There are plenty of options for customization and creative expression in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but when compared to its predecessors, the furniture selection in the newest installment is severely lacking. With fewer options for furniture than previous Animal Crossing games, the shopping in New Horizons has turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment.
Players can use furniture in New Horizons to decorate their house, and if they do a good job, the Happy Room Academy may rate them well and offer them a corresponding prize. The furniture varies depending on style, and certain pieces of furniture have specific abilities or functions.
The main way to purchase furniture is at a shop, and in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the main furniture shop is Tom Nook’s Store, which has been a mainstay in Animal Crossing games for years. Players can also stop in at the Nookling Store, Re-Tail, or they can try their luck with Crazy Redd, though he’s known to hack counterfeit furniture products. Otherwise, players can also find furniture for free, such as by shaking tress, going to the lost and found, or receiving letters via mail.
Why New Horizons’ Furniture Selection Is So Small
Unfortunately, however, the multitude of ways to get a player’s hand on furniture doesn’t make up for the lack of furnishing options in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There are around 800 pieces of furniture to be found in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but this is hundreds less than the previous game in the Animal Crossing franchise. For comparison, there were over 1,000 furniture items in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Players often expect that new installments in franchises will come with more options for customization, not less, so it’s disappointing and surprising that New Horizons is lacking in this area.
But the lack of furniture options may be intentional on part of the developers. For one, players can create customized furniture in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so this greatly extends the creative opportunities players have with furniture. If they don’t like what the see in Tom Nook’s store, they can change anything from the color to size of the furniture piece to match their liking. Animal Crossing: New Horizons players simply need to find a workbench in order to begin customizing their items.
Another reason as to why the furniture selection was lacking upon Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ initial 2020 release is that the developers could be planning to expand it with further upgrades made to the game. The summer update for New Horizons, for instance, even though it’s been criticized for simply bringing back other old Animal Crossing concepts, did unlock new items and upgrades, among other features. It’s possible that future updates to the game will focus on increasing the amount of furniture and other items available, to give players more of a selection. Even though the current furniture selection may be a disappointment in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there’s opportunity for the developers to give players more options down the road.
