hotel Or Resort Management
Happy Island Paradise
Animal Crossing: New Horizonstakes place on a beautiful island paradise that, for some reason, no one ever visits (aside from a small handful of rotating NPCs). Continuing the theme of islands,one spinoff idea for the franchise is a resort management simulator. The setup could be this: Tom Nook finds another beautiful island to develop, but instead of inviting people to live there, he realizes it would be more lucrative to turn it into a bustling resort.
A game like this couldask players to create a functional and beautiful space,adding amenities but keeping things aesthetic. There would be many design and decor opportunities, from the recreational areas outside to individual themed rooms that different types of villagers would enjoy. Players could even manage the flow of villagers as more characters showed up to enjoy the resort.
3Animal Crossing MMO
Add A Multiplayer Element To AC
WhenAnimal Crossing: Pocket Campwas replaced byPocket Camp Complete, the game lost an integral part of the experience: the multiplayer element. Although it wasn’t a huge part of the game, manyfans are finding it lonely without other playersto interact with (except through theWhistle Pass feature).TheACfranchise has toyed with online multiplayer a few times, allowing players to visit each others' home islands through “dreams” and by opening up their airports to visitors.
However, a fully online multiplayer game would make the multiplayer aspects into core elements of the game. Players could work together on a central communal space but also have their own locations to decorate where others could visit but not affect anything. Things like resource gathering could become a team effort, similar to the way theindie cozy MMOPaliaturns rare-resource hunting into a community effort. Of course, safeguards would have to be put into place to ensure that everyone plays nice, but anACMMO would certainly work as a spinoff title.
2Animal Kart Racing
Cute Character Kart Racing
This spinoff idea is possibly the least likely, but it would definitely be a fun one. Similar to the way the Mario brothers have a successful line of kart racing games,Animal Crossingcould do the same.Animal Crossing, like theMariogames, certainlyhas plenty of cute characters for players to potentially choose from, so a racing game would have many options for riders. After all, Isabelle is a character inMario Kart 8 Deluxe,and we have seenACtracks inMario Kartbefore.
10 Things You Should Do On Your Animal Crossing: New Horizons Island In 2025
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still a popular game even into 2025. What are some things you haven’t done yet on your island? Here are 10 ideas.
Players could also be able to customize the vehicles, creating different themes to suit different villagers-turned-racecar-drivers. The game couldhave players racing through differentAnimal Crossinglocations, like around a typical island home fromNew Horizonsor down the train tracks from previous titles. The ability to fully customize and create tracks would keep things firmly within theAnimal Crossingdesign formula and still give players a chance to unleash their creativity.
1Fashion And Furniture Designer
Work For The Able Sisters Or The Alpacas
Animal Crossinghas always been about making the game space custom to each player, whether that’s through placing furniture in a room, laying down paths outside, or even terraforming the land itself. The more recent games also allow players tocreate their own custom designs to use on furniture and clothing, making the experience even more unique. That’s why a clothing and furniture design spinoff game just makes sense.
This kind of game would have players working with either Cyrus and Reese, or the Able sisters, perhaps under Label’s fashion brand. This spinoff game would focus oncreating custom designs or even assembling entirely new furniture using unlockable parts. The game could integrateHappy Home Designer’ssystem of “customers” asking for specific features in their orders to keep things interesting. Players could even export their designs to the nextAnimal Crossingtitle.
