New Leaf features a wide variety of new features, including:
- There are now 73 insects and fish in the game, up from 60 in Animal Crossing: City Folk.
- Several new fruit types have been added, including lemons, bananas, mangoes, persimmons, and durians. There is also a new class of fruit, called Delicious Fruit, which commands a higher price.
- New characters have been added, as well as new species (such as hamsters, alpacas and deer).
- The player is now the Mayor and can customize the town's appearance, build various structures and set different regulations.
- The player can now customize their pants and shoes.
- The player can now pick the town map on the train when the game is started.
- House exteriors can now be customized to reflect various styles.
- Certain pieces of furniture can now be placed onto walls.
- The player is able to go swimming in the ocean and dive for coral.
- Several new clothes, hairstyles accessories and pieces of furniture have been added.
- Flowers and plants now drip with water once they have the watering can used on them, allowing the player to know whether they've watered it or not.
- A new tool, the Megaphone, can be used for getting villagers' attention.
- Furniture is now fully customizable using different designs.
- The player can communicate with another player even if they are in a different town.
- New multiplayer games are hosted on islands accessible by boat. These minigames are hosted by Tortimer.
- There is more interaction with the villagers; the player can now see them fishing, going in and out of buildings and shaking trees.
- There is also a larger variety of faces that that can be selected for the player.
- KK Slider now gives you his tracks in CD cases. You can also display his album covers on your wall (when not in the CD player).
- You can now place signposts round your town as a community project.
- You can run around the beach bare foot.
- There are two new Personality types for villagers in addition to the returning six, making for a total of eight different possible personalities.
- Periodically, Nintendo will send gifts and letters through Spot Pass.
