TheAnimal Crossingseries has a lot of potential for mobile games beyond justAnimal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which is currently the only one in the franchise. After the massive success ofAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsat launch, many assumed it would receive regular content updates for longer than just a couple of years. While there hasn’t been any major new content forAnimal Crossing: New Horizon’s since November 2021, Nintendo could supplement this lack of updates with new mobile titles for the series to complementAnimal Crossing: Pocket Camp.
With the future of theAnimal Crossingseries unknown, Nintendo could take the previously established characters and gameplay aspects of the franchise and translate them into their own mobile titles to tide fans over. This has worked out well for thePokemonfranchise as mobile titles likePokemon GO,Pokemon Unite, the upcomingPokemon Sleep,and many others have helped give fans a range of options to play aside from the mainline entries. TheAnimal Crossingfranchise holds almost as much potential asPokemon, so it only makes sense to go through with a suite of mobile titles.
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Other Types of Mobile Titles the Animal Crossing Series Could Adapt
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camphas been a great way to experienceAnimal Crossing-lite gameplayon mobile. While the game doesn’t completely replicate all aspects of a mainlineAnimal Crossinggame, it has enough similarities that fans will know what they’re in for when they download the game. However, as a series with a variety of different tasks to perform in its best entries,Animal Crossingmobile titles could turn any one of them into a full-fledged mobile distraction.
A perfect example of this sort of activity is the fishing mechanic found throughout theAnimal Crossingseries. Turning fishing into its own dedicated mobile title could be very popular, withAnimal Crossing: New Horizons' CJserving as the perfect mascot for a simple function on a mobile device. ThePokemonseries was able to turn its most notable fish into a mobile title viaPokemon: Magikarp Jump, soAnimal Crossingcould follow a similar route and give players the chance to fill out their Critterpedia by catching all the previously available fish and new exclusive variants.
Fashion and character customization are another huge part of theAnimal Crossingseries that could make for a simple mobile game. This type of game could draw upon theStyle Savvyseries by featuring the ability to customize a player character with various collectible clothing items, as well as incorporate some kind of shop-management system. TheAnimal Crossingfranchise already has the perfect mascot for this type of game inLabel, one of the Able Sisterswho frequentsAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsplayers' islands for fashion checks.
It only seems natural that moreAnimal Crossingmobile titlescould be successful followingPocket Campgiven how many unique mechanics the games feature.Pokemondemonstrates that a series can have more than one mobile title without having to worry about splitting the fanbase of one or the other. Aside fromPokemongames, Nintendo seems to be moving away from creating new mobile titles and only continuing to support the ones that remain popular, but a newAnimal Crossingmobile game could be just what fans need in the time before a new mainline entry hits shelves.
