Animal Crossing: New Horizons is truly one of my favorite games, and I'm beyond thankful that we just got a fairly large 3.0 update nearly six years after the game's release - but there's definitely room for more. Some things could make the experience even smoother, or introduce forgotten pieces from the series' past entries.
I understand that every entry in the series is different, but some of the things I highlight just seem like oversights - where are the bananas on these tropical islands? Did Pete, Pelly, and Phyllis retire? These are the things that I wonder about and want answers to. Or for Nintendo to bring back to the game in a 4.0 update, perhaps.
Before we begin, I'm giving an honorable mention to Copper and Booker. I can see why there's no train station (or bus stop, or taxi service) in New Horizons because we're, you know, on an island, but I do miss them ushering me in and out of my town's gate. However, I don't really want them back as police, so unless they get a new role entirely, they can remain in New Leaf.
Bananas and durian fruits
While the selection of trees we have in New Horizons is great, my fruit salad feels a little lacking. Where are the bananas? The durians? Adding these two types back in with Kapp'n and his mystery islands would have made the most sense, but I'd gladly welcome them back in another update.
Let me ask tourists to move in
Something that feels like a bit of an oversight is that we can't ask tourists to move in or invite them to camp, which would then allow us to ask them to move in. Day bloody one of having the hotel, and my old favorite wolf Fang turns up, and guess what? Roswell requested my permission to move out that morning. I could so have easily scooped up the doggy dude and gotten him to move in, but no. You can't ask visiting tourists to move to your island. Why? Nintendo, please fix.
Give villagers more personality
If you have some hours logged in either Population Growing or Wild World - even New Leaf - you'll know that villagers used to have more personality. They had much more to say. They could interact with items. They were even downright rude sometimes - or they'd get easily annoyed (or amused) with what you say to them. For some examples, search "Animal Crossing villagers being rude" and look at Google Images for some excellent Reddit posts.
New Horizons feels a little too saccharine sometimes. The most negative experience I've had is when I give a villager a piece of trash to try and get them to move (Frita, count your days), and they just get mildly perturbed. I want anger. Hatred. Grumpiness. I'd also love it if my villagers would use the outdoor cafe, rock concert, and campfire area I painstakingly made for them instead of sitting on the floor in the middle of a path. But I digress.
Bulk buying Nook Miles tickets
Another oversight is that we still can't buy multiple Nook Miles tickets at once. Nintendo just added the ability to craft multiple items, so what gives? Back in 2020, when I was buying villagers and furniture left, right, and center, I really could have done with being able to get a stack at a time, but it would still be handy now.
Where are the pelicans?
Something else missing from previous games is a lot of key NPCs. A postcard rack in the airport replaces the post office pelican crew of Pelly, Phyllis, and Pete - but then, who delivers our mail? Is it the dodos? We used to see Pete fly off after delivery, but we don't see dodos scurrying away from our mailbox. Pelly and Phyllis could even man the town hall desks for a while to give Tom and Isabelle a break. They don't need to be there doing aerobics when I check the recycling bin at 3am.
Another face that could so easily have come back is the fashion-forward Gracie, along with her furniture and clothing designs. The sweets-themed items were, uh, really sweet and very much missed. She could have joined Saharah and co on Harvey's island with a rotating stock.
One more face I really, really miss is Celeste. Her wandering the island during meteor showers is not enough. Why hasn't she got an observatory? Her brother is here, so did he just up sticks and move without her? There's no light pollution on my island, so she could come and view the stars in perfect clarity. There's even a convenient space in the museum that could, nay, SHOULD, be where a door to her observatory goes. Where is it, Nintendo?!
Give me more items from Pocket Camp
I could spend hours lamenting the fact that we don't have lots of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp items in New Horizons. Ok, yes, we have the fortune cookie cart, a sign, and a t-shirt, but there's so. Much. More. that we could still have! Over the game's lifespan, there were probably hundreds of sets of furniture items added through fortune cookies across the updates. While I understand adding all of those would be a monumental task, there could be some more, at least. Then again, over the six years of New Horizons, we could've had them drip-fed to us via a new Nook Phone app that refreshes, or even the Nintendo Online app, a la Splatoon 3's clothing store.
New Leaf mini-games
Moving on to my last point… I miss the two mini-games from New Leaf. Animal Crossing: New Horizons' 3.0 update brought back the SNES (etc) games we can play when we purchase the item, but I want the two that are in New Leaf. These are Desert Island Escape and Puzzle League, accessible via Wii U and 3DS items, respectively. We have Switch items and now the retro options, so it feels weird not to have these in the latest game, though the Switch consoles don't do anything. It's funny, because Desert Island Escape could even be a precursor to New Horizons itself - but that's a feature idea for another day.
Well, there we have it, my own gripes with what's left out of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and dream of a potential 4.0 update in another five years.