Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020)

After playing for a good while now - deleting the original save and starting from scratch as the primary player fixed almost everything - I have to say this is alright but I do still feel like it's weaker than the previous installment. While there's some cool creative decisions made and some quality of life stuff introduced, my biggest pet peeve is how much crafting was implemented, almost to the point of it feels like nothing other than Nintendo trying to figure out a way to lengthen the game proper.

"Hmmm...how can we ensure people play this for a very long time? I know! Make them create the town!"

And it feels so boring as a result. Whereas OG Animal Crossing was minimalist to a fault (you move in, do some odd jobs, pay off your house and then just spend eternity hanging out), and City Folk introduced a very neat city mechanic into an otherwise bland town game, I feel like New Leaf really did it perfectly. Yes, you are still doing the minimal thing, but now you're the mayor, and so you can spend hours doing town customization WITHOUT crafting and creating little projects.

This, however? This just feels like Nintendo smashed Animal Crossing together with Sim City, and it's not leaving a great taste in my mouth. I'm still enjoying myself, don't get me wrong, but fuck crafting and fuck everyone who thinks every game needs it because they don't.

So, my girlfriend - in her defense she didn't know - started New Horizons the night we got it just cause I was busy and she wanted to see what it was like. Doing this made her the primary representative on the island, and as such has effectively ruined MY game because she's the one who gets all the projects, island progression building wise and DIY tool guides, while I do not. Nintendo super fucked this game up SO hard, but if it just means resetting the island (seeing as I'm the one who's actually going to play it and she was just curious), then I'll take a few days loss if it saves me years of effort in the long run.

But god damn every time I load this title it pisses me off, and that's not something I EVER wanted Animal Crossing to make me feel :( This franchise was my comfort game for so many years, decades, and now I hate it.

So this is....uh...not sure how to put this considering I'm a superfan who's been playing since the franchise started and has played every iteration but...not great?

Animal Crossing was finally bitten by the "we MUST have crafting!" bug that's long since plagued the industry, much like multiplayer plagued the FPS genre in the 2010s, and while I'm not inherently against it here, I also am not a huge a fan. I also don't like how almost impossible it is to start. There's virtually nothing, there's no citizens, there's no town, there's you and a town and Tom Nook. It's just too much of a departure. A lot of it relies on the Nook miles which feel like nothing more than boring busywork - which is a ridiculous thing to say about a title such as this, I realize, but whatever - and a lot of it feels like they took the most mind numbing concepts from Pocket Camp and implemented them in a supposedly triple a first party title of a famous IP. Not a great look, really.

That being said I'm not gonna throw in the towel. Animal Crossing has always been rather slow to start, but this one just feels...I don't know...empty? And not in a good way. I don't like the fact that you're locked out from other sections of the island simply because there's no bridges. There's nothing here. Just tents and trees. I'm also not a fan of it taking place on an island, but that's a whole different discussion.

So yeah, so far this is a real stinker. Actually, seeing the amount of piss poor almost mobile game-esque releases that clutter the eShop, my opinion of the Switch itself has gone down tremendously since owning one, and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe it would've been better staying a fantasy. It feels like Nintendo will never be as great as it was at the Gamecube, and that's just a fact I have to finally accept.

This game fell off, honestly.

Seriously though this game was really fun and addictive for like 3 months. Not exactly a hot take but this game came out basically unfinished. The game slowly got main staple features that are in past games over time, which should have been in the game in the first place. Like why did I have to wait a year to get my fucking fortune? The game came packaged with burn out from the get go and I really wish Nintendo would retire their finish the game later tactic.

Either way though the game was still a lot of fun when I did play it, and I feel it is one of the strongest games in the series, especially graphics wise, not frame rate wise.

Only 4 star because the customization interior and exterior wise was peak.

So I had a vacant home on my island after letting someone move out. I went through my Amiibo cards to see who I'd like to invite since I've had pretty bad luck with letting randos move in. Then I said to myself, "Buy 5 Nook Miles tickets and if you don't find anyone you like after that, do one of the Amiibo cards."

Three island trips later, and I landed Cephalobot!! He's one of the new villagers, but more importantly, he's the last octopus for my octo-crew.

Booted this up again after - as I’ve been informed by my villagers - eight months. I wasn’t surprised that it was that long but it just somehow doesn’t feel that that much time has really passed. I’m still doing mostly the same things as back then. Okay, maybe I’ve gone through a couple of books and games since that time but it’s still the same set of activities, and nothing has changed from my life.

I felt very giddy when I was starting the game even after a long day of work so that was fun. I felt sad though that I do not know almost half of my villagers. I think when I was coming and going from playing last time, I was just letting everyone leave when they requested to and I was accepting all villager exchange propositions from the campsite. I wasn’t really in the best mental state at that time, and now I miss my old villagers. I know of some who moved to my friends’ islands so maybe I can still get them back.

I stood in-game for a good five minutes trying to remember the controls then gave up - only for it to come back naturally when I needed to do that action. I did already spend 200+ hours on this game so I guess the controls have been imprinted to muscle memory. I’m excited to spend a few hundred more or so because I have the motivation again to continue my island plans. So excited for the new things coming.

Island transfer complete without a hitch. I did get nervous for a brief moment when Nintendo flashed a huge wall of red warning text saying that there were playable characters that weren't tied to any user accounts after the transfer, but you just need to link your user account with you character and you're good. I had to do it for my character and my partner's. Now everything is as it should be, just on a new Switch.

On a somewhat related note, I don't know if everyone who owns a Switch needs justify upgrading, but hot damn this OLED screen is beautiful. The difference isn't subtle and games look gorgeous in handheld. Long live the OLED Vita...I mean Switch!

I'd never really seen the appeal of the Animal Crossing series. I played City Folk for a while back in the day and found it, well, boring. It was a whole lot of nothing with no goals or objectives. Not enough gameplay to call it a game, not enough story to be a walking simulator and not artsy enough for "an experience".

This edition seems a lot more gamified than it's predecessors, which has vastly improved the experience for me, but possibly damaged the experience for long term fans. I gather the appeal always used to reside in the very fact that there was no pressure to do anything.

In ACNH, you start off on a untamed island with only a tent to your name and 2 other villagers living alongside you. The main objectives (if you can call them that) are to shape the island to your liking, expand the number of houses available for villagers, beautify it to a point where a famous musician is willing to hold a concert there, and pay off all your loans to Tom Nook so you can own the largest possible house. And this does take some considerable time. But once that's over...

Congratulations! You've completed the game.

Except not really. Because there's still a museum to fill, more items to buy, more DIY recipes to unlock and Nook Miles Rewards to achieve such as earning 10 million Bells on the stalk market or catching 10 000 fish or whatever. And odds are that's going to take you at least 6 months to do, because the game progresses in real time and some things are seasonal.

The problem is, once you've held the concert and paid off your loans, every day becomes a bit repetitive. Dig up 4 fossils, talk to everyone, chop down your money tree, plant a new one, etc, etc. I just wish there was a bit more variety, y' know? Like hey, maybe that piano I dropped 200k could play an actual tune, instead of a random note whenever I press it, that would make the endless cycle of buying items worth it. Maybe there could be more events instead of that annoying seagull that washes up on my shore once a week.

Basically, if you're artsy, enjoy designing or drawing and are the type of person who derives genuine pleasure from an hour of calm, quiet organisation of a bookshelf, you'll love this game.

If that doesn't sound like you... actually, you may still enjoy it. Returning to your island day after day to see what's new, chatting to your neighbors and edging slowly closer to achieving all those Nook Miles Rewards. 'cause, the truth is, this game has become popular because it provides stability and innocent joy during very uncertain times. It's escapism. I have friends that play and we talk about which villagers they hate and which ones they want on their island. I've even started watching Becca Scott's Twitch streams because of it and found a lovely community full of very sweet people, and I hate streaming.

What's the takeaway? I don't know, man. It's a massive waste of time, but it's cute and harmless and how do you define something's worth anyway? Go ask a professional art critic.

PROS

• Adorable art style and character designs
• Top-notch script full of charm and wit
• Offers tons of opportunities for customization and self-expression
• Exciting sense of progression for the first month or so
• Nook mile system is a satisfying way of assigning player tasks
• Discovering and crafting new furniture and item recipes is consistently rewarding
• Fish, bug, and fossil collecting are all addictive as can be
• Full of small touches and considerations that give the game huge personality
• The real-time gimmick gives the game plenty of mileage
• Encourages collaboration with friends in interesting ways
• Playing the turnip market can be quite the roller coaster
• K.K. Slider has some serious jams, the regular score is great as well

CONS

• Desperately needs some mini-games, especially for multiplayer. C'mon, Nintendo!
• Could use some quality of life improvements such as crafting multiple items at once
• On-line multiplayer is a bit wonky and needs polish
• The experience becomes a bit rote after the initial set of daily surprises runs dry