Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the fifth game in the ever more popular Animal Crossing series, was created and published by Nintendo for that Turn on March 20. It instantly became an internet sensation and for good reason. The game's addicting collecting mechanic, coupled with endless customization options and fun multiplayer visits, makes Animal Crossing: New Horizons one of the most joyous video games experiences I've ever had.
For returning fans of the series, New Horizons doesn't change up the formula so much so that it's unrecognizable. The core gameplay is the same – engage with villagers, attract new villagers for your island, making it as being beautiful and personalized as you would like so that it is.
Just like any other Animal Crossing game, however, newbies will have trouble figuring out what to do, especially for the very first couple days. The game attempts to combat this as best it may. Players can even receive direct guidance from Tom Nook by asking him, verbatim, “what must i do next?” The tutorial lasts more than in the past games too, that is a huge plus for inexperienced players. Unfortunately, you are still mainly left for your own devices, that could be a downside for anyone diving to their first Animal Crossing title without any clue what to expect.
However, once the game accumulates around the second or third day, the options are endless and New Horizons is a pet Crossing game unlike any other. The largest new mechanic in New Horizons is crafting, which allows you to create furniture and tools with the resources you've collected. This was certainly one of my personal favorite additions to your pet Crossing world since it completely changed things i needed to do in order to progress.
For example, to get new villagers on your island, you have to buy a stretch of land where their property is going to be. After this, Tom Nook insists upon craft items on their behalf that they'll need once they've moved in, like a bed or outdoor seating. This is an extremely different experience than past Animal Crossing games, where villagers mysteriously appear on your island at random when spaces are available. Now, the procedure feels more personalized because I actually helped my new friends move in and gave them the supplies they needed to achieve this.
Another new gameplay mechanic is Nook Miles, a new type of currency. You receive Nook Miles by meeting milestones, such as planting all types of fruit on your island and completing mini quests, like catching a particular fish or chopping down trees. With one of these Nook Miles, you can buy Nook Inc. merchandise, hairstyles, upgrades, and other specialty items.
The most important Nook Miles item, however, is really a Nook Miles Ticket, which grants you use of a mysterious island. The mystery islands are random and a phenomenal addition to New Horizons, giving players unlimited areas to fish, catch bugs, and search for resources, so long as you possess the 2,000 Nook Miles to fork over for a ticket. I finished up utilizing mystery islands almost constantly, especially at the end of your day after i had already mined every rock and shaken every tree in your own home.
Like every Animal Crossing game, the main appeal may be the customization options for your town and it seems like New Horizons give us more possibilities than in the past. Per usual, you may create your own designs to put around your town or to put on your clothes, leading one of my friends to create a small shrine to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Similar creative and funny examples of homemade designs are available throughout Twitter and the best part is you can easily scan your friends' designs into your own game having a QR code.
Playing with your friends is more fun than ever before in New Horizons as well. To talk to your friends, you visit Dodo Airlines and catch a flight for their island. Then, marketing your foreign fruits for any ridiculous amount of money, go exploring together with your pals, and speak with their villagers.
While I loved accumulating my very own island, of course, one of the most exciting things for me was visiting my buddies again and again and seeing how their town was progressing too. I had a great time seeing what weird things my Switch buddies would do in order to their islands or how much better these were at decorating their house than me. Visiting your friends and achieving visitors felt like it had real-life impacts too – often, whenever a friend visited your island, the villagers would remember them and mention them in conversation later.
Everything felt personalized and totally under my influence. Even when I couldn't visit my friends myself, I ended up texting everyone I knew about their towns and what happening. My pal Hannah was even thrown an enjoyable little birthday celebration by her villagers and sent me pictures to exhibit it off.
Overall, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is an incredible experience and it is, certainly, my personal favorite within the whole series. The formula is familiar for returning fans, yet still seems to seem like an enormous breath of outdoors. It is actually a unique, positive, and rewarding simulation that allows you to become fully immersed in a fun, colorful, stress-free environment. Although it still has its confusing moments, especially for beginners, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was well worth the seven-year wait and it is much better than I possibly could have ever hoped for.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Nintendo Switch.
