Recently, I was watching a YouTube video called “Why Animal Crossing: New Leaf is EASILY the Best Game in the Series” by Protendo. This video compared the features of Animal Crossing: New Leaf primarily with the newest game in the series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. As someone who has only played New Horizons, I had heard criticisms of the game, but it hadn’t been fully put into perspective until I saw this video. It reminded me a lot of an article I wrote in 2022 called “Why Sims 3 is so Much Better Than Sims 4,” especially the progression of the games going from better to objectively worse. I wanted to directly compare games to show the parallels between the decline of the two game series.
Release:
A point Protendo started with was the circumstances of the release of Animal Crossing New Leaf and how it affected the quality of New Horizons. New Leaf was released after Animal Crossing: Wild World, which had a lot of negative feedback upon its release due to being too similar to the original Animal Crossing. This motivated the creators to take the feedback of players and create New Leaf, which took all the good of the old games and added more, making a better experience for the player.
The success of this game is ultimately what caused New Horizons to be lacking. The creators still took criticisms of the game, but rather than building a better game off of those criticisms, they built a new game with the primary focus of fixing those. One of the main criticisms of New Leaf was the graphics and the lack of customization. New Horizons thus became a game with great graphics all about customization, leaving the most loved aspects of the game neglected.
A very similar thing happened with the release of Sims 4. Sims 3 was an extremely loved game. It took the charm of Sims 2 and added onto it to create an enjoyable experience. Similarly, some of the main criticisms of Sims 3 was the graphics and customization, specifically when it came to building and decoration. Like New Horizons, Sims 4 has amazing graphics, a big step up from Sims 3, and it has a much better building experience, but that's about it when it comes to what is better. Two separate games who terribly misinterpreted what additions would make a better game following a big success.
A point Protendo started with was the circumstances of the release of Animal Crossing New Leaf and how it affected the quality of New Horizons. New Leaf was released after Animal Crossing: Wild World, which had a lot of negative feedback upon its release due to being too similar to the original Animal Crossing. This motivated the creators to take the feedback of players and create New Leaf, which took all the good of the old games and added more, making a better experience for the player.
The success of this game is ultimately what caused New Horizons to be lacking. The creators still took criticisms of the game, but rather than building a better game off of those criticisms, they built a new game with the primary focus of fixing those. One of the main criticisms of New Leaf was the graphics and the lack of customization. New Horizons thus became a game with great graphics all about customization, leaving the most loved aspects of the game neglected.
A very similar thing happened with the release of Sims 4. Sims 3 was an extremely loved game. It took the charm of Sims 2 and added onto it to create an enjoyable experience. Similarly, some of the main criticisms of Sims 3 was the graphics and customization, specifically when it came to building and decoration. Like New Horizons, Sims 4 has amazing graphics, a big step up from Sims 3, and it has a much better building experience, but that's about it when it comes to what is better. Two separate games who terribly misinterpreted what additions would make a better game following a big success.
Neighbors:
One of the biggest things that led New Leaf to be a better game was the dynamic between the player and the Villagers. Upon the start of the game, the player is appointed mayor of the town. However, it is never made to feel as though you are more important than any of the villagers. When you arrive, people already live there, and they have their own lives and homes. When you arrive on the New Horizons island, it is a blank slate, the only other people who live there are two villagers that arrived the same time as you, and you are solely responsible for choosing where they live, the name of the town, and being the only contributor to the development of the town. New villagers can only arrive after the player buys their homes, builds their furniture, and GOES TO FIND THEM. You have to literally buy a Nook island ticket to go to a Mystery Island to find people in need of a place to live, and you can actively deny people. Granted, if you wait long enough, people will just show up in the empty homes, but that makes the villagers feel more like pets than people you’re inhabiting a space with, which is exactly how the villagers are treated in New Horizon. This might seem appealing as a player until you realize what was sacrificed for this amount of control—Personality—but more to that later.
When you enter the game of Sims 3, you are immediately brought to a world view. From there, you can choose to create a family of your own to join this preconceived town, or you can take on the lives of already made sims. No matter what you choose, you become a part of something larger. These sims already have careers, families, memories, and relationships with other sims. There is actually a deep and extensive lore in the sims—but this basically stopped at Sims 3.
In Sims 4, the first thing you are brought to is “create a sim,” putting more emphasis on customization being the main aspect of the game. After you spend no less than an hour making a sim, you can finally go into the game and… build a house, or you can choose from the only two houses you can afford or an empty lot. Once you get your house, you will see your neighbors once for a welcome wagon, and then never again. Townies have little effect on the player outside of being possible love interests or a friend who will come over and use your computer. You can choose to play as another family only after you’ve created your own sim, but it’s not very different from playing your own family because their preconceived existence doesn’t really have any substance. Which wouldn’t be a problem if they had…
One of the biggest things that led New Leaf to be a better game was the dynamic between the player and the Villagers. Upon the start of the game, the player is appointed mayor of the town. However, it is never made to feel as though you are more important than any of the villagers. When you arrive, people already live there, and they have their own lives and homes. When you arrive on the New Horizons island, it is a blank slate, the only other people who live there are two villagers that arrived the same time as you, and you are solely responsible for choosing where they live, the name of the town, and being the only contributor to the development of the town. New villagers can only arrive after the player buys their homes, builds their furniture, and GOES TO FIND THEM. You have to literally buy a Nook island ticket to go to a Mystery Island to find people in need of a place to live, and you can actively deny people. Granted, if you wait long enough, people will just show up in the empty homes, but that makes the villagers feel more like pets than people you’re inhabiting a space with, which is exactly how the villagers are treated in New Horizon. This might seem appealing as a player until you realize what was sacrificed for this amount of control—Personality—but more to that later.
When you enter the game of Sims 3, you are immediately brought to a world view. From there, you can choose to create a family of your own to join this preconceived town, or you can take on the lives of already made sims. No matter what you choose, you become a part of something larger. These sims already have careers, families, memories, and relationships with other sims. There is actually a deep and extensive lore in the sims—but this basically stopped at Sims 3.
In Sims 4, the first thing you are brought to is “create a sim,” putting more emphasis on customization being the main aspect of the game. After you spend no less than an hour making a sim, you can finally go into the game and… build a house, or you can choose from the only two houses you can afford or an empty lot. Once you get your house, you will see your neighbors once for a welcome wagon, and then never again. Townies have little effect on the player outside of being possible love interests or a friend who will come over and use your computer. You can choose to play as another family only after you’ve created your own sim, but it’s not very different from playing your own family because their preconceived existence doesn’t really have any substance. Which wouldn’t be a problem if they had…
Personality:
In Animal Crossing, there are eight personality types: lazy, jock, cranky, and smug, which are male villager personalities, and normal, peppy, snooty, and big sister, which are female personalities. In New Leaf, though characters may share the same personality type, they still have individual quirks that make them unique; many even emphasize how characters are allowed to be rude and make fun of the player. However, in New Horizons, any villager of the same personality type has the same voice lines, with the only difference being the designated catchphrase of the villager. This leaves all the interactions between the player and villagers to be very dry, meaning that outside of customization, there's not really much substance to the game.
Something similar happened in the sims. In the Sims 3 base game, there are 63 personality traits and 32 lifetime wishes. A sim can have five chosen traits, a lifetime wish, a zodiac sign, favorite food, favorite color, and favorite music genre in create-a-sim—whereas Sims 4 has 38 traits and 23 aspirations. Sims can have three traits, one aspiration, and likes or dislikes on music, colors, and activities. This means that there is less variation between Sims. However, that doesn’t even matter because the traits in Sims 4 don’t affect the gameplay AT ALL. At least, not positively. Mostly negative traits affect the gameplay such as “noncommittal,” where a sim will get a negative moodlet if they’re married, or sims who are vegetarian will get a negative moodlet from eating meat. That only affects your sims, though. Any interaction with other sims are exactly the same, and there isn’t enough variation in the interactions to make it interesting.
In Animal Crossing, there are eight personality types: lazy, jock, cranky, and smug, which are male villager personalities, and normal, peppy, snooty, and big sister, which are female personalities. In New Leaf, though characters may share the same personality type, they still have individual quirks that make them unique; many even emphasize how characters are allowed to be rude and make fun of the player. However, in New Horizons, any villager of the same personality type has the same voice lines, with the only difference being the designated catchphrase of the villager. This leaves all the interactions between the player and villagers to be very dry, meaning that outside of customization, there's not really much substance to the game.
Something similar happened in the sims. In the Sims 3 base game, there are 63 personality traits and 32 lifetime wishes. A sim can have five chosen traits, a lifetime wish, a zodiac sign, favorite food, favorite color, and favorite music genre in create-a-sim—whereas Sims 4 has 38 traits and 23 aspirations. Sims can have three traits, one aspiration, and likes or dislikes on music, colors, and activities. This means that there is less variation between Sims. However, that doesn’t even matter because the traits in Sims 4 don’t affect the gameplay AT ALL. At least, not positively. Mostly negative traits affect the gameplay such as “noncommittal,” where a sim will get a negative moodlet if they’re married, or sims who are vegetarian will get a negative moodlet from eating meat. That only affects your sims, though. Any interaction with other sims are exactly the same, and there isn’t enough variation in the interactions to make it interesting.
Worlds:
One big gripe that Protendo had with New Horizons was that the island felt isolating. There is very little connection with the outside world because the only way to visit somewhere else is by plane or boat, and the entire island is surrounded by open water. Even when on the plane, the whole journey is a loading screen, waiting for you to connect to your friend's island. Conversely, New Leaf’s main form of transportation is a train, and rather than an island, you inhabit a town. Though it might not seem very different, the feeling of still being connected to society makes the game feel more cozy and less isolating.
There's a very similar gripe in the sims: Sims 3 features an open world experience. At any time, you can see everything going on in the world and your sims travel via car. In Sims 4, there is a loading screen between any location you go to. Even if you go to visit your neighbors next door, there’s a loading screen. You can’t even control your sims if they’re in different locations UNLESS you go through a loading screen. Even if there's no loading screen, like when your sims go to work, the sim just disappears and reappears when work is over. This makes the experience of the game so much less interesting because you spend so much of your time waiting that it would be easier for your sim to just never leave the house, or to just not play at all. These features disconnect the player from any semblance of an outside world, making the games feel less comforting.
One big gripe that Protendo had with New Horizons was that the island felt isolating. There is very little connection with the outside world because the only way to visit somewhere else is by plane or boat, and the entire island is surrounded by open water. Even when on the plane, the whole journey is a loading screen, waiting for you to connect to your friend's island. Conversely, New Leaf’s main form of transportation is a train, and rather than an island, you inhabit a town. Though it might not seem very different, the feeling of still being connected to society makes the game feel more cozy and less isolating.
There's a very similar gripe in the sims: Sims 3 features an open world experience. At any time, you can see everything going on in the world and your sims travel via car. In Sims 4, there is a loading screen between any location you go to. Even if you go to visit your neighbors next door, there’s a loading screen. You can’t even control your sims if they’re in different locations UNLESS you go through a loading screen. Even if there's no loading screen, like when your sims go to work, the sim just disappears and reappears when work is over. This makes the experience of the game so much less interesting because you spend so much of your time waiting that it would be easier for your sim to just never leave the house, or to just not play at all. These features disconnect the player from any semblance of an outside world, making the games feel less comforting.
Shops:
In New Leaf, there is a section of the town called mainstreet. It's a collection of at least seven shops and community buildings where the player can buy anything from furniture, to clothing, to fortunes. Many of these buildings have special villagers that work there, whom you can build a relationship with.
In New Horizons, there are three shops: the Cafe, The Able Sisters, and Nooks Cranny. There are 3 additional buildings, being the airport, museum, and the city hall. Now, certain special villagers like Redd and Flick only occasionally shop up to your island to sell or buy things, but it’s a game of chance for when they’ll show up. Eventually, you can get a similar setup as New Leaf, by buying land for all of the vendors on a SEPARATE ISLAND: Harvey’s island. You end up getting a much smaller variety than if you just waited for the villagers to come. Not to mention, most of the special villagers can’t even be attained without Amiibo cards: purchased collectors cards that allow a player to summon certain villagers to the island. However, as a collectors item, it isn’t even guaranteed that you would get these villagers.
Once again, we see something similar reflected in the sims. In Sims 3, sims could go out in the town and buy groceries, books, and even go out to eat with family and friends. There were special sims like firefighters and policemen that would show up in danger. You could get robbed by burglars!
In the Sims 4, there is none of this. If your sims want to buy groceries, they can only do so online and get them delivered. Firefighters weren’t added to the game until 2020, six years after the game was released! The same way you can’t get certain villagers without Amiibo cards in Animal Crossing, you can’t have certain experiences without expansion packs in Sims 4! You couldn’t go out for a meal until the “Dine Out” pack, which was primarily focused on owning restaurants. Additionally, you couldn’t go shopping until the “Get to Work” pack, which, again, primarily focused on owning the stores. These games put so much emphasis on the player being in control that they forget to add substance and character to the games.
In New Leaf, there is a section of the town called mainstreet. It's a collection of at least seven shops and community buildings where the player can buy anything from furniture, to clothing, to fortunes. Many of these buildings have special villagers that work there, whom you can build a relationship with.
In New Horizons, there are three shops: the Cafe, The Able Sisters, and Nooks Cranny. There are 3 additional buildings, being the airport, museum, and the city hall. Now, certain special villagers like Redd and Flick only occasionally shop up to your island to sell or buy things, but it’s a game of chance for when they’ll show up. Eventually, you can get a similar setup as New Leaf, by buying land for all of the vendors on a SEPARATE ISLAND: Harvey’s island. You end up getting a much smaller variety than if you just waited for the villagers to come. Not to mention, most of the special villagers can’t even be attained without Amiibo cards: purchased collectors cards that allow a player to summon certain villagers to the island. However, as a collectors item, it isn’t even guaranteed that you would get these villagers.
Once again, we see something similar reflected in the sims. In Sims 3, sims could go out in the town and buy groceries, books, and even go out to eat with family and friends. There were special sims like firefighters and policemen that would show up in danger. You could get robbed by burglars!
In the Sims 4, there is none of this. If your sims want to buy groceries, they can only do so online and get them delivered. Firefighters weren’t added to the game until 2020, six years after the game was released! The same way you can’t get certain villagers without Amiibo cards in Animal Crossing, you can’t have certain experiences without expansion packs in Sims 4! You couldn’t go out for a meal until the “Dine Out” pack, which was primarily focused on owning restaurants. Additionally, you couldn’t go shopping until the “Get to Work” pack, which, again, primarily focused on owning the stores. These games put so much emphasis on the player being in control that they forget to add substance and character to the games.
Conclusion:
I know I talk big talk on bashing these games, but as someone who has put thousands of hours into Sims and hundreds into Animal Crossing, I can say that these games are enjoyable, for a certain amount of time. After a while, you kind of just run out of things to do. I find it crazy how two completely different games can make so many similar mistakes following such big successes in their franchises prior.
I hope my long winded rant doesn’t discourage people from enjoying these games. In fact, if people asked my favorite game, I’d probably say one of the two. If you’ve been interested in either franchise, I’d definitely still give it a try. Don’t spend your money on dlc, though. It is NOT worth it.
I know I talk big talk on bashing these games, but as someone who has put thousands of hours into Sims and hundreds into Animal Crossing, I can say that these games are enjoyable, for a certain amount of time. After a while, you kind of just run out of things to do. I find it crazy how two completely different games can make so many similar mistakes following such big successes in their franchises prior.
I hope my long winded rant doesn’t discourage people from enjoying these games. In fact, if people asked my favorite game, I’d probably say one of the two. If you’ve been interested in either franchise, I’d definitely still give it a try. Don’t spend your money on dlc, though. It is NOT worth it.