Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been dominating social media in the past few months. The long-awaited next entry in one of Nintendo’s most beloved franchises not only offers fun and unique gameplay, but for many players, it offers something they need during this time- an alternate reality, completely created and customized by themselves.
An Island Getaway awaits You in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
BY CHRISTINA LANCELLOTTA
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been dominating social media in the past few months. The long-awaited next entry in one of Nintendo’s most beloved franchises not only offers fun and unique gameplay, but for many players, it offers something they need during this time- an alternate reality, completely created and customized by themselves.
The game was initially teased in 2018 and immediately started to become hyped up- there hadn’t been a new main Animal Crossing since New Leaf came out on the 3DS in 2012. Almost a year went by before another official mention of the game happened. Luckily, A trailer dropped during Nintendo’s E3 2019 Presentation, and everyone was shocked because of how amazing the game looked- both graphically and gameplay-wise. But the game ended up getting delayed to March 20th, 2020.
You no longer would move into a pre-established town like previous games- now, you and two cute animal villagers get to move to a deserted island and basically create a flourishing community yourself from the ground up. For the first time, players could place facilities wherever they wanted, they could place furniture items outside, and the game had many new features like crafting and resource collecting. And you could literally destroy your island’s rivers and cliffs with new Terraforming tools. There were many quality of life improvements, and villagers could now do more things than just walking around.
As a longtime fan of the series, I was insanely hyped- I remember almost getting emotional during the reveal trailer because I waited so long for another game. I played the original game on the Gamecube and was one of the first games I spent hours in. The ability to have animals as my neighbors was a dream come true for me, and I instantly was hooked, despite hardly knowing how to play. Since then, I have kept the same attitude from the first time I played it: I have all the other main titles, and some of the spin-offs, and I even racked in 300+ hours in New Leaf. (I still haven’t paid off all of my house loans though).
New Horizons ended up being an amazing success for Nintendo. They expected the game to sell well, but not this good: In the first 6 weeks, it sold 13.41 million copies, with 11.77 million of those copies being sold in just the first 12 days. It has had the best initial release of any Nintendo Switch game so far and has already outsold two previous games, Animal Crossing: Wild World and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
Overall, my experience has been great: I have been done with the main storyline for a bit, and have fallen into millions of debt from Tom Nook, but there is still so much for me to do. Most of my time has been terraforming and decorating little parts of my island- I’ve made a playground, a waterfall entrance to my museum, and a little cafe area. I’ve donated many fish, insects, and fossils to Blathers the owl in the museum. I have a huge wardrobe of clothes from the Able Sisters. There have been slight annoyances or problems but they don’t make the main gameplay bad.
Along with bells in the game, it also adds a new form of currency called Nook Miles. Earning miles is really easy: you complete large gameplay goals like a certain number of days played, and you can earn daily miles from smaller tasks as well. You can exchange it for rewards, the most noteworthy being Nook Miles Tickets. Using these tickets fly you to a randomly selected island where you can absolutely destroy it for crafting resources, or if you’re lucky you can land on a special island, like hybrid-flower island or even tarantula/scorpion island (yes, it is as scary as it sounds). If you have empty plots on your island, you also get to meet random villagers you can invite back to your island.
The new gameplay features have been really fun to use, such as the new crafting system. I like the option to craft my own tools and furniture, and collecting new DIY recipes is a fun task. It’s prominently used in the beginning to make tools, with furniture being a luxury. After you get the upgraded Nook’s Cranny shop, however, you can buy the best tools with special designs for some bells, so I usually do that while I use my resources to create furniture. But there are flaws to it: you are only able to craft one item at a time so it takes up a long time to craft a stack of clam bait or have multiple of the same furniture. And tools now have limited durability, and even the best tools break after a day of use.
Another new feature is the ability to shape your island using new terraform tools. You can now create and destroy cliffs and waterways, as well as making different kinds of paths. Using this you can modify small parts of your island to create more flat space or add a little pond, or you could go full out and make your island into a flat island as some others have. But like the crafting, it takes a tremendous amount of time if you want to create a wide path or a waterfall- it is very sensitive, making you mess up by accidentally building in the wrong block.
As Animal Crossing plays in line with the real-time clock, you also get to experience special calendar events on your island. Unlike previous games, they are doing live updates to implement these features. We have had a few so far, but the most infamous one has been Bunny Day. Based on the holiday of Easter, it gives you a scavenger hunt around your island in search of eggs that you can turn into egg furniture. A common problem players had with this event was that there were so. many. eggs. If you tried to fish, you’d get eggs. If you need stone, you’d get eggs. After numerous complaints, developers turned down the spawn rate of these and it became manageable to play the game again.
One downside of the game right now is that there isn’t enough content. While New Leaf had a whole shopping street you unlocked, you only have a few stores and upgrades you unlock here. There also were a lot of previous special characters missing that fans missed. Fortunately, Nintendo has been having content updates that add these characters in- they’ve added the sloth Leif who sells bushes and flowers, and also the sly fox Redd, who is back to scam you again in this game with his fake paintings and sculptures based on real art pieces. I’ve visited him a few times and bought genuine paintings, which are donatable after a museum upgrade.
For me, like many others, the game has given me a loose schedule during online school days. I get up early every morning to see what special character is on my island today. I talk to my villagers who start my day off on a positive note by talking about taking patrol jogs with me or how perfect the island is. I also make sure to check my Turnip prices in the morning- a part of the turnip “stalk” market, where you buy turnips and hopefully sell them for a higher price. They also change in the afternoon, forcing me to take a break from schoolwork to check them and then eat lunch. All the shops close by 10pm as well, so I don’t have an urge to stay up all night on the game and ruin my sleep schedule. On the weekends, I also play it if I get too stressed by repeated depressing news stories or if I have nothing else to play.
New Horizons, while being a life-simulation, has a very wide demographic of players. People of different ages, genders, and video game preferences are able to come together to play a game where they can create their own experience. Controls are easy to understand, and the gameplay is not that challenging for even new video game players to understand. You can have multiple player characters on a single switch, and you can play with those people on the same console using different controllers. There are also online multiplayer features in the game where you can visit friends’ islands. I’ve used online a bit, usually just to go over to my friends’ islands to mess around while we talk on a voice chat. But it has provided me with ways to speak to other people in a world where communication can be very limited while playing a game I enjoy,
Whether you are a fan or not, there is no denying that the game has been an integral part of millions of people’s quarantine. I highly recommend the game, despite very minor issues the gameplay does have, especially if you are looking for a game where you can create your own individual experience. I rate this game an A-… no wait, it’s at least an A!
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