(Note: from beginning of time to release of Animal Forest for the N64 does not count as a drought because we lived with real animals in the woods)

In 2002, America was introduced to this guy:

Ever since then, we've gotten to purchase Nintendo consoles every few years for the sole purpose of returning to town, picking flowers and taking out massive raccoon mortgages. Hopefully this tradition will continue with the timely release of Animal Crossing: Town Dudes or whatever for the Switch, ending the five year drought since 2012's New Leaf.

One of New Leaf's strengths was its 3DS Streetpass integration which didn't make it to the Switch, and Nintendo's online service looks somehow worse than ever. With that in mind, what do you want out of the next Animal Crossing title? Animal Crossing has never been a title that I think really needed massive paradigm shift games like Super Mario 64 or Breath of the Wild, but what can Nintendo do to take advantage of new hardware?

There is also the mobile game which I am boycotting because I don't trust myself with a device that has my credit card information and a virtual usurer promising me a bigger basement.

I desperately want an Animal Crossing for the switch. I've had a real craving for starting a town up. Maybe I'll just go back to new leaf instead. Not sure what kinds of new things they can add. Honestly if they just make a great version of the game I'd be pretty happy.

I would actually like to see them take a look at stardew valley and really focus in on single player content. There's plenty to do in animal crossing, but as a guy who tends to not go online I do feel a bit like there isn't a lot of new content to enjoy that wasn't in the original. Make villagers something more than a couple set personalities altered by a few words. Give us more to explore in the world. Bring back some kind of quest/objective system that happens frequently or is requestable by me so that I can grind out rewards from villagers and get more dialogue from them. Maybe even build special events that can only happen when you get closer to the villagers like stardew.

Stardew Valley ate AC's lunch for me. There's great charm to AC and I like many of its unique features/mechanics but I always hated the real time conceit. The series didn't grow how I would have liked after the first game either. Stardew Valley scratches similar itches and is just way more pleasant to play how I want personally. I enjoy the huge range of features in that game and the progression and objectives to attain.

I guess I'd say I hope this drought might be because they are making some larger changes.