Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer Reviews
Although there are a fun mix of characters and the writing is what you'd expect from an "Animal Crossing" game, "Happy Home Designer" requires entirely too much work and not enough satisfaction for even the most dedicated fans of the franchise. If you're starving for some of the series' classic gameplay, you won't find it here.
My coworkers were little help. Lottie, who started every single day telling me to do my best, became my personal kitten poster. Hang in there! Another had set up an Amiibo phone, to call Amiibos, you see. What if you want to call anyone else? Too bad, he said. This is an Amiibo phone. I used the Amiibo phone once, using an included Amiibo card. The client, a pink otter named Pascal, told me to design him a house, and gave me no criteria. What little structure the game had somehow became even less so.
It's also very nice to see a dead town turn into a thriving community before your very eyes; I just didn't expect to see it in about six hours. The most disheartening part of the game, though, are the NPCs who barely seem to exist in this world beyond saying "I like apples, please make me an apple house". While the charm of the series is fully represented here, the wit and deeper experiences of the franchise are not, and that leaves me feeling like the game overall is just a shallow title in a series that can do a lot more.
A mini-game at a maxi-price
Overall, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer proves to be a substantial disappointment for the franchise. Yes, the game does make large strides in the designing element of Animal Crossing, but it fails to create any sort of experience that is even remotely engaging or captivating. Sure, the series' charm, wit, and quirky dialogue is still all there; though, unfortunately at the end of the day (yes, many will probably finish off the game within a day), manyy players will be left scratching their heads wondering why they ever spent $40 on this cash-in Animal Crossing title.
The happiness of Happy Home Designer is a sheen. Poke at the surface and the clients are all too delighted about whatever you design, wherever it's located, however you fill it, and no matter the effort you put into it. If you're content with looking at the game as a tool purely for self-expression or as way to reunite with Animal Crossing friends both new and old, then Happy Home Designer passes adequately. But if you're looking for any kind of challenge or doing anything other than designing spaces for everyone but yourself, you're better off popping in New Leaf instead, especially since both titles have the same asking price of $39.99. Ultimately, what's exciting about Happy Home Designer is waiting for the enhanced touch controls, yard building, and item catalog to be included in the next main entry of Animal Crossing. Otherwise, Happy Home Designer feels like a standalone expansion that's inexplicably missing the solid foundation that New Leaf should have provided.
Despite revamped controls and a cheerful aesthetic, Happy Home Designer still feels like a dead-end job.
It's a deep dive into Animal Crossing's ordinarily shallow home-design pool, without the town elements that make the series such a success
It's an absolute feat that Nintendo was able to retain the trademark Animal Crossing charming feel without including many of the tropes that have been present since the series began back in 2001. That novelty, however, is fleeting, and after a few hours of play, you're left with a shallow feeling that your work has gotten you nowhere. Even when viewed through the lens of "just a spinoff," Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is disappointing.
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer will appeal those love decorating homes and collecting Nintendo's new amiibo cards, but for the rest of us, it's a broken home.
Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer looks and sounds like the game that fans were expecting; unfortunately it lacks the depth and addictiveness to keep you interested. Even with its cast of adorable characters and excellent soundtrack, the gameplay becomes stale really fast and you'll find yourself grasping at what little the game has to offer in order to find something to hold your attention.
"Get creative and you might enjoy it."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
On the whole, it's fair to say that most spin-offs are doomed to live in the shadow of their more popular source materials. Even so, Happy Home Designer did have the potential to stand on its own two legs - the sole ingredient needed to confirm that fact being the element of fun, which it sadly lacks. Everything is polished to a very typical high-gloss, Nintendo-brand sheen, but without any deep or meaningful gameplay system in place to bolster the charm, Happy Home Designer ends up feeling disappointingly shallow, with minimal longevity. Perhaps as an eShop game the effect would have been softened - at best, there are a few hours of enjoyment to be had, but the finished package lends little to the justification of a standalone release.
Feels like it would benefit from a longer plot, but still fun if you overlook the repetitive nature.
Ultimately, Happy Home Designer is an adorable and charming game that will delight fans interested in more lighthearted Animal Crossing fare. It might not have enough variety of content for the series' more hardcore fanbase, so if you're looking for another New Leaf this likely isn't the title for you. Folks who thoroughly enjoyed the design aspects of the last mainline game, however, should get more mileage out of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer.
"The simple and intuitive gameplay will especially appeal to younger gamers, as will the creativity, but the key disappointment is the limited scope. Happy Home Designer captures some of the Animal Crossing magic, but not enough to make it an essential entry in the series.""Although there are a fun mix of characters and the writing is what you'd expect from an Animal Crossing game, Happy Home Designer requires entirely too much work and not enough satisfaction for even the most dedicated fans of the franchise. If you're starving for some of the series' classic gameplay, you won't find it here.""If the two concepts are ever combined my loved ones will probably never see me again as I turn myself into a shut in, but for now this is a fantastic way to tide yourself over until that glorious day comes.""However, the lack of any real challenge is a fatal flaw, and while it's possible to create a stunning variety of different rooms and buildings, the gameplay does become repetitive quite quickly.""There's no shortage of actual designing to do, and the series' charm prevents it from becoming just a series of soulless tasks. Plus, you won't have to worry about being in debt with a raccoon this time around.""It's strangely addicting, and designing homes for some of the more offbeat villagers like the mad scientists, wrestling fanatics, and criminal masterminds is really fun. I just wish they had built in some kind of grading rhetoric for how well your designs resonated with the clients."
Although it doesn't feel as full as New Leaf, Happy Home Designer is a fine game that should've aspired to more.
Nintendo's domestic design sim is as cute as you'd expect, but although the lights are on, there's nobody home
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is a brand new take on the series that manages to make moving furniture fun, but fails to innovate in a meaningful way.
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer misses the high mark set by the main series. Taking one aspect of the game and making it the focus helps improve the mechanics, but the end result is far less enjoyable as it removes many of the things that made AC so unique.