Summary
TheAnimal Crossingseries has become one of Nintendo’s largest franchises in the past decade thanks to the success of titles likeAnimal Crossing: New LeafandAnimal Crossing: New Horizons. However, for many players who were first introduced to the series through one of these games, the olderAnimal Crossingtitles are largely inaccessible to them. As such, Nintendo should capitalize on the popularity ofAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsand fill the gap between it and the next brand-new entry with a remake of the originalAnimal Crossingtitle for GameCube.
Remakes of older games are popular within the current video game industry since they are a great way to make a complete series accessible on modern consoles. Although each entry in theAnimal Crossingseries tends to replace its predecessor, and there is no canon timeline for the games since they lack a distinct narrative, there are still elements of the older games that are worth experiencing in the current day. Rather than developing another spin-off title, Nintendo should remake theoriginalAnimal Crossingto allow new players to see where the series started.
The Original Animal Crossing for GameCube Deserves a Remake
The Original Animal Crossing Has Never Been Re-Released
One of the biggest reasons the originalAnimal Crossingneeds to be remade is that it is currently only available on the GameCube, making it inaccessible to modern audiences. Other entries in the series likeAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldwere re-released via theWii U’s Virtual Console, but there has never been a similar avenue for the GameCube entry to see a re-release. This means that the only legal way players can experience this original title is through an over-20-year-old console, which can be hard to come by today.
Nintendo has likely never felt the need to re-release this original title, since the entries that followed were similar enough while also improving upon it to the point where the original game might feel outdated. However, as the series has grown andchanged a lot with the release ofAnimal Crossing: New Horizons,many longtime fans believe it has lost some of the original’s magic. To remedy this feeling, Nintendo could release a faithful remake or remaster of the GameCube entry at a budget price to account for the fact that it is more bare-bones than a modern entry likeNew Horizons.
Nintendo Could Continue its Current Trend of GameCube Remakes
The other major factor that makes anAnimal CrossingGameCube remake all the more logical is that it would follow Nintendo’s current trend of remaking and remastering other GameCube titles for the Switch. Recent releases likeMetroid Prime RemasteredandPikmin 1+2show that there is a great demand for these types of games in the modern day, and the upcomingremaster ofPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorindicates that Nintendo is committed to continuing this trend. It only makes sense that the company should continue making games from this console more accessible, andAnimal Crossingis the perfect candidate for this treatment.
This remake could largely remain faithful to the original, keeping its limited catalog of furniture, bugs, and fish along with some of the more rude villager personalities fans have come to miss. MostAnimal Crossingfans would likely be happy just to see some forgotten villagers andNPCs like Porterand Mr. Resetti again just with the improved graphical quality that a modern console like the Switch could deliver. While a game like this might feel like a downgrade compared toAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, it could help ease the wait until the next new entry in the series while also capitalizing on fan nostalgia and the success of previous GameCube remasters.
