Quick Look: Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

DAN YOUR HOUSES ARE NIGHTMARES, or dreams the residents seem to like it

These people all have Stockholm syndrome.

Has there been any news of a non-hhd n3ds sku yet?

These look like they were designed by a psychopath

This is horrifying.

Kiefer Sutherland making all the noises that constitute Tom Nook's speech would be pretty good.

P.S. For a second I thought a Space Harrier noise was somehow an audio cue in this game, and then I realized it must have been coming from Jeff's phone.

Animal Crossing blows.

Thank god, I have a migraine but I can't go to sleep because it's too early and I have class in the morning. I was waiting for this to get posted so I can experience that special brand of AC therapy.

I hoped deep in my heart that 8-4 Play had secretly snuck Sarah onto this QL.

"Man, babies are dumb." - Dan Ryckert, 2015

that crib with the candles around it..

My first thought went too "Oh, so her child is really dead and Dan made this really creepy ass shrine...

This is a really confusing concept.

The fact that the skeletons are clearly those of humans with normal proportions that clearly aren't from any inhabitants of Animal Crossing implies that there is some really dark shit going on.

Can you stack fruits in here? Stack furniture, i guess?

You know, if this whole games journalism thing doesn't work out for Dan, I'm sure he can make a pretty good living designing Black Sites for the CIA.

My partner has sunk about 700 hours in AC:NL and even after watching this I'm sure she is going to love this big time. There is definitely a market out there for thirsty AC fans but is gunna seem lackluster to most I feel.

Happy House Arrest.

What an ultimately pointless piece of software.

Like, why wouldn't you just play the Sims instead? it has all the home design stuff (sims 3 has a cool home design career path with goals and everything)

I've really enjoyed the Animal Crossing series, especially the Gamecube game, but this looks boring and incomplete. There's so much more to Animal Crossing than just decorating houses. With this game and the upcoming "party" game, I'm really not liking what's happening to this series.

That AC party game might actually be better than this.

I wasn't expecting this to be as good (or even the same thing) as the main game series. Honestly, I enjoy decorating stuff and it was by far my favorite part of new leaf, so I will still be picking this one up.

I need this.

I need this so bad.

$40...

This quick look gave a pretty good peek into the mind of Dan. Not just the designs, but some of his quotes.

"What did you do with an iron? Did you actually try ironing things or did you just, like, melt action figures with it?"

People really love Isabelle, including me. I even spent way to much on an Isabelle nendoroid. I don't know what it is about her.

....wait...wait...waaaaaait....why is villager pressing up against the wall like that?! IS THIS THE REAL MGS 5????

sweet

I'll never understand the point of these games. I always assumed that they were sort of like the Sims with animals (designed for kids). But this seems to remove the actual "game" from the Sims.

@SpicyRichter

To be fair, Dan only owns t shirts and he thinks that people who wear collared shirts (virtually every adult male in America) are weird.

This would be really cool...if it were built into a fully-fledged Animal Crossing game. I have a feeling we'll never get a real AC game on the WiiU, which kills me.

Trying to make sure I get an Isabelle, KK, and Tom Nook Amiibo is going to cost me a lot of money or time or both.

Are we just going to ignore the fact that Dan said he only toasts bagels, not bread?

That f'n Tom Nook! I need to find some fan fiction where someone finally gets their vengeance on Nook!

Hmmmmm, just looked on the eShop and saw this is $39.99. I could see myself playing this for awhile but not for that price. Probably at $30 I would get it, cheaper than that would be a must buy.

Well, people are driven by various things. Min/maxing for efficiency might be one persons preferred way of play, while others like aesthetics and design.

This costs $40.

When Nintendo looks back and asks why the Wii U failed, one of the things they can point out is that they charge too damn much for games that would be $10 on Steam or XBL/PSN, and both this and Captain Toad are fine examples of this.

Whoa, they actually managed to make something even more pointless than animal crossing proper... that takes commitment.

Those hospital room designs look like the things of nightmares, and I love it. As for the game itself, seems like something neat for kids to play who's parents don't want them playing the sims. I can't think of any other person who'd want to play this instead of regular animal crossing. Speaking of which, I would rather have a new Animal Crossing than this. :\

When Dan learned 'Consent' I lost my shit.

Wow. Man, I love Animal Crossing, and this looks terrible. The fact that your effort to design a good house has absolutely no impact on the game whatsoever is horrible. I thought we'd get to interview animals and figure out what they liked, then make them a house. This just seems... bad.

Those are the skeletons of those humans who died during the Crossing process.

YOU A FOOL FOR THIS ONE K.K.

Travesty that you can't shake trees.

Nintendo's approach to pricing this year is getting baffling. Mario Maker is awesome, but any other console maker or publisher would make it a $20 downloadable, tops. Not a $60 disc game in an over-sized box.

This is decidedly less awesome, and it seemed clearly positioned as a $15 downloadable side thing when it was announced on a Nintendo Direct. Nope, $40 retail. Software sales are getting so soft that they're counting on the Nintendo faithful to pay a premium on everything?

I feel like Sony has been way worse about this lately, $40 GoW3 port, $50 Last of Us port, $60 Uncharted Trilogy, The Order 1886 ...

This looks like what would happen if Tom Nook scammed his way into developing an Animal Crossing game.

Here's a TV that looks like an apple.

I'm looking forward to designing!

every time someone points out some weird idiosyncracy of dan's, i always wonder what weird stuff they do themselves.

"I don't know how kids work."

@quid_pro_bono: Seriously! It's missing all the feng shui mechanics and everything. I'm really bummed out by this. Not to mention it is FORTY DOLLARS.

This looks alright! I'd definitely have some fun with it for a bit. Sure as shit wouldn't pay full price for it though.

The rudimentary goals and "scoring" of each job is a bummer. I suppose a full on appraisal of everything you do would either be really difficult to do well or too restrictive for a casual little home decorator game.

@aistan said:

You mean the dark secret of Animal Crossing is that the 'Animal Crossing' itself isn't actually a quaint town, it's actually a genetic experiment about crossing the DNA of animals and humans, à la The Fly?