I have played Animal Crossing: New Horizons every day since the day it came out. I’ve slowed down a lot since the early days, mostly just saying hi to all my neighbors and digging up all my fossils and little things like that lately. With the successor to the Nintendo Switch coming some time next year, I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to see in the next Animal Crossing game. So here’s a few things I’d like to see.

Bigger Islands, Drivable Vehicles

While New Horizons’ islands felt pretty big when we were all playing the game years ago, pretty quickly we learned every inch of it and it all became pretty familiar. This is really just how Animal Crossing is and always has been, but I’d like to see them make much bigger areas to hang out in. And with those bigger areas, I’d like to see a first for the series, drivable vehicles. You know how you can stick a car on your island in New Horizons? Well, what if you could actually drive around in them? I think that would be neat.

More Interactivity

Going along with cars that you can actually drive, it would be really nice if most of the pieces of furniture could be interacted with more. If you have a slide in your park, you should be able to climb up and go down it. If you have swings, you should be able to swing in them. Look, I’m sure there’s plenty of other examples besides park equipment, but it’s late as I’m writing this and my brain can’t seem to come up with other things. But it would be cool!

The Return of the City

Animal Crossing: City Folk is my least favorite Animal Crossing game and a big part of that is that I felt like the city was pretty useless. But I also think it’s a really good idea. Imagine you can go to a big, sprawling area that’s dramatically different from your island and visit all sorts of shops and activities. What if it was connected to the internet and you ran into random other players while you were there. Maybe you could buy and sell from each other. If the things on my list, I think this one is the one I would be most excited for.

Bring Back Classic Characters

As much as I love New Horizons, there are certain characters who don’t make an appearance (except for when you invite them to coffee with an Amiibo card) that I’d like to see come back. Most prominently in my mind are the pelicans who run the post office. Pelly, Pete, and Phyliss are much more fun than just a random stand in the airport when it comes to sending letters. And what about that guy who gave out balloons? He was pretty cool. Maybe bring Gulliver’s space ship as a rare variation. Or Booker and Copper who guard the lost and found. So many characters just went missing in New Horizons and it would be great to see them again.

And that’s my short list. What kind of things would you like to see in the next game? More of the same, or something radically different? Let me know in the comments.