Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Last time I checked, I was up to something like 1,140+ hours in this game. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is, to say the least, a game I have been looking forward to for a long time, and a series I really enjoy. One island wasn't enough for me, so I even bought a Switch Lite so I could create a second one. Just what is it about this game that is so appealing? Let's find out!

For those of you who do not know about Animal Crossing, it is a slice of life game that originally debuted on the GameCube. I cannot tell you much about it, since I never played that game, but I can talk to Animal Crossing: Wild World. That was my introduction to the series. After watching my younger siblings play the game on DS, I decided to give it a try. First, I randomly moved to my town after chatting with a cat named Rover, and upon arrival, discovered I was the only human there. After being saddled with increasingly higher house loans by Tom Nook, a tanuki shopkeeper, I really got to work. Work mostly consisted of fishing and catching bugs. I also became friends with my the animals who lived in town, and got into collecting items for my museum. I caught shows by local artist, K.K. Slider, and really enjoyed the seasonal events and changes.

Animal Crossing: City Folk changed the dynamic. You played it on your television (again), you lived in a town, but you could take a bus to the city. The city had all kinds of fancy, expensive items for you to go into debt for using your credit card. It was not my favorite Animal Crossing game, and I really enjoyed every bit of freshness provided by Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS. You see, now I was in charge. I took up my role as the new mayor of Heaven, assisted by Isabelle, who was perhaps a little too eager to help me out at every venture. Tom Nook was still in charge of real estate, and the diverse cast of characters had grown again. This was also when I began playing the game with other people, and it changed the entire experience. Instead of struggling to find fossils, I could trade with others. We could visit Tortimer Island and play games together. It was so much fun! When they launched the teaser trailer for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it felt like a conglomeration of everything from the previous games.

New Horizons is definitely a continuation of the previous generations, but it has less than you expect. Unlike the former games, which had little by way of "story," New Horizons initially follows a plot. You (along with two animal companions, Tom Nook and his twin nephews) move to a deserted island you pick yourself before your departure. After becoming indebted to Nook, as per usual, you go about your island life. Unlike the former games, there is a big, new aspect to the game--crafting. You can gather materials and craft furniture, tools and more! It makes you almost obsessive about picking weeds, until you see how nice they look, and you plant some. As you get the hang of everything, you begin to attract new neighbors. After giving Tom Nook some bugs and fish, he contacts his friend Blathers and you have a fantastic museum. Then, twins Timmy and Tommy branch out on their own, opening their own shop, Nook's Cranny. 

It doesn't stop there. Tom Nook relies upon you to attract some new residents to the island. The best way to do so is by creating empty lots and providing DIY furniture. After you craft these plots, you're introduced to Dodo Airlines and their unusual island tours available with the help of Nook Miles Tickets. When you have these empty lots, you meet all kinds of animals who also happen to be on tour. After meeting an animal you vibe with and inviting them to your island, they move in. This increased population can no longer be managed by Tom Nook alone, and he calls in the big guns a.k.a. Isabelle. She (unfortunately) takes over your daily news broadcasts, and is integral to meeting the criteria for the game's plot--attracting K.K. Slider to play a concert at your island. In order to get the hip musician to your island, you need a three star island, which is fairly easy to attain. Once you entice him to perform at your island, the true game begins, because you unlock terraforming.

This is perhaps the biggest change from previous Animal Crossing games. You're not stuck with whatever map you originally start with. Not at all. Now, you can change nearly every aspect of your island, with the exception of the airport, plaza, north beach, and river mouths. You can build as many cliffs as you want, remove entire rivers, construct bridges, erect inclines, move buildings--there is no stopping you (except for if you get to close to rivers or trees)! Because you lay down plots, animals no longer randomly destroy your carefully grown hybrid flowers. When one animal moves away, the plot is available to be filled with animals visiting island tours, or just letting Tom Nook sell the lot for you. If you want to move a lot, you have to wait until an animal lives there, and you have to shell out 50,000 bells.

Bells, for the uninitiated, are the in-game currency of Animal Crossing. In the beginning, you literally have zero bells to your name, and you have to build up your savings by selling sea shells, bugs, fish, excess fossils, and crafted items to make money. However, if you are wise, you will play the stalk market. That is not a typo. In Animal Crossing, everyone gets to strike it big by buying turnips low and selling them when they are worth three or four times as much as you originally purchased them for. How does this work? Well, it works best with friends. Everyone has a different pattern for turnips each week: fluctuating, decreasing, small spike, and large spike. You want the last one. Chances are, one of your friends will have decent prices, and you can sell your pockets full of turnips on their islands to make millions of bells without breaking a sweat. You can also game the system, if you have two Switch systems like I do. It involves time traveling, but it is not impossible in the game, so I'm all about it. Besides, you reach a point fairly quickly where you rarely spend bells at all.

In part due to the timing of the coronavirus, New Horizons really took off. People were able to connect with friends and family over this game. They could relax and destress during all of the uncertainty. I've definitely noticed fewer friends playing the game, but that helps to bring it back to what it is. Animal Crossing is not meant to be binged in a marathon setting and forgotten. It's not a game with an ending. It is like your every day life, but with animals. 

The team plans to keep supporting Animal Crossing for the next few years, which is awesome! I hope they will make some changes to quite a few aspects of the game to improve it. The process of traveling to friends has a terrible series of menu choices, and the storage maximum for houses is extremely low for the amount of cool things they made for the game. I think the amiibo villagers are nice, but it would be helpful if they would provide players with more time to fill empty plots before Tom Nook sells them. Hunting for animals is a bit tedious, so it would be cool if they added more variety or options for when you're on tour. I am also hopeful that some of the characters from previous games will make new appearances. I miss Brewster, the pelican sisters and even Digby, Isabelle's brother. Perhaps what I want most is the return of the fun mini-games from Tortimer Island. I spent hours just playing those with friends in New Leaf, and I'm sure I would do the same thing in New Horizons. It would be great to have 45º angle rotation for furniture, but I doubt that will happen. Also, it is odd that you cannot customize fences. There are a bunch of quality of life updates they can implement for this game, and I hope they do.

Do you play New Horizons? Let me know your dream address, I'll check your island out. I haven't gotten my second island ready for dreaming, but my main island has one. Take a look, when you have the time, at 2496-9529-0523.