Like millions of other people, since the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons I have been playing daily. In fact, I have found that my island is the perfect way to de-stress after a long day. There are complaints I have with the game, but something struck me as I was playing the other day. The fashion aspect of the game is practically worthy of its own game.

Animal Crossing is known for providing all sorts of interesting things to do. In the older games, you could even have arcade cabinets in your houses that had full versions of retro Nintendo games on them. They even made Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer where you decorate houses for people. The reason I bring this up is that I think Nintendo should consider what they have here with the fashion choices in New Horizons.

Because there is such a vast array of outfits from costumes, casual wear, and even formal wear, I could see people looking to Animal Crossing: New Horizons as sort of a fashion simulator. I’ll admit that I have joked with friends and family that I have a clothing addiction in New Horizons, but this just lends even further to my point.

Label comes to your town and asks you to dress with a theme, why not create a game entirely around that? Dressing other animals or dressing to fit an aesthetic are just a few options. You could dress for weddings, holidays, casual days with color themes or settings. On top of that, it would be great for boys and girls who are interested in fashion to be able to see how you can mix and match different things.

I was talking to our Managing Editor Lisa about it the other day, and I brought up the idea that New Horizons almost provided a sort of natural technological evolution for “dress-up”. There are plenty of dress-up games online, but they’re very limited and are usually marketed to girls.

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can be male, female, non-binary, or anything in between. Want a male body that wears dresses and skirts? Go for it. Want to present as a female with shorts, t-shirts, or jeans? Go for it. This is what I mean when I say Animal Crossing makes a great fashion simulator. I’ve even seen Drag Queens on Twitch who do drag contests for their Animal Crossing characters with friends.

The only real limitation that I’ve noticed is the storage capacity in your house. Right now my storage caps out at 1600 spaces, so if I save too much in terms of clothing or furniture, I’ll eventually fill it up. Hopefully, in future updates, Nintendo will add more storage space and maybe even new clothing down the line.

Nintendo should take notice of this, because even if they don’t make any more updates with new clothes, I think the sheer amount of custom designs and outfits people are making is worth acknowledging. People have used the custom design app in-game to make everything from superhero costumes from films and TV, all the way to popular gaming and anime related outfits.

If Nintendo doesn’t take notice of how profitable a fashion designing/fashion simulation game is, indie developers are bound to. Maybe we’ll see a developer create something with the same feel but a wider range of gameplay mechanics. A management-style game involving dressing other people or designing runway/event looks would be a great creative option.

The character creation aspect of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is so great. Not only can you pick what your character looks like, but now you can style them in any way you want. The opportunity to dress your character in any style and express yourself is one of many reasons that this game appeals to so many people. I hope that Nintendo remembers this moving forward, and I hope other developers do too.

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