Animal Crossing: New Horizons: The final review

However Animal Crossing New Horizons’ many, many updates — both large and small — Nintendo’s island-life simulation remains largely the same. What has changed, though, is the circumstances we’re playing through.

Where? New HorizonsLaunched in March 2020 by COVID-19, large parts of the world were hit hard by the pandemic. Many of us spent more time at home, while others — deemed essential — risked their health by trekking into an uncertain world. Instead of focusing on other people (at least in physical terms), we shifted our attention to this digital canvas. In large part it was a safer alternative. New HorizonsIt was the perfect time for us all to find the escape we needed.

We can’t say if we would have played. New Horizons differently if it didn’t come around when it did. It did come, though, and maybe because of this intense escapist focus, many people played. New Horizons furiously. The two of them embraced time travel to get rid of the other chilling game. New HorizonsThere was no race like it. It was a way I used to play. In my quest to gather everything, expand quickly, and play it competitively, I compared my island with mine to see which one was better. Then I wondered how much time I missed out on the forest-green sofa. When in reality, my game time was unlimited, I felt like it was. Very veryNot limited.

Maybe as a result of this intensity, or maybe just as a result of “moving on,” I suddenly lost interest. I hit a spot where I didn’t want to be a part of the arms race anymore — I didn’t want to deal with the FOMO or the guilt. Everything was Animal Crossing until it wasn’t.

And so, a year passed without me touching the game, save for an occasional check-in — often for work. We’re months away from the two-year anniversary, and, though the shape of it has shifted, we’re still in the midst of a pandemic. Business have opened up and there are vaccines. The virus is still spreading, but we’ve moved past that initial shock and have found ways to live with it. New HorizonsThis isn’t the only way to host birthday parties, holidays, or rejuvenating gatherings with friends.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Nintendo’s major 2.0 update on Nov. 3, along with the Happy Home Paradise DLC, did what other content updates couldn’t: They convinced me to start playing the game again. Nintendo chose to preserve a large amount of content in one major expansion rather than distributing it through smaller updates. The changes — quality-of-life improvements, new characters, and a new resort, to name a few — were enticing enough that I wanted to pick back up the game I had long abandoned. Although these additions brought me back, I’ve stuck around for another reason entirely. A return to New Horizons in 2021, I haven’t really found a new game, but rather, a new feeling while playing it; the need to rush through the content, to seek out everything immediately, is no longer there. I have a deep understanding of New HorizonsAfter more than 100 hours of work, it feels okay to slow down.

On Sears, my island, it’s fall now, the same season in which I last left it. My walkways are still decorated with pumpkins. The patches, however, seem overripe. They still look beautiful in the orange rows, but this is Animal Crossing. They’ve been waiting for more than a year to get picked. The new crops — tomatoes, potatoes, wheat, sugarcane, and carrots — work in exactly the same way. Plop them onto the ground, water them, and in a few days time, they’ll be ready to pick. You can use them for much more than decoration. Cooking doesn’t necessarily have a purpose in New Horizons, but it doesn’t need to. It’s possible to eat or display the food. It’s the fun of collecting new recipes, and trying out different combinations. This is true for other parts as well. New Horizons: The joy in Kapp’n’s tours is the mystery of what I’ll find.

None of it is surprising, and if I were to binge the new 2.0 content, I’d probably run through the free stuff in a few quick hours. (The Happy Home Paradise DLC can add a significant amount of time. However, this is possible. New Horizons’ favor, because I feel encouraged to actually take it slow, knowing that there’s nothing I’ll miss out on — that I’ll get to it all eventually.

Image: Nintendo

Nintendo didn’t add some of players’ most requested quality-of-life additions in New Horizons’ 2.0 update — particularly, the ability to make multiple items at one time — but the developer did make a lot of small changes that add up to a more intuitive whole. It is now possible to store your DIY recipes. There are also more design slots and more inclines. The Ordinances are also removing the tiny obstacles that prevented some DIY recipes from being stored. New Horizons frustrating to play, alongside more customization options through Cyrus and Reese at Harv’s island marketplace. They are crucial to me enjoying my time on Sears. New Horizons isn’t a game where I want to feel friction anymore than I already had. However, that friction was there. It isThey are still available. If I need to perform multiple actions I must repeat the interactions. This extends to new features like Cyrus and Reese customizing multiple items. My friends still have to wait a while before they can get onto my island. Terraforming is also still very frustrating.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

It’s clear, of course, that Nintendo wants this new update to keep players interested in New HorizonsFor as long as they can; days-long time gating shows that. I find it useful for the new way of playing, even though players are likely to be disappointed if they want more content. New Horizons doesn’t feel like a chore anymore, but I think that’s a change in me, rather than in the game itself.

What makes Animal Crossing an appealing franchise is that I’m able to meet it on my own terms — even if those terms are the polar opposite of the ones I brought to the game in 2020. New Horizons is no longer my “global living room,” as Bijan Stephen described Fortnite2018 It’s more like my secret clubhouse, a space that’s mostly just for me, and maybe the kind of friends that feel comfortable sitting in silence. Coming back to the game this time — alongside all of its new content — means doing things differently, but it’s still just as satisfying.

Animal Crossing doesn’t have to be all. But it’s just enough for me.