Almost 3 months on since release, I have been playing Animal Crossing almost every single day without fail. It’s been hard to summon the will to write up a formal review about it despite playing it since release, as it is of course well covered by the gaming community at large. Nevertheless I wanted to compile my thoughts here, I will also be condensing them into my usual review format as to not ramble on too long about a game I was already highly biased in favour for to begin with.
That said, what with all my own personal ideas of what would formulate both personal and critically good additions to the formula meant I attempted to enter this game with as neutral a stance as possible. After all, there is always room for improvement, and in this games case that is still the precedent.
Story – Island Living
Before beginning your journey to you new island paradise, New Horizons kicks off by allowing you to create a base look for your character. While speaking to Timmy and Tommy Nook, you then decide on the base look for your island and jet off to see it in person. During the flight a neat little cutscene plays in the style of a travel advert that illustrates the potential of your island getaway. The game continues uncharacteristically along a narrow narrative whereby you live out the first day and evening of island life with Tom Nook, his nephews and your first couple of villagers. In this charming segment, you can set locations for yours and your villagers tents, get to know the land and top it all off with a sweet little ceremony by the fire whereby you then get to name the island before heading off to bed, From here the game then resumes in the usual fashion, bound by the real world’s time as set on your Nintendo Switch. I loved having this soft launch into the game, especially as it meant getting to play as soon as the game launched and not having features restricted due to the night time hours.
From there, you then begin island life fully with Tom Nook giving you valuable instructions that teach you the games core mechanics such as crafting, raising money and customising your landscape. While you are initially restricted to the portion of the island connected to your airport, you are soon leaping over the rivers using the new pole vault tool. When you finally progress a sufficient amount and learn about everything island life has to offer, Nooks tent transforms into the Town Hall and then the more traditional Animal Crossing experience sets in. Some may berate the restrictive nature of the first week on island time, but I really appreciated how nicely it portions out the games inner workings, making them easier to learn and utilise. It’s something Animal Crossing does above most life-sims which I feel stops you from getting too lost in the possibilities. The moment the town hall is built and the island ambience changes to the catchy traditional Animal Crossing OST was a wonderful touch!
Gameplay – Town Representative at your service!
Unlike villager, housemate or mayor, your new role in New Horizons is Town Representative. This essentially covers all your roles from New Leaf, but leaves the admin firmly in the hands of Tom Nook and later Isabelle which makes more sense in a world where the central individual can be asleep for months on end and inevitably eternally (ooooh haha). The big new hook in this game – building upon the foundations laid out in Pocket Camp – is the ability to craft furniture from materials that spawn in many forms all around your island. Not only can you craft, you can also customise them in many ways and place them anywhere in the gameworld with little exception. Condensing many features into this system was a master stroke, and while there are some UI niggles that the community have consistently expressed, I think overall it has been created brilliantly.
There are several goals within the game that you may set yourself. As the game is technically open ended, this is something you’ll likely do at one point or another as your interest eventually wanes and other games demand your attention. You can raise money to pay Nook and upgrade your home from humble tent to a multi-floored, spacious maison. Isabelle encourages you to decorate and make meaningful additions to the islands environment which contribute to the islands overall rating. You can fill your encyclopedia by capturing the various bugs and fish that appear in town at various times of day at various times of the year. You can also ensure you are donating them to the Museum to create a physical showcase of your determination.
Perhaps most importantly, in-game you now have a Smartphone – dubbed Nook Phone – that visually houses several of the games mechanics such as crafting recipes, design creation, the encyclopedia amongst other things. Atop this impressive selection is the Nook Miles app. Combining the goals system from Pocket Camp and the badges/meow coupons from New Leaf then building upon them. By performing in game tasks both simple and obscure, you can amass Nook Miles which then can be exchanged for several premium items, recipes and clothing. They’re also required for you to be able to purchase Nook Tickets that allow you to fly to a variety of abandoned islands on which you can harvest additional materials and meet new villagers.
So far the game has been entertaining enough to capture my attention for just shy of 3 months. I will surely be returning regularly for most of the first year to collect the creatures that will appear later in the year and partake in the regular updates Nintendo have been distributing. The events in this game after all have been distributed via update. While I retain reservations of this method as it restricts the base product, it has proven largely fruitful, though the events have varied from substantial (Easter / Egg Day) to disappointing (Stamp Rally).
Audio / Visual – One Of The Best Looking Games on Switch
It might not boast deeply realistic environments, but New Horizons is another masterclass in what artistic direction can achieve. The gorgeously smooth and colourful world is a joy to observe and interact with. The game imitates reality much more closely than its predecessors but still through and through boasts the wondrous Animal Crossing universe’ charm. The beginning of the game, again, sees you spend a week with the deserted island full of nothing but the sounds of the wind and the tides. While they can still be heard later on below the chirpy soundtrack, nothing beats the feeling the game generates at the very beginning. It helps to illustrate just how far you progress as your island transforms into a built up dream destination.
In my projections for this game, I envisioned a jump to the world being fully realised past its forced perspective roots into a fully-3D experience. While I respect the artistic direction the game retains, and how well it is executed, as time goes on this still remains a growing disappointment for me, especially on the ever-improving hardware the series expands onto. What has been sweet about this game, is that for millions of players it has provided a comforting backdop to the real world struggles that have emerged as the game released. As we battle an ever-prevalent pandemic and challenge the deep systemic social issues plaguing the world, we’ve had somewhere to come to escape to for even just a moment. The timing of this games appearance I’m sure has played a vital role in its success, it has been great this time around to watch the community produce so many memes, video content and snapshots of their creations thanks to the prevalence of social media as opposed to when New Leaf was released.
Value & Replayability – Loads to play, more on the way!
Animal Crossing games by design are made to capture your attention for long periods of time. With the periodic changing of the critters and the events that sign post the passing of time, after a certain point your regular play is replaced by infrequent visits to continue building upon your hard earned successes. Typically I have found after a year at most, that’s when you will likely put down Animal Crossing until such a time you want to revisit or begin the charming journey anew. Nintendo are seemingly trying to improve things this time around by allowing the creators to periodically add events that will offer unique experiences each time instead of repeating the same events each year. Pocket Camp did a promising job in creating unique and engaging events, and while the events added to New Horizons have been a mixed bag, it does generate a lasting curiosity to eagerly anticipate each new update.
As well as events, the development team have been actively addressing bugs in the game too, namely duping glitches. But hopefully this too will soon produce remedies to several common complaints that players have expressed, such as niggles with the UI wishing them to eliminate and streamline repetitive functions such as crafting and purchasing multiples of things. Overall though, New Horizons continues to bear the potential to maintain your interest in at least a semi-regular fashion for months in ways that so many games have yet to imitate.
Conclusion – Paradise Found!
I can confidently say after my extended play test that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a brilliant game, well worthy of your time and deserving of its runaway success. It is easily one of the best and most worthwhile titles on the Switch, providing hours and hours of enjoyment to all players. While there remains small issues that the community at large have been addressing en masse such as restrictions to Cloud Saving, one island per Switch and the niggly flaws in the UI. Overall this is comfortably the penultimate Animal Crossing experience and a must own title for the Nintendo Switch.
9.5/10
TheBenAlder 