Animal Crossing: New Leaf Accessibility Report - 3DS and 2DS

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Animal Crossing:
New Leaf

Accessibility Report

24 Accessibility Features

We've documented 24 accessibility features for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, including Large Subtitles, Large Text, Guaranteed Progress, Low Pressure and No Quick Reactions. Its accessibility is strongest in Reading and Visual but it also has features in Getting Started, Controls, Navigation and Audio to reduce unintended barriers.

This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a life simulation game where you design your dream village in a world filled with anthropomorphic animals. Like other Animal Crossing games, you design and decorate your home, collect and sell items, chat and play with villagers, and partake in activities throughout the days and weeks. In this game, however, you are the mayor of the whole village, giving you even more freedom to create an imaginative, beautiful haven.

Our accessibility examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Animal Crossing: New Leaf accessibility 6 months ago.

Accessibility Notes

In order to take a picture, you need to hold down both shoulder buttons, but this isn't essential for play.

Visuals are generally bright and quite large, however, because the game is tied to the real-world clock, playing at night turns the visuals darker and harder to see.

Fishing requires quick timing to see and hear when the small fish take the bait. Digging up items and fossils can be harder to see as well, as these are marked by subtle changes in the soil. However, none of these activities are required, and if you can't do something there is never any punishment for getting things wrong. There is no difficulty setting but the game is designed to help you get started with lots of tips and advice. You can ignore aspects of the game that are too challenging. Because the game is so open-ended, there is rarely any clear guidance, beyond the tutorial, on your objectives.

There is a map you can see at all times, which shows a simplified view of the village, highlighting your location and different important places with icons matching their function. Although all text is high in contrast and more than 1/20^th the height of the screen, it is still important to note that because of the relatively small screen size ( and low resolution) of the 3DS screens, text may be difficult to read for some players, and other objects may also be hard to discern.

A character's toe is sometimes expressed by changing the size of their subtitles, or by adding effects such as a shake to the speech bubble (there is no screen shake that affects the world at large).

Game Details

Release Date: 08/11/2012, updated in 2016

Out Now: 3DS and 2DS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Players: 1-4 (4 online)

Genres: Collecting, Narrative, Simulation (Adventure, Communication, Role-Play and Sequencing)

Accessibility: 24 features

Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon, Day and Night, Open World, Persistant World and Weather

Developer: Nintendo (@Nintendo)

Costs: Purchase cost

Controls

We've documented 4 accessibility features for Controls in Animal Crossing: New Leaf which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.

Gamepad

Can play with the following:

Multiple Buttons & Single Stick: Can play with multiple buttons and a stick.

Button Combinations

Specific button operation required to play

Holding Down Buttons Optional: Holding down buttons for prolonged periods (a second or more) is not required or can be switched to toggling the action on and off. This is in addition to the movement stick/button which is not considered a hold for this purpose.

Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional: Quick, repeated button pressing (more than 2 times a second) is not required, can be skipped or switched to holding a button to trigger a repeated action.

No Simultaneous Buttons: Only one button or key required at a time, in addition to direction stick(s).

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls

If you want to play Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:

Minecraft (11 Controls Features)
Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (9 Controls Features)
Skyblock (9 Controls Features)
Slime Rancher 2 (8 Controls Features)

Difficulty

We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Difficulty in Animal Crossing: New Leaf which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play. The following games are similar to Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and offer accessibility features for Difficulty:

Minecraft (3 Difficulty Features)
Slime Rancher 2 (1 Difficulty Feature)
Skyblock (1 Difficulty Feature)
Slime Rancher (1 Difficulty Feature)

Getting Started

We've documented 5 accessibility features for Getting Started in Animal Crossing: New Leaf which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.

Assistance Getting Starting

These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.

Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.

Reaction-Time Not Critical: Individual game actions don’t need quick reactions, or there are settings to lower the requirement for quick reactions. This means you don't need to quickly press a button in response to an on-screen prompt, target a fast-moving target or skillfully complete a scenario against the clock.

Low Pressure: Game tasks aren't time-limited or there's a low-pressure mode. This avoids the pressure of being put on the clock for overarching missions, or failing tasks because you didn't reach a destination in time.

No Jump Scares: No sudden loud noises or popping-up scary visuals that unexpectedly appear without warning, or the option to disable them.

Assistance For Progressing

These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.

Guaranteed Progress With God Mode: There is no fail state for any game level, where you lose progress or have to start again. Or there are options to make failing impossible: infinite health or lives, unlimited time. Sometimes called God Mode or Unfailable.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started

If you want to play Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:

Bug & Seek (8 Getting Started Features)
Mail Time (7 Getting Started Features)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (7 Getting Started Features)
Minecraft (7 Getting Started Features)

Reading

We've documented 6 accessibility features for Reading in Animal Crossing: New Leaf which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.

Reading Level

How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.

Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.

Text Visibility

Large Clear Text: All essential text is large and clear or can be adjusted to be. The general text used throughout the game in menus, instructions and other key information (excluding subtitles that are assessed separately) is at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height on landscape screens and at least 1/40 height on portrait screens. We base this on the full line-height, including the space above and below the letters.

High Contrast Text: Text colour contrasts to the background or can be adjusted to be. The text in menus, instructions and other information is presented in high contrast with a solid background.

Subtitles

Large Clear Subtitles: Subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast. They are at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height of a landscape screen and at least 1/40 height on portrait screens, or can be adjusted to be. We base this on the full line-height, including the space above and below the letters. Considered separately from the general text of the game, the subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast.

All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game): All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to hear spoken dialogue or narrative to play the game.

Captions

Speaker Indicator and their Tone: Textual captions indicate who is speaking and their tone (or there is only ever one person speaking). This can also be indicated visually in the game with character icons or character expressions with text in speech bubbles next to the person speaking.

Navigation

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Navigation in Animal Crossing: New Leaf which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.

Head-Up Display

Game Map: View a map of the game world during play, with the landscape, points of interest and missions highlighted throughout the entire game. This enables the orientation of the player and the world, confirming a direction of movement and the location of destinations or points of exploration.

Menu Navigation

Digital Menu Navigation: Menu choices with Gamepad can be made without using an analogue stick to guide a cursor to a selection. For example, using D-Pad, buttons or the Stick to change menu selection in a single action.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation

If you want to play Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:

Minecraft (7 Navigation Features)
Seabeard (5 Navigation Features)
Paradise Marsh (5 Navigation Features)
Hello Kitty: Island Adventure (4 Navigation Features)

Visual

We've documented 6 accessibility features for Visual in Animal Crossing: New Leaf which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.

Contrast

Medium Contrast: Game uses generally well contrasting and bright visuals, or has a slider to make this the case.

Visual Distractions

No Screen Shake: No screen shake effect or it is included but it can be disabled. This includes the absence of screen shake for dramatic effect as well as to indicate hits on a target.

No Busy Backgrounds: No distracting backgrounds or you can make them static or blank. This includes the absence of other movement elements in the background that might distract or confuse the action. Where foreground contrast is high, this includes games with some movement in the background that doesn't make it overly difficult to distinguish what is happening.

Audio Cues for Visual Events

Audio Cues for Visual Events: Audio is provided to indicate visual events. Game events or progress highlighted by visual icons, effects or animations are also accompanied by audio to signify that progress. This is useful for blind players.

Motion Sickness Friendly

Motion Sickness Friendly: Doesn't have 3D movement elements that may trigger motion sickness, like motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision. Or includes the ability to disable motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision effects.

Colour Options

Colour Blind Friendly: Game doesn’t rely on colour or can switch to colour blind friendly mode with double coding or similar way to avoid colour dependance.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual

If you want to play Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:

Pokémon Sleep (7 Visual Features)
Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (7 Visual Features)
Townscaper (7 Visual Features)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (7 Visual Features)

Audio

We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Audio in Animal Crossing: New Leaf which deals with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.

Play Without Hearing

Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio

If you want to play Animal Crossing: New Leaf, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:

Skyblock (4 Audio Features)
Minecraft (4 Audio Features)
Bug & Seek (3 Audio Features)
Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island (3 Audio Features)

Communication

We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Communication in Animal Crossing: New Leaf which deal with how you can communicate with other players in the game and what options are available to customise and control this interaction. The following games are similar to Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and offer accessibility features for Communication: