I have a confession to make: I am a huge Animal Crossing fanatic. A game where you hang out with animals in a village and pay off a ludicrous mortgage? It’s just the right amount of weird to keep me addicted. So, instead of my usual adventuring to find great indie games and hidden gems, I’ve been stuck behind my 3DS, playing one of the latest (and strangest) additions to the Animal Crossing series, Happy Home Designer.
This game is the HGTV of video games: instead of a resident of the village, your character is a new hire of Nook’s Homes, tasked with designing a variety of houses and businesses to keep your animal clients happy. And just like the best home design shows, you are given complete creative control-- feel free to recreate your favorite disasterpieces from Trading Spaces if you wish. Your clients will give you a basic guideline, but other than that, the sky’s the limit!
Designing is fun and intuitive-- using the stylus, you can drag and drop to your heart’s content. If you’ve ever struggled with the typical Animal Crossing design experience, rest assured that it is much easier to summon, move, and copy furniture in this game. And no need to worry about gamified “objectives” or the importance of feng shui-- you aren’t being graded, and your client will love your work regardless. That being said, I liked to follow the (minimal) prompts, so I can experience all that the extensive furniture catalog had to offer. Especially if an animal insists on a tractor and hay in their living room.
There are hundreds of animals desiring a brand-new home, so there’s tons of work to be done. Plus, if you’ve got your heart set on one particular animal, there are trading cards (!) you can scan in with a NFC reader to request your favorites. I enjoyed designing facilities the best: would a modern school be the most fun, or perhaps something more Hogwarts-like? There’s also plenty to explore online, where you can visit the impressively creative designs of players around the world.
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As a fan of home design shows, relaxing games, cute animals, and obsessively collecting trading cards, I’ve been more than happy to give Happy Home Designer first priority in my 3DS game collection. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Raccoon boss who demands that I get back to work.
Let me know if you’d like to trade cards!
-The Dungeon Dame
Let me know if you’d like to trade cards!
-The Dungeon Dame
