1 Year of Animal Crossing: New Horizons - What's Coming in Version 2.0.0?

In less than a year after it's initial release, Animal Crossing: New Horizons proved to be one of Nintendo's best selling games in recent times. With the 1 year anniversary coming up in just a few days, we thought it'd be a good time to look back on the game, and share what we want to see in the games second year, as well as the inevitable Version 2.0.0 update!

To jump start things, we'll go over some quality of life updates we'd love to see! There are so many unnecessary menus in this game, and we've seem them fix some of this in previous updates, such as Sahara's dialogue. However, there are still a tonne that need fixing, which we'll quickly go over them here; buying multiple of the same clothing item at the Able Sisters, being able to craft/customize directly from storage, terraforming, and redeeming items via the Nook Stop Terminal. Of course, there are a lot more, but YouTube Channel Nick Ha / Swan Song does a good job going over them in some incredibly produced videos.

Since launch, we've seen 9 major updates for the game, starting with Version 1.1.0 and ending with Version 1.9.0. Through these updates, we saw seasonal events added the the game, but that's not all we got! We've seen Leif with bushes, Redd with Art + the Museum expansion, Swimming/Diving, Cloud Saves, Farming/Pumpkins, Super Mario items, and even new villagers with the latest update!

Within these updates, they've also listened to fan feedback, or gone back and expanded on previous updates. We saw them adjust the spawn rates for Eggs during the Bunny Day event (queue the memes), tweaking special character spawn rates, as well as fix a number of bugs and glitches present. They even went and added a Shell Rug to tie in with the Shell series, and the Mermaid Fence DIY long after the Mermaid Series was added. You can view a full list of what was changed with each update here. It seems Nintendo has been taking fan feedback into account, and here's hoping they take more into consideration in our second year!

Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Our original review had us mention a number of gripes we had - and how they could be improved - with the biggest one being furniture customization. With the game being out for a year now, it's a little disheartening to see we still don't an easy way to grab alternate styles of furniture outside of DIY customization. If you've got a Cassette Player in Green, but want one in Red, you'll either need to trade with someone online, or wait until it reappears in Nook's Cranny again; sadly, there's no way to freely change the color/style of store bought items.

A simple fix? Bring back Reese and Cyrus! They were previously added into the game back in June for the month-long Wedding Season event, and with Nook's Cranny only receiving one expansion thus far (compared to 3-4 in previous games), the next logical step in V2.0.0 would be adding another expansion to Nook's Cranny, this time partnered with the lovely alpaca duo. They'd be able to change the style and color of furniture items you've already bought, as well as offer additional services, such as the mini dinosaur models crafted by Cyrus in New Leaf.

On the topic of Nook's Cranny, we really want to see a heap more furniture items added to the game! A tonne of furniture series from previous games - Rococo, Regal, Alpine, Sleek, Modern, etc - have yet to make an appearance, as well as some stand alone items. With a newly expanded Nook's Cranny, this would be a prefect way to integrate these missing items into the game. The issue with the items we currently have is, and even though the game allows an assortment of customization options, there is still such a limited amount of furniture that most Islands end up looking similar when it comes to decorating. After a while, Gracie could also move in much like she does in New Leaf, but we think we're getting a little too ahead of ourselves there... To go hand-in-hand with this, some more storage space wouldn't go unnoticed!

Furniture isn't the only thing that could do with a customization update, we simply can't forget about housing! New Leaf had exteriors, such as the Modern and Castle, to help your bachelor pad stand out a little more. Currently, we can only change the look of our homes, not the overall style. The housing customization was done by the members of the HHA, Lyle and Digby, and the addition of Lottie in Happy Home Designer! All these characters are missing, and would seamlessly fit into the Resident Services with a future update. These guys could allow us to further change the exterior look of our homes, and maybe even the villagers homes on the Island!

There are some more customization characters too, namely the OK Motors crew from Pocket Camp. You may think there's no room for the spin-off trio to make their way into the main series, but given the trouble history of Pocket Camp's development, there is evidence to suggest Giovanni, Beppe and Carlo were set to appear in the Welcome amiibo update... Plus, there already are some OK Motors items in New Horizons thanks to the Pocket Camp collaboration.

This trio is a group of travelling mechanics who help out with RVs, but with no such vehicle in New Horizons yet, this may be an addition much further down the line. They could, however, team up with the HHA team to allow further customization options, or we may even receive an update more akin to the aforementioned Welcome amiibo update. Harriet could also make a small appearance, giving you exclusive facial features that are unavailable at bureaus and mirrors.

Whilst the game has added some previously cut characters with updates (Redd, Pascal, Pave, etc...), there are still a lot more that could be worthwhile additions. We've got a number of ideas on how to incorporate these older characters back into the game, which we've detailed below. Of course, if you have a better idea, or even an idea for a character we've missed, be sure to let us know in the comments!

We'll start off with the character on everyone's lips - Brewster! He's probably the most wanted character in the game at this point, and it would be a missed opportunity not to add him. He's been speculated to be coming to the game ever since release, with datamining showing there is text strings for Gyroids and an expanded Museum, both of which hold significance to Brewster, but 1 year later he's still missing. People were also holding out hope to see him added into the Fall update, but alas, it did not happen.

Brewster could come with his own Cafe, or it could be placed somewhere in The Museum, which could receive a big overhaul, including a new Gyroid exhibit, and expanding on the already existing ones. His Cafe could serve the same purpose as in New Leaf, but may also see your ex-Island-folk visiting for a cup of jo. With the farming of pumpkins being added into the game in the Fall, and a lot of text strings alluding to more crops coming, this could be where you obtain "farming" DIY recipes, allowing you to craft food items.

Cut characters Nate and Chip could be "Museum Tour Guides" that walk around the expanded fish and bug exhibits, offering you advice and knowledge. After all, Nate already has a small cameo in the bug exhibit. Phineas, Wendell, Cooper, or even Booker could patrol the Art and Fossil exhibits, but we have another idea for Phineas that we'll touch on later. Now, how do you expand the already existing ones? By adding new bugs and fish of course! Not that long ago we made a post going over the missing critters of Animal Crossing, and whilst we could see some of these reappearing, we'd really love an additional 20 fish and bug species added to the game.

These new fish and bug species would help freshen up the game, as it's possible a lot of hardcore players have already completed the Critterpedia by this point. You may be asking yourself what the point of adding more critters would be, especially if you've already collected them all and got the Golden Tools... That's where the idea of Platinum Tools come in! Starting in City Folk, we had three variations of tools, the Basic, Silver, and Golden. Granted, this time around we have Flimsy, Basic and Golden, but who wouldn't love a nice Platinum Tool? You'd need some Platinum to craft them (which you'd get from hitting rocks, though much rarer than gold!), as well as the DIY recipe from collecting them all. The Golden Tools in the base game still break after generous usage, so having an ever more durable tool, that potentially does not break, would be an amazing reward for all the hard work you've put in!

Now, let's talk about Phineas. He's an artist, and handed out medals in New Leaf... Currently, we have a sort of medal system with Nook Miles, though after a while they start to get redundant, and feel more like a completionists chore. We don't have any specifics for this, but a type of "New Nook Miles++" update could add Phineas as a guidance expert helping you meet these more difficult goals. More tasks, more rewards, and even more uses for Nook Miles would be added alongside him.

However, the biggest update we want to see is akin to Club Tortimer in New Leaf. We briefly touched on this in our initial review, but we'd love to see a lot more neighbouring islands, instead of just Photopia... Club Tortimer could make its long awaited return, with all the Tortimer family being reintroduced. A summer island year-round, new and exclusive items, new fruits/bushes (like the Banana, Lychee and previously referenced Plumeria), minigames, the lot! Think back to Club Tortimer in New Leaf, that's what we'd love to see here, a nice lively community. I mean, they still have the wharf sitting on the Island, which for the most part, remains entirely useless! Even tossing in a few new Mystery Islands into the mix wouldn't go astray, as we felt like this was an underutilized feature in our review.

Some other additions include Katrina being a visitor to the Resident Services, which isn't too impossible as they've toyed with the Luck mechanic when they brought in the King Tut Mask, and the Pelican family with a postal service update, but those are the most notable additions we'd love to see added back. Sadly, we don't have any ideas for our all time favorite character, Joan, but maybe if the rumored Garden Store were ever to happen, she could be an assistant to Leif. 

We can't forget the cut crossover promotional Villagers! With Version 1.9.0, we've seen the 6 Sanrio characters added back to the game, so in this second year we'd really like to see all the other villagers make their way back. Of course, some like Filly and Holden may be a little harder since they're promotional characters, but hey, they still hold the Sanrio license so it's not impossible! They could also use these villagers to bring back the missing Nintendo items. We're also not opposed to seeing more crossover villagers come to the game. Just take a look at how this Reddit user morphed Kass from Breath of the Wild into an Animal Crossing villager!

And that wraps up everything we were able to think of that we'd really love to see in the games second year. Of course, last year we saw some surprise additions, like Wedding Season, May Day, Museum Day, and we're not going to complain about adding some more celebrations into the mix!

To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of New Horizons, we've also updated the Dream Address of Nublar! I've spent the last few weeks frantically renovating the Island, and whilst it's far from perfect, it is a nice homage to Jurassic Park. If you're a fan of the franchise, or simply just want to check out the progress I've made over the past year, feel free to check it out! Please ignore the mess on the ground at the entrance and beach. I'll be honest, I was way too lazy to clean it up.

And as always, if you haven't already, be sure to follow us over on Twitter and Tumblr. Feel free to join our discord server, too! We'd also like to thank everyone for supporting us and using the site over the last year, and hope to continue providing great coverage into and beyond 2021!