Animal Crossing has always been one of my favorite games ever since Nintendo released it in the US for the Gamecube all those years ago. I’ve owned and played to death every traditional release since. While also owning Happy Home Designer, as well as Amiibo Festival, those games did not get my attention much. So, what do I think of the new game? Well, read on for my Animal Crossing: New Horizons review!
It’s The Island Life For Me
Animal Crossing has always offered something a little different from game to game. New Horizons, take you away from the mainland and plops you and 2 other animal neighbors, along with Tom, Tommy, and Timmy, on an island somewhere in the Northern or Southern hemisphere, which you have the option of choosing upon beginning the game.
I’m going to assume that if you are reading this review, you probably know about Animal Crossing, and have possibly played one version or another. So, I’ll keep the gameplay info short.
You essentially create a character, you land in a town, village, city, or in the case of New Horizons, an island. You are a human living among animals. You spend your days socializing, fishing, bug-catching, home decorating, shopping, hitting rocks, planting/chopping down trees, etc. You do all of this with the intent of building up your town/village/island.
Every day in Animal Crossing is on a 24 hour real-life clock. Usually, time in the game matches the time you are living in. Unless, you are one of those types of players that likes to time-jump and mess with your systems internal clock. I tend not to do that as a player and let time pass normally. Past games had penalties for time-jumping, but I’ve heard New Horizons really does not have much in the way of penalties at all.
Once you’ve begun developing your island you begin getting visitors and new neighbors. Others may come and open new shops or museums etc. Essentially, every day finds you doing the same things over and over again. However, the gameplay loop is oddly addicting, and charming at the same time.
The island can also be inhabited by others in your own household, if you have any so inclined to do so. Other household members can play alone while you’re not playing, or you can all play together, if you have enough joycons, though it does require you all to be within range of each other as you all have to appear on the same screen together.
A Plot In My Animal Crossing!?
In past iterations of Animal Crossing the game never contained a plot….not counting plots of land. (Sorry, bad joke.) Is New Horizons the first one to have a specific goal? An end-point?
Obviously, you’ve always had a goal in Animal Crossing, and that was to complete your home upgrades, fill-up the museum, and get as many “likeable” neighbors as possible.
In New Horizons, Tom Nook makes you the Island Representative, because of your hard work. Essentially, you become Tom Nooks tool, like always. You can’t help but feel like the mule that hauls his wagon of bells, the currency of Animal Crossing.
As the Island Representative you are tasked with growing the population and popularity of the island all to line Tom, Tommy, and Timmy’s pockets….also to try to get a certain something to happen. That’s all I can say about the plot without spoiling anything.
What Does Island Life Offer
Since I already mentioned about the gameplay loop in Animal Crossing, let’s talk about what’s new in the game. As I mentioned, as the 1st player to begin the game, you’ll essentially be the one chosen to be the island’s representative to Tom Nook. What does that mean? You’ll be doing a lot of Tom Nook’s dirty work, and in most cases, you’ll be spending your hard-earned bells!
We’ll call the “Island Representative” the “IR” for now. As the IR you’ll be tasked with clearing land, acquiring supplies, scouting out new locations for bridges and inclines, and donating the majority of funds to make those things happen. You’ll also be buying lots from Tom Nook so he can turn around and sell them to new islanders, etc.
The IR will also be responsible for decorating all of the island pretty much. Yes, the neighbors will help a little by sometimes giving you things to help decorate. Eventually, as the game goes along, and you eventually finish the “plot” of the game, you’ll get a tool to help you design the island even more to your liking. While I have acquired the item I speak, I have yet to really tinker with it because I truly like my island the way it is and have not decided what additions I would like to make at this time.
Another new addition to the gameplay lies in its rewards system. For almost everything you do in the game you’ll get Nook Points. These can be earned by reaching milestones in the game, or just mundane things. Every day you’ll also get “challenges” to earn points. These challenges include simple things like watering flowers, planting a tree, or catching 5 fish or insects.
To keep track of everything in the game Tom Nook gives all residents a smart phone. You can take photos with the phone, track your Nook points, view your island map, among other things.
Another new feature is the ability to craft and make DIY tools, furniture, and so on. The phone also holds all of your recipes of items you can craft. This is a big part of the game now, as things you craft can generally sell well in Nook’s Cranny. As mentioned, you can also craft all of your own tools. Your typical tools are back, like your axe, shovel, net, and fishing pole, but they’ve also added a pole-vaulting pole for crossing rivers and a ladder to climb up to higher places.
One other new gameplay element, is DoDo Airlines. You use the airline to visit friends islands or for them to visit yours, and it also allows you to visit random nearby islands. These nearby islands will sometimes have a visiting animal that you can try to convince to move to your island. Mostly, these islands are used to mine all of their resources and leave the island bare. I’m sure I’m not the only one to do so. Every island is random.
The game does not lack for things to do, as you can easily wind the day away fishing or chasing insects very easily.
How’s The View From The Island?
As you’d expect from any Animal Crossing game, you’ll find very simple yet very effective graphics and sound. Nothing earth-shattering or amazing, but easy and smooth. They do the job and help set a relaxing mood.
One thing I’ll say is the textures on the fish are much better than past games. You can see a bit of a gleam to your caught fish as they are held up triumphantly after catching them as well as seeing the scales on some fish.
The sound is also very basic and smooth. Again, no drumming bass or riffing guitars, you’ll simply find nice, quiet, relaxing and for lack of a better description, Animal Crossing styled music.
While both graphics and sound are very simple, they combine together to create a nice island atmosphere that is both calming and relaxing.
Tropical Holidays?
New Horizons would not be an Animal Crossing game if it did not include holidays right??? Well, so far I’ve only experienced May Day and Easter. Both for me were a bit of a disappointment.
May Day offered a 1-time pass on DoDo Airlines to visit a special island. This island was one maze, a little challenging, but fun with a special visitor at the end of it.
Easter on the other hand was a pain in my opinion. It was all about collecting eggs for a few weeks and finding special “Easter recipes.” The problem here was the eggs would interfere with gathering resources. Expect to get wood from cutting down a tree? How about eggs instead? Think you’re catching a rare fish? How about an egg instead? And so on…
One particularly annoying thing was when burying bells, to grow a one-time money tree…..well, be careful how much you bury, because there’s a strong chance you’ll grow an egg tree instead!
That being said about May Day and Easter, I do look forward to future Holidays and what they may hold!
Will I Make This Trip Again?
My Animal Crossing: New Horizons review rating is a solid 9/10.
I mentioned at the top of this review that I’ve always been an Animal Crossing fan, and this game did not change my feelings on that whatsoever. If anything, the new additions to the game increased my enjoyment of it. I like the crafting aspect of it, as well as being able to chose where new houses and businesses go. It creates an aspect of gameplay that allows you to truly design the layout of your island. For those truly into designing, you can design almost anything in this game, as you unlock things.
A few things I didn’t like, not much, but as you could tell, I didn’t like how Easter was handled in game. I get how egg searching is a part of Easter tradition, but how it was handled here was not to my liking. Besides, I didn’t care for any of the Easter recipes anyways.
The only other thing I found annoying, and just a little, is that the random islands you can travel to are nearby, so the time and weather always match your island. One thing I like about New Leaf was going to the Tropical Island to experience sun and fun, not to mention out of season beetles and sharks/fish, especially when your town was in the middle of winter. A minor annoyance. BTW, when I say the islands are random, they truly are. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll also land on some rare islands, what you’ll find there I won’t say.
I’ll still be visiting my island every day for the next year or more to see everything Island Life has to offer! Hope to see you there too!
Note: My Island is called Otaku