Tag Archives: Video Game Predictions

Animal Crossing Switchlist

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Inspired by Glux’s Animal Crossing Switch wishlist, I wanted to share my own thoughts and desires.

I first came to Animal Crossing in Wild World for Nintendo DS. I played constantly through grad school and beyond, becoming an active member of the Animal Crossing Community and hosting WiFi parties. After skipping the Wii, the promise of New Leaf ensured I preordered a first gen 3DS. I upgraded to the 3DS XL when the ACNL edition came out.

Now, Pocket Camp is keeping me mildly entertained on mobile, but I’m craving so much more. While I keep waiting and hoping for an Animal Crossing Switch announcement, I’m dreaming up things I’d love to see in a new game.

Let me have more friends over! Nintendo is clearly capable of allowing more than 4 players to connect at once. So why can’t I have up to 8 players in my town?

My Camper. Let me connect my mobile account and bring my camper into a full version of the game. It would be super cool if there was a multiplayer RV park where 8 or so friends could meet to explore each others’ campers, play minigames, and maybe even race RVs.

Better communication system. For the love of Nook don’t make me type out messages to visitors. How about putting that Nintendo Online Service/ app to use and letting me actually TALK to my visitors.

Goals. I love the goals mechanic in ACPC, and there’s tons of opportunity to apply that to a full Switch version. Show me on the map which villagers need something. Give me a daily fish/fruit/bug quota. Reward me to visiting friends/traveling. Help me earn more bells to pay off my inevitable loan(s).

New museum wing(s) for unique collections. I think there are typically new fossils/bugs/fish added to each game, but PLEASE let me hang my villager portraits in the museum! It will give me more incentive to work for those portraits if I have somewhere I can display them all! Also, a Fashion wing would be really cool. I like to collect certain outfits, but not necessarily wear them so space to showcase them would be great. Plus this would give me a reason to visit my friends’ museums to see what their unique collections are like!

Keep the market box. I’d love to be able to sell some of my items to other players, including furniture and clothes! This would be a great workaround to players agreeing to bring a bunch of bells to your town and swap for an item only to take the items and disconnect or leave without paying.

MORE events! I always look forward to holidays in Animal Crossing and I appreciate when they align to real life events, but I’d love original events and moments. We have SO many ridiculous “national ______ days” in the real world, there have to be more creative ways to party in the next Animal Crossing.

New shops. We have Brewster’s coffee shop, how about a full restaurant where we can go with friends or villagers? It would be great to meet some new NPC animals! While we’re at it, can we keep OK! Motors and the cutie penguin brothers?

What would you want to see in the next Animal Crossing game?

 

Octo Expansion Anticipation

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Nintendo’s recent announcement of the Octo Expansion has me hyperventilating at the thought of it. Lately I’ve been replaying Splatoon 2’s story mode as Agent 4 to collect all the scrolls and sardinium as well as unlock some of the Hero weapons. I’d forgotten the fun of single player mode and it’s only adding to my anticipation! Agent 8, the mystery octoling(?) with no memory, is aesthetically my new favorite. I’m elated to play through 80+(!!!) different missions to uncover her story and unlock playable Octolings in multiplayer. For $20 I feel like the amount of content I’m getting is huge. It will likely have good replay value as there are surely collectible thingies to find in each mission.

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I’m a sucker (get it? Octojokes) so I took the bait (did it again!) and pre-ordered the expansion immediately to get the Octo-themed clothing. Presents!

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It could have been better themed – a crate or vault like those in single player mode or wrapped nicely – but I’ll take it! I think it’s nice of Nintendo to give us a taste of the new gear coming our way. 100 new items?!? My military/motorcycle style could see some new options! Tattoo sleeves with Ink Resistance abilities? Wishful thinking, but Nintendo could be listening!

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They clearly designed a new stages for me, after all! The stages. coming over from Splatoon 1 are great, but obviously Wahoo World is going to be an instant favorite of mine. I’m going to explore every square tentacle.

X Rank I’m still working my way up to S+, but now my goal has changed to hit X rank. I don’t need to be in the power rankings each month, but I do want to hit max rank and play competitively. I’m good enough, but am I competitive enough?

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The revelation that Octo Expansion takes place in the subway to the right of the lobby in Inkopolis Square has me wondering about other areas of possible expansion.

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The subway entrance in the middle is happening. Now I’m noticing that grated doorway on the left and the obvious closed storefront on the right. Will these open to sell some of the expanded gear? What about that door behind the boxes with the signage above?

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And could there be something beyond this barricade? Could we eventually enter that building on the left and find out where that ramp goes?

What do you think of the new expansion? Do you think any of these other places could open up? What else would you want to see come to Splatoon 2?

My Hopes for Zelda Mobile

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mastersword

I don’t consider myself a mobile gamer. I have some time-killers I play on the train, but I still struggle to see mobile gaming as “real gaming.”

But The Legend of Zelda is making the leap to mobile devices later this year and I’ll be on board for that. MORE ZELDA! Still, this version needs to feel as big as the franchise, especially on the coattails of Breath of the Wild, while adopting a mobile formula that encourages habitual use. Some features and functions that I’d love to see include:

Daily puzzles. The Legend of Zelda is legendary for its challenging puzzles- there are 120 shrines to solve in Breath of the Wild. With the breadth of functionality offered by mobile devices from touch screens to gyroscopic/movement-based controls, puzzle innovation is nearly endless and can be varied enough to not feel repetitive. Give me a new challenge every day

Real World integration. Hyrule is a HUGE place and I want to feel like I’m exploring it in the real world. Much like walking hatches eggs in Pokemon Go, I’d like my daily physical activity to translate to my mini hero in-game. Do I need to walk 3 miles to get to Zora’s Domain and unlock new puzzles? Bring me my running shoes and let’s go on a quest!

Link as a secondary character. I’d be less critical of it as a Zelda game and more delighted I get to play alongside my favorite characters and themes. Let me customize my own sprite who interacts with Link in my own story. Maybe Link is my silent sensei, training me to protect Hyrule so he can retire. Or maybe he needs me to rescue him! I love playing as Link, but I’m craving my own adventure. Mobile would be a perfect platform to try this kind of alternative story formula since it’s not a traditional vehicle for Zelda games and players’ expectations for mobile games are vastly different than console. There could even be an opportunity for microtransactions to buy new character features, clothes or accessories.

molduga

Selfies! It’s mobile! Come on. Those Wind Waker selfies were adorable and hilarious. Nintendo could drive engagement and promotion with a selfie feature that’s easily sharable to social.

What do you want to see in a mobile Zelda game?