Like many others, we burned out HAAAARD on New Horizons, though in our case, it's due to one major reason: this game was by far the largest victim of the "Free Updates At A Later Date!" model that Nintendo was obsessed with in the late 2010s to early 2020s. After this game dropped, they started to relent from doing that in games not called Splatoon, and we can't help but feel like even Nintendo realized they flew too close to the sun with this one.
Because what happened is, on release, this game was narrowly less feature-dense than the GameCube release (only REALLY beating out the Japanese N64 release!!!), and by the end of it... Ehh, it's like, a little more feature-filled than GameCube in some ways? But like, GameCube is still far more playable after you get the credits to roll. There's still stuff to DO in that one. Once you get a 5 star island and the Second Nook Shop Upgrade (yes, Second), the only thing left is a full museum, and then Congratulations, You Win New Horizons.
It's perfect if you want to build your "perfect' island, but we tend to take the 17776 philosophy to Animal Crossing--we'd rather have that little bit of "want". That little delay between trying to do a thing, and having it. Even with a modded 3DS, that little bit of effort to just move a villager's house 3 feet to the right as we juggle our mod tools to do so, rather than just ask a villager who's like "Actually, I was thinking of doing this just fine <3". That little bit of annoyance as we hear a villager is planning on moving out from another villager, but they'll just never spill the beans. That mad dash to and fro Tortimer's Island and Re-Tail as we sell tons of bugs. And the waiting patiently for our hybrid flowers to just grow already, on our own terms, rather than some "right" way. Hell, we'd go as far as to say that while we wish that loading between towns was faster, we don't MIND the thematic cutscenes and dialogue trees conceptually--it's telling that that's basically the only true "wait" shared between New Leaf and New Horizons. We rambled a bit, but you get the gist, right?
To us, Animal Crossing is one of the fabled "zen garden" games. New Horizons is just too damn fast for its own good, except for in the one place it mattered most--the update cycle.
Because what happened is, on release, this game was narrowly less feature-dense than the GameCube release (only REALLY beating out the Japanese N64 release!!!), and by the end of it... Ehh, it's like, a little more feature-filled than GameCube in some ways? But like, GameCube is still far more playable after you get the credits to roll. There's still stuff to DO in that one. Once you get a 5 star island and the Second Nook Shop Upgrade (yes, Second), the only thing left is a full museum, and then Congratulations, You Win New Horizons.
It's perfect if you want to build your "perfect' island, but we tend to take the 17776 philosophy to Animal Crossing--we'd rather have that little bit of "want". That little delay between trying to do a thing, and having it. Even with a modded 3DS, that little bit of effort to just move a villager's house 3 feet to the right as we juggle our mod tools to do so, rather than just ask a villager who's like "Actually, I was thinking of doing this just fine <3". That little bit of annoyance as we hear a villager is planning on moving out from another villager, but they'll just never spill the beans. That mad dash to and fro Tortimer's Island and Re-Tail as we sell tons of bugs. And the waiting patiently for our hybrid flowers to just grow already, on our own terms, rather than some "right" way. Hell, we'd go as far as to say that while we wish that loading between towns was faster, we don't MIND the thematic cutscenes and dialogue trees conceptually--it's telling that that's basically the only true "wait" shared between New Leaf and New Horizons. We rambled a bit, but you get the gist, right?
To us, Animal Crossing is one of the fabled "zen garden" games. New Horizons is just too damn fast for its own good, except for in the one place it mattered most--the update cycle.
Honestly didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Came out right when the world shut down and it kept me sane and preoccupied. Lots of fond memories with this one.
It sacrificed all other gameplay aspects (aside from the bare essentials) for the sake of aesthetics and customisation. The Happy Home Designer DLC is the best part but it'd be better as a remake of the original as opposed to a DLC
A solid entry without the staying power of earlier games.
9.8/10
infinitamente mais divertido com timeskip. infelizmente leva quase 10 minutos pra mudar o horário e carregar o jogo de novo, e, pra um jogo relaxante, eu não tenho toda essa paciência.
me détestez pas, je n'arrive pas a m'accrocher a ce jeu, trop mou pour moi
I don't have much to reference this game to because I only played Wild World on DS when I was much younger, but it's a super fun game. Came out at the perfect time and it was at it's best when you had a community of friends to play with. One thing that is super fucking annoying and seems super unnecessary was the fact that there's extra steps to transfer your island save data if you buy a new Switch. I did not realize that and lost all of my data, so my 80+ hours of gameplay gone and I will never play this one again.
I'm so sad that this game stopped receiving updates
I need another dawg pleas
if i see you shittalking animal crossing: new horizons, consider yourself an opp
GooeyScale: 75/100
GooeyScale: 75/100
if you don't like this game i don't like you. i wish it kept receiving updates, stupid decision on nintendo's part
this is boring as hell. there's literally nothing to do but decorate your island and abuse the villagers with a flimsy net after you complete all the main objectives. my experience with this game wouldve probably been better if I played this during quarantine.
Promising ideas, but every improvement from New Leaf has a downgrade elsewhere.
Kept me sane through 2020.
new leaf solos
I really enjoyed my time with this game,
Yeah the updates got samey later on,
But for the 50 hours I played,
It was something special.
Yeah the updates got samey later on,
But for the 50 hours I played,
It was something special.
SO FUN for 3 weeks when you hyperfixate on it .
got me into games, Love It 𓆣ִ ࣪⋆⭒˚｡⋆
i struggled with lack of novelty a couple hundred hours into my second island so i've put the game on a halt. creo que a la peña le mola seguir currándoselo para coseguir pagar toda la hipoteca y las herramientas de oro y todo eso pero creo que ese juego no me interesa tanto. me gustaría completar el museo tho ·~· hmmm
shelved but will play again... might start a third island from scratch¿ maybe i could get the expansion... will see
i struggled with lack of novelty a couple hundred hours into my second island so i've put the game on a halt. creo que a la peña le mola seguir currándoselo para coseguir pagar toda la hipoteca y las herramientas de oro y todo eso pero creo que ese juego no me interesa tanto. me gustaría completar el museo tho ·~· hmmm
shelved but will play again... might start a third island from scratch¿ maybe i could get the expansion... will see
as an animal crossing fan I don't know how to feel on this game don't get me wrong its really fun but idk it's just not for me ig
Pretty chill
jogo que me fez querer um switch
It ain't no New Leaf
This review contains spoilers
This game's a bit of a mixed bag. I do love it to pieces, and I played it SO much when I first got it at launch. I've never played an AC game before this (except a smidgen of Pocket Camp).
This game is super chill with so much charm, and building up my island from nothing (especially without having already been accustomed to the AC vibes, so it was very fresh to me) was some of the most fun I've had. I can't describe the peace and joy I felt originally going to islands, earning Bells, and building up my island and lil community.
A huge part of that, though, was the direction I was getting from Tom Nook, which stops once you reach 3 stars and get K.K. Slider to visit. I wasn't JUST focusing on his tasks, I was doing a lot of sandbox stuff throughout, but having that overall direction really helped, knowing that there was always a next step. After 3 stars, though, you're left to your own devices. Which is cool and all (I mean, it's a sandbox game), but I struggled to stay motivated to play as much. I still played a good amount for a while after (working on 5 stars, getting a bunch of Bells through Nookazon and Daisy Mae), but my interest declined, and eventually I kinda stopped hopping on.
I still love this game, and hope to get back into it sometime, but this drop off in interest seemed to happen to a lot of players. There are a few things about it that kinda just fails to keep you invested. The villagers are commonly complained about, I've heard that they were much more interesting in past games, so that's pretty disappointing. They're more like decoration than characters. Also a lot of things in the game are just...slow. Which I think is intentional as part of it being a life sim, it probably wants the work to feel more personal/earned, but when that's the majority of the game, and gets even worse when you want to do ANYTHING on a large scale, it's kinda just a chore.
There are also a lot of limits on how you can even get the items to decorate your island in the first place (you can only order 5 items a day from the catalog???). I think you're mostly supposed to go online and get a bunch of stuff from other players, or you're supposed to work slowly over multiple days, but either way, that just feels like a slap in the face. People also have complaints about the real-time mechanic in general, but I don't mind it; I just think the problem is the way the game uses it, not the mechanic itself.
So yeah, the game's got a lot going for it, but it's kinda bound to lose your interest and can feel like a chore. The DLC is amazing, but I'll consider that separate from this.
This game is super chill with so much charm, and building up my island from nothing (especially without having already been accustomed to the AC vibes, so it was very fresh to me) was some of the most fun I've had. I can't describe the peace and joy I felt originally going to islands, earning Bells, and building up my island and lil community.
A huge part of that, though, was the direction I was getting from Tom Nook, which stops once you reach 3 stars and get K.K. Slider to visit. I wasn't JUST focusing on his tasks, I was doing a lot of sandbox stuff throughout, but having that overall direction really helped, knowing that there was always a next step. After 3 stars, though, you're left to your own devices. Which is cool and all (I mean, it's a sandbox game), but I struggled to stay motivated to play as much. I still played a good amount for a while after (working on 5 stars, getting a bunch of Bells through Nookazon and Daisy Mae), but my interest declined, and eventually I kinda stopped hopping on.
I still love this game, and hope to get back into it sometime, but this drop off in interest seemed to happen to a lot of players. There are a few things about it that kinda just fails to keep you invested. The villagers are commonly complained about, I've heard that they were much more interesting in past games, so that's pretty disappointing. They're more like decoration than characters. Also a lot of things in the game are just...slow. Which I think is intentional as part of it being a life sim, it probably wants the work to feel more personal/earned, but when that's the majority of the game, and gets even worse when you want to do ANYTHING on a large scale, it's kinda just a chore.
There are also a lot of limits on how you can even get the items to decorate your island in the first place (you can only order 5 items a day from the catalog???). I think you're mostly supposed to go online and get a bunch of stuff from other players, or you're supposed to work slowly over multiple days, but either way, that just feels like a slap in the face. People also have complaints about the real-time mechanic in general, but I don't mind it; I just think the problem is the way the game uses it, not the mechanic itself.
So yeah, the game's got a lot going for it, but it's kinda bound to lose your interest and can feel like a chore. The DLC is amazing, but I'll consider that separate from this.
the vibes were just off
Este juego me salvó de la pandemia xD
I hate this game with every fiber of my being
This game made its mark upon release, but it seems ultimately like much fluff designed to keep players logging in daily.
It’s hard deciding whether this game or New Leaf is the best in the franchise but you can’t deny that New Horizons brings a lot of quality of life improvements that make going back to older games a bit of a struggle. I always come back to the Animal Crossing franchise when I want to wind down and relax and the island atmosphere makes that feeling even better in New Horizons.
I loved and played it a lot when it first came out. My first animal crossing game, as I never had a nintendo before. I still haven't finished my island, probably never will as it's too much time and effort but I finished the main story. I will pick it up again once in a while for nostalgia and cosy gaming.