The Animal Crossing Direct included a variety of major announcements for New Horizons. In addition to a massive free update that comes with new various new features, quality-of-life adjustments and items, the game will be getting paid DLC called Happy Home Paradise. Launching on November 5 alongside the free 2.0 update, the expansion lets players get a job as a resort developer on a new island.
From there, they’ll be tasked with designing vacation homes for various characters. Players can share their designs online and use amiibo to invite more people to the island and design homes for them. The expansion is even available as part of a special Nintendo Switch Online package. The premise itself is quite similar to Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, and this successor already seems to improve upon the Nintendo 3DS title.
Why Fans Were Split On Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer
Released in 2015, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer was a spinoff that placed a much bigger emphasis on interior decorating than the series’ most recent main entry at the time, Animal Crossing: New Leaf. In it, players are employed by Tom Nook to design themed homes for various characters. The more homes they design, the more items the player unlocks to make even more homes. With a focus solely on designing, many of the daily tasks and activities from previous Animal Crossing games were left out.
The general consensus from critics was that, while Happy Home Designer was as charming and creative as the main series, the loss the social simulation elements that define mainline Animal Crossing games made the overall experience less fulfilling. Gamespot’s review even said Happy Home Designer “would have been amazing DLC for New Leaf.” Despite the mixed reception, the game still sold well and had its fans.
How Happy Home Paradise Improves the Formula
Six years later, Happy Home Paradise comes to New Horizons with the same basic premise of creating themed homes for NPCs, but with a lot more freedom to explore and many new items and design tools to unleash a player’s full creative potential. While the new items and features are obviously a plus, the biggest way that this iteration improves upon Happy Home Designer‘s formula is that this is a DLC expansion that fully connects to the main game.
This means that players will be able to transfer over what they learn as vacation home designers and apply it to their own islands. After spending some time with Happy Home Paradise, players will learn new techniques and even be able to eventually redesign their neighbor’s homes. It’s clear that Nintendo is keeping what worked so well in Happy Home Designer while addressing its main criticisms to create a worthwhile experience for players.
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