Comparing Animal Crossing: New Horizons' graphics to previous titles in the series

[Flyffel]

The game looks fantastic...

 

[oath2order]

OK ! Here's an infographic I put together with screenshots taken on Google of all the mainline Animal Crossing games (I did not bother to include Amiibo Festival, Happy Home Designer or Pocket Camp). I know it's hard to compare the first two titles with the rest because images are smaller or are just hard to come by. Also, I had to crop up the New Horizons' screenshots because they were much bigger than all the others (so the game looks even better than what's shown here).

What are your thoughts on the graphical evolution of the Animal Crossing series? Here are a few things to look at :

• Art direction (colours, design)
• Changes brought over the years
• Things that did not change

- - - Post Merge - - -

The most obvious change is in the colour palette used in New Horizons. The new title has a much more artistic approach to colours. Can you spot how colours complements each other, it has a more 'pastel' look than previous titles. It can be attributed to artistic choices, yes, but also to the use of an advanced lighting system.

It just looks way better now. Other titles had vibrant colours (not any less than in New Horizons), but they were darker, and not always mixing well with others. They had a much harder, opaque look to them.

The art direction is a LOT brighter. Though, one issue I had with NL is that while we had street lights, the nighttime was still relatively bright. I hope for somewhat darker nights.

 

[Ossiran]

The art direction is a LOT brighter. Though, one issue I had with NL is that while we had street lights, the nighttime was still relatively bright. I hope for somewhat darker nights.

We actually saw what night looks like in the trailer.

 

[oath2order]

We actually saw what night looks like in the trailer.

Oh.

:/

I was hoping for slightly darker.

I suppose that's fine. It really just looks like "overcast day".

 

[lexy_]

the game looks good in general but I was hoping for a mario kart design. It is not so bad and I want to see the final touch in an AC direct next year.