Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the brand new Nintendo game that has everyone running to the store. The new 2020 game is the fifth adaptation of the Animal Crossing series following the previous editions, the original, Wild World, City Folk, and New Leaf. The game was released on March 20, 2020 and according to the official Animal Crossing website, within seven weeks over 13.41 million copies were sold. Now, about 22.4 million copies of the game have been sold according to Nintendos’ first quarter report. The Nintendo switch as well as the Switch Lite were also sold out and back-ordered mere weeks after the release of the long awaited New Horizons game. Looking at all the Gamestops in both my current and hometown areas for months, I couldn’t find any Switches or Switch Lites in store and there are only a handful online. Millions of people bought the game as an escape from their lives, especially during these hard times. The question is, is this game really that good or are we just too bored to do anything else?
The United States, and most other countries, were placed under quarantine between late February and early March. Since the start of quarantine, everyone has been going crazy trying to fill their time with something that they enjoy. For some, quarantine meant going into full lockdown mode, hoarding everything from toiletries to non-perishable food and being terrified of getting sick (if they weren’t already). But for some of us it was, for lack of a better term, dull. Every day was the same, you would work or complete school work, eat, sleep, and repeat. Luckily for all of us, New Horizons was released not long after quarantine started, giving us the much needed escape from the harshness of reality, regardless of your situation. Finally we could take our minds off of the constant sickness, fear, pain, or just plain boredom and focus on something that is light, happy, and entertaining.
The particulars of the game make it seem like it is targeted towards younger children, especially when it comes to graphics and music. The graphics are very brightly colored and vibrant with the skies going through variations of blues and greens throughout the day (pictured below). The clouds look fluffy and when it snows, the ground is a beautiful bright white. Not to mention, the characters are designed to be cute and are made to speak to you in a sweet manner. The way the villagers speak also seem to targeted towards children. For example, during a rain storm a villager might say “I wish I hadn’t hung my laundry out to dry before it started raining”. Even when villagers get mad at each other, it’s because of small stuff like someone spoiling a book ending or someone else telling them how to exercise. And when they do get mad, they immediately forgive the other after a minute and they may even ask you to bring a “forgiveness gift” to the villager they fought with.
Dawn 
Night
However, just because the game may be targeted towards children doesn’t mean adults won’t take a liking to it. All of the examples stated above create a very welcoming and relaxing atmosphere that most adults and older teens flock to. Animal Crossing is a way for them to escape the hectic nature of their lives and just relax. They don’t have to think about the stress of school and homework or work, all they have to worry about is how to get every type of flower and making sure their villagers don’t leave the island.
When it comes to playability, the game is not too hard to understand and has easy to use mechanics and gameplay. There are two joy cons on the end of the screen with only a couple buttons on each (the joy cons are removable on the switch but stationary on the switch lite). The left joystick is used to change the way your character is facing and which direction they move in and the B button is used to sprint. Y picks up objects on the floor or kicks a hole to cover it, X opens and closes the inventory, and A selects objects in the inventory and is also the button to use tools. The right joystick moves the camera angle to show you different perspectives. Overall, it is a beginner game that is not difficult to play and is easy to get the hang of, especially if you are just starting out.
The brightly colored scenery and delightful villagers/characters also add a homey and warm environment to be in. Specifically the villagers add a lot to the game and they make you fall in love with them from the moment you meet them. Each villager is in a different “type”; these types are jock, sisterly (it’s called Uchi in-game), smug (my favorite), lazy, cranky, snooty, peppy, and normal. These types determine the character’s personality and also shows how they will react with other villagers around them. For instance, cranky villagers tend to get along with other crankys and normals but do not get along with snootys. Each type has different sayings and they will each give you different diys that relate to their type. For example, Lazy’s will tell you that the bugs on their floor gave them the idea for a diy and their diys will usually be very rustic and outdoorsy. There are also 35 different species of villagers from dogs and cats to penguins and octopus. Each villager is designed to be either extremely cute or so ugly that you find them adorable. (I made sure to insert pictures of some of my favorite characters below.)
Marshal 
Merry 
Octavian
The scenery is also something to pay attention to as it adds a lot to the game. The changing in seasons gives different color pallets and rain storms can give you fun little surprises like a double rainbow. On clear nights you can see all the stars and, if you’re lucky, even a shooting star. Shooting stars bring about a character named Celeste (the owl shown below) who gives you constellation and space DIYs to use around your island, but you can only get them from her. You can also see the northern lights in the winter, depending on where you live. With the seasons, there are different objects you can catch. For example, in the winter you can catch snowflakes and in the spring you can catch cherry blossoms (your trees turn into cherry blossoms in the spring).
Northern Lights 
Double Rainbow 
Spring Cherry Blossoms
Each season also brings a new update with many new activities; this past summer brought a new update with the ability to dive in the ocean, get surfboards (they aren’t usable), and participate in firework shows that take place every Sunday. This fall brought a Halloween update that gives you all types of Halloween decorations to use around your island.
The game also has a great social aspect that allows players from around the world to visit each other. There are two different types of this social gameplay, “local” and “online” play. “Local play” is completely free but you have to be on the same wifi as the person you visit (everyone starts out with this). With “online play” you need to pay $20 a year to use it but you can play with anyone around the world. Both are nice to have but neither are required to be used. However, using the “online play” feature during the pandemic seriously helped most people out of the loneliness of quarantine. You could go to your friend’s island and send them gifts or you could go to a random person’s island to get items and money. For example, at the very beginning of quarantine, I was not able to see many of my friends. One of which also had animal crossing new horizons and me and her visited each other’s islands very often, allowing us to finally “see” each other again.
Your guests can also speak to your villagers and have conversations with them or get diys from them. And once your guest leaves, your villagers will tell you how much they loved whoever visited. This feature makes you feel as if you are actually with your friends when in reality you could be across the country. There are plenty of social activities available in the game, you just have to know where to look and if it costs anything.
After playing the game myself for well over 600 hours (yes I checked my switches settings and no you cannot turn it off), I can confidently say that this game lives up to the hype. There is so much to do in the game from creating your dream island and finding villagers to catching every deep sea creature, bug, and fish. You can collect different pieces of furniture and other items to place around your island which you can change at any time (every update comes with new furniture and DIYs, and some even bring limited time seasonal items). There is always something to do and with the constant updates, you’ll never run out of steam. There are some people that would argue and say the only reason anyone plays the game is because they don’t have anything better to do. While that may be true for some, even after people have started to go back to work, Animal Crossing has been the game that they immediately start playing when they get home. No matter what happens in life or where you start out, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the game to beat.
Works Cited
Animal Crossing Series – Official Site, animal-crossing.com/.
“Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Sept. 2020,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Crossing:_New_Horizons.
Boom, Daniel Van. “Animal Crossing: New Horizons Sold an Insane 13M Copies in 6
Weeks.” CNET, CNET, 7 May 2020,
www.cnet.com/news/animal-crossing-new-horizons-has-sold-an-insane-13m-copies/.
