Log Status
Completed
Playing
Backlog
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Rating
Time Played
--
Days in Journal
1 day
Last played
February 5, 2021
Platforms Played
GOTY 2020 - NUMBER ONE
Video version
There’s a reason why people were so fervently begging for Animal Crossing on the Switch- It’s home. A place we need to feel comfortable. A Nintendo console isn’t really ours until we can live there and make it our own. New Leaf players were probably the most ardent 3DS users, and we all became quite attached to our villages, but if we’re going to love the Switch, we have to start again. New Horizons does a great job of making players feel attached to their new homes. You have a hand in every aspect of your island, and by the time everything’s in order, it’s truly yours.
Animal Crossing isn’t a game that focuses on gamers, and a lot of what New Horizons has taken on board has been learned from casual games, but in a positive way. It’s quite sweet that Nintendo have looked at things like real-world construction times and rotating shop inventory, not as a thing to frustrate players into real-world purchases, but elements that bring a sense of occasion and anticipation. There’s no punishment for manipulating the Switch’s time settings if you want instant gratification, but I find your appreciation of Animal Crossing is heavily dependent on your willingness to play by its rules. New Horizons is a game that’s attractive and welcoming to those who might have only played a videogame on their telephone before. It’s not intended to be a gateway to Breath of the Wild or “real games”. It’s a real game for that audience.
Maybe the most welcome addition to the game’s mechanics is the infinite list of activities on your phone. Simple tasks like talking to three villagers, or catching a few insects. You’re rewarded for every task you complete. This isn’t “the gameplay”. There’s no challenge to it, but it assures you always have something to do if you’re intent on playing Animal Crossing beyond each day’s new content.
This isn’t about challenge. You can’t win or fail. It’s just a nice wee thing, and it only tries to be the nicest wee thing it can be. It’s a little game you can turn on and a cartoon octopus will thank you for being such a good friend. It’s silly and sweet, and there’s appeal to that beyond the typical criteria of a videogame.
After playing the game nearly every day since March 20th, it’s easy to take a lot of New Horizons for granted, but every now and then, that feeling of familiarity breaks and I’m stunned by how good it looks, or how much care and wit the dialogue was written with, or even subtle things like the intricacy of the sound design. It’s the first HD proper Animal Crossing game, and all 391 villagers look great, with lovely toy-like texturing details.
The series used to be one of Nintendo’s scruffier properties. Almost a bit of a joke. Not that it was crap, but it was reflective of the side of the company that made the Game Boy Camera software or hid away Totaka’s Song in control menus. It was weird and silly, and it gave you a furious telling off if you didn’t turn the game off the way it wanted you to. Shifting from N64-style character models to a softer and rounder look has definitely broadened the appeal, and I think that’s really positive, but the older, rougher games had a charm of their own that the developers clearly want to stay true to as well. I think what they have now is something that can really appeal to young kids and casual gamers, as well as the WarioWare weirdos like me.
Some of my favourite stuff in the game is designed specifically to provide kids with a good influence. If you go to the fossil gallery in the museum, there’s a wee trail linking ancestral creatures to their evolutionary descendants. As you go through the exhibit, the trails split off and lead to more creatures, eventually leading to all the species of the game’s villagers, and one human-shaped silhouette you can step in. It’s a lovely message about how we all share this connection, but linking it back to their exciting new animal friends invites kids to take more interest in zoology. It’s beautiful. I never expected Animal Crossing to become one of the games that make me emotional about Nintendo or video games’ influence on the world, but as a committed animal liker, I’m really touched to see it.
Animal Crossing appeals to folk who would never ordinarily buy another Nintendo game. It was almost accidental before, but Nintendo seem keenly aware of the diversity and range of its fanbase now, and have decided that people like that deserve games as polished and carefully assembled as the 3D Marios and Zeldas that they’ve been missing. It’s dug into why folk love it, and made the cutest, deepest and most enticingly habitual game that these world-class developers can make. I hope they know what they’ve done. They’ve turned Animal Crossing into an essential presence on each new Nintendo library. Long may it continue.
Video version
There’s a reason why people were so fervently begging for Animal Crossing on the Switch- It’s home. A place we need to feel comfortable. A Nintendo console isn’t really ours until we can live there and make it our own. New Leaf players were probably the most ardent 3DS users, and we all became quite attached to our villages, but if we’re going to love the Switch, we have to start again. New Horizons does a great job of making players feel attached to their new homes. You have a hand in every aspect of your island, and by the time everything’s in order, it’s truly yours.
Animal Crossing isn’t a game that focuses on gamers, and a lot of what New Horizons has taken on board has been learned from casual games, but in a positive way. It’s quite sweet that Nintendo have looked at things like real-world construction times and rotating shop inventory, not as a thing to frustrate players into real-world purchases, but elements that bring a sense of occasion and anticipation. There’s no punishment for manipulating the Switch’s time settings if you want instant gratification, but I find your appreciation of Animal Crossing is heavily dependent on your willingness to play by its rules. New Horizons is a game that’s attractive and welcoming to those who might have only played a videogame on their telephone before. It’s not intended to be a gateway to Breath of the Wild or “real games”. It’s a real game for that audience.
Maybe the most welcome addition to the game’s mechanics is the infinite list of activities on your phone. Simple tasks like talking to three villagers, or catching a few insects. You’re rewarded for every task you complete. This isn’t “the gameplay”. There’s no challenge to it, but it assures you always have something to do if you’re intent on playing Animal Crossing beyond each day’s new content.
This isn’t about challenge. You can’t win or fail. It’s just a nice wee thing, and it only tries to be the nicest wee thing it can be. It’s a little game you can turn on and a cartoon octopus will thank you for being such a good friend. It’s silly and sweet, and there’s appeal to that beyond the typical criteria of a videogame.
After playing the game nearly every day since March 20th, it’s easy to take a lot of New Horizons for granted, but every now and then, that feeling of familiarity breaks and I’m stunned by how good it looks, or how much care and wit the dialogue was written with, or even subtle things like the intricacy of the sound design. It’s the first HD proper Animal Crossing game, and all 391 villagers look great, with lovely toy-like texturing details.
The series used to be one of Nintendo’s scruffier properties. Almost a bit of a joke. Not that it was crap, but it was reflective of the side of the company that made the Game Boy Camera software or hid away Totaka’s Song in control menus. It was weird and silly, and it gave you a furious telling off if you didn’t turn the game off the way it wanted you to. Shifting from N64-style character models to a softer and rounder look has definitely broadened the appeal, and I think that’s really positive, but the older, rougher games had a charm of their own that the developers clearly want to stay true to as well. I think what they have now is something that can really appeal to young kids and casual gamers, as well as the WarioWare weirdos like me.
Some of my favourite stuff in the game is designed specifically to provide kids with a good influence. If you go to the fossil gallery in the museum, there’s a wee trail linking ancestral creatures to their evolutionary descendants. As you go through the exhibit, the trails split off and lead to more creatures, eventually leading to all the species of the game’s villagers, and one human-shaped silhouette you can step in. It’s a lovely message about how we all share this connection, but linking it back to their exciting new animal friends invites kids to take more interest in zoology. It’s beautiful. I never expected Animal Crossing to become one of the games that make me emotional about Nintendo or video games’ influence on the world, but as a committed animal liker, I’m really touched to see it.
Animal Crossing appeals to folk who would never ordinarily buy another Nintendo game. It was almost accidental before, but Nintendo seem keenly aware of the diversity and range of its fanbase now, and have decided that people like that deserve games as polished and carefully assembled as the 3D Marios and Zeldas that they’ve been missing. It’s dug into why folk love it, and made the cutest, deepest and most enticingly habitual game that these world-class developers can make. I hope they know what they’ve done. They’ve turned Animal Crossing into an essential presence on each new Nintendo library. Long may it continue.