Make Sure Animal Crossing Is Kept on Schedule
I have major trust issues and when it comes to developers/publishers announcing release dates for big AAA titles, I’m terrified. Nintendo has already delayed Animal Crossing: New Horizons from 2019 to March of 2020 and while that push back hurt, I’m sure that it’ll make this social simulation game much better.
I’m just worried that Nintendo will delay the game again due to extra development time or just to make my life terrible. The promise of living out my island getaway dream with all of my online friends sounds extremely relaxing and satisfying even though I’ll be in debt to a Tanuki (aka Tom Nook) for the rest of my in-game life.
As the first New Year’s resolution for Nintendo, please don’t delay Animal Crossing: New Horizons again — I don’t think my heart can handle the pain anymore.
Just look at Isabelle and the other villagers in glorious HD for the first time in the new trailer, just look at it!
Clean up the eShop and the UI
Can you believe that it has been almost three entire years since the launch of the Nintendo Switch? I sure can’t. Yet, we still only have two basic themes to choose from for the main screen and the eShop is an unorganized mess that needs to be cleaned up with better curation.
For 2020, Nintendo needs to clean its room instead of just putting everything under the bed and in the closet to hide it from suspicious eyes. More themes would be a solid first step, folders sounds like a neat idea too, and the option to show more games on the front screen would be beautiful.
Now, the eShop has literally been the same since launch and there are still only options to see top-sellers, new releases, and games on sale and no other categories. I would love to see a category for recommended games, first-party games, indie games, and better curation that makes me actually compelled to look through the digital storefront.
Improve Mobile Games
I do like that Nintendo has been exploring the mobile gaming market these past few years and it has been working for them as some titles like Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp are making a ton of money for the Japanese company.
In 2019, the company released three more mobile titles: Pokemon Masters, Mario Kart Tour, and Dr. Mario World. As someone who has spent a good amount of time with all three of these games, I can honestly say that they’re just fine and not as high-quality as one would expect from Nintendo, especially in the case of Mario Kart Tour.
The mobile kart racer is plagued with microtransactions and the touch-screen controls just aren’t as intuitive or satisfying as they should be. Dr. Mario World was fun for a while but you mix in the random difficulty spikes with those microtransactions, and it sours the puzzle experience.
I want Nintendo to be better in 2020 when it comes to mobile gaming and really think about what franchises they choose to adapt to the mobile market –you can’t just turn every big series into a mobile game, it has to be crafted well and made specifically for touchscreens.
Add More Modern Classics
There’s a vast library of classic Nintendo games that are simply unplayable on the Switch besides some NES and SNES titles. While the Wii and Wii U had the amazing Virtual Console service that allowed people to purchase N64, GBA, and other games of the past, the Switch is still missing that same function and it’s a shame.
Fans speculate that Nintendo might be working on a N64 mini console as they did with the NES and SNES but we’ve been waiting and it seems like a release is far along at this point or it might not even come.
I’m not saying that Nintendo needs to outright give consumers every N64/GameCube game that’s ever been released but it would be nice to start trickling out at least some titles in 2020 for us to relive.
More DLC for First-Party Titles
Super Mario Party came out of the gates without much content to keep Mario Party fan satisfied and yet Luigi’s Mansion 3 is the game that got downloadable content this year already –it’s quite mind-boggling to be quite honest.
Nintendo released huge expansion packs for Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 on Wii U but games like Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Party which were begging to be expanded upon with more worlds and game boards, didn’t get any of that.
Maybe Nintendo intends on releasing a sequel to both of those games sometime soon which would make sense for the lack of bonus content in 2019 but Nintendo needs to be more selective in 2020 for which of its titles gets DLC and what kind of DLC they receive.
Nintendo seems to be all over the place when it comes to downloadable content for its titles this generation so far. It’s either a fantastic piece of content like the Splatoon 2 single-player expansion or it’s very forgettable modes like the hunt for the balloon mini-game in Super Mario Odyssey.
Published: Jan 2, 2020 12:32 pm