At its heart, Animal Crossing is a game that’s all about personal flair, customisation, and expressing yourself. And now that even franchises like Pokemon allow players to choose their skin colour, some are wondering: why doesn’t Animal Crossing allow you to do the same thing?
All player characters in Nintendo’s the games have typically allowed players to get a tan if they stay out in the sun for long enough:
The tan eventually wears off, but the inclusion of this mechanic makes it clear that the game already has the assets for a variety of skin colours…it just doesn’t let you pick them. (Although obviously, I imagine allowing players to choose their skin colour would still take work to properly implement). It should be noted that other facial features are dictated by the game itself, depending on what you say at the beginning of the game — although later you get to customise aspects such as hair style. Savvy players might look at a FAQ to ensure that they look how they desire. Nintendo also added the ability to customise small details with New Leaf, such as socks and shoes.
For now, many fans have taken to Twitter and other places around the web to voice their concerns to Nintendo — they’re hoping for a patch of sorts. Here’s a small selection of Tweets, although you can peruse the @ replies in their entirety here:
ur character’s skin tone changes when you wear a mii mask, not just when ur tan. come on
@nintendoamerica u can do this. it’s already there
please let people choose their skin colour in animal crossing! it’s important that everyone is able to play as themselves.
I think it would be a Good Idea for a whole bunch of folks to message
@NintendoAmerica asking for this option as a patch in New Leaf.
Hey
@NintendoAmerica having different, non tanning skin tones in New Leaf would make this game even more amazing.
Hey
@NintendoAmerica patch in skin tones in#ACNL because it’s really unfair to make your players be white
hi
@NintendoAmerica good job on the gender thing but my non-white friends are still forced to play as a white character pls fix that
Comments
13 responses to “Animal Crossing Fans Want More Than Just White Skin Colors In New Leaf”
Why am I a human when I can be a penguin? or a hamster? this game is obviously too pro-human for my tastes.
Why am I a substantial, solid manifestation when I could be an ethereal 4 dimensional omnipotent spirit?
Clearly for a game that doesn’t let me create a character, they need more character creation options. It’s like they aren’t even trying.
/Sarcasm
Do people make this same argument for Pokemon?
Actually, Yes.
Why can’t people just play as the character that the designers came up with?
It’s all so silly.
Strange I’m white and I don’t feel “forced” or inconvenienced in anyway by having to play with a black or asian character, doesn’t deter me from a good game at all.
Bit insulting someone wouldn’t want to play a game because the character may have a skin tone similar too my own. Anyway… make the characters black or brown or purple, I’d still play it.
Pokemon lets you choose your skin colour?
I assume they mean the new one.
“And now that even franchises like Pokemon”
You can pick from 3 “shades” of skin tone. The difference is subtle. The lighter skin has lighter hair and darker skin, darker hair. The shift in hair colour is more noticeable, imo.This game is about playing how you want, I can’t see why it wasn’t included. I wonder if they will patch it in.
Considering they’ve already got the tanning mechanic for changing skin colours in place, I don’t see why they couldn’t let you choose the colour of your character’s skin?
I mean giving you more choice on the way you look isn’t a bad thing you know?.
Haha Nintendo is being racist.
While on the other side, Mirrors Edge is getting complaints because Faith looks too Asian for the Asians?
God, you’re all retards. You’re forgetting where the game was created and who the main target audience is. This goes for everything else that comes out of Japan. The average Japanese person’s skin isn’t too far off from an average white person’s skin in terms of brightness. They’re not making everyone “white”, they’re catering THEIR games to THEIR people. Why do you think EVERY character you start off with has black eyes by default in the Japanese version? Because the character is Japanese. It’s not Japan’s problem if America sells THEIR game and doesn’t please every damn color known to man because they’re a small country with very little ethnic diversity. Yes, it would be good idea if they could just give more default skin color options, but they’re not being racist for not doing so. It’s like why is it that every main character in a is either black or white? Because that’s the majority there. And the tanning mechanic wasn’t meant to be a shitty-end-of-the-stick for people with darker skin color to get their skin color; it was just purely what it is— tanning. That’s why it takes so long.