Hello everyone! Today, I figured I would review the Animal Crossing New Horizons video game for you!

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I’m sure everyone has heard of this game, if not played it, already! It was (and still is) huge because it was released over quarantine, and it was the perfect game to play and use as an escape for a lot of people. I also jumped on that bandwagon after being throughly influenced through TikToks of the game, as well as my sister playing and having the coolest island ever!

I’m not quite “finished” with my island, but that’s the point of the game! I did “finish” the main story back in August, when I first got the game, as it takes about two weeks to fully complete that portion of the game. But there’s always something new to change or do, so I still have quite a ways to go! Plus, there are seasonal events, so there’s still a ton of new things being added throughout the year.

And with that, here’s my thoughts on the game (as well as a few photos from my island)!

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About Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) is a game that was developed and published by Nintendo, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch Console. As I mentioned, it was released right at the start of the pandemic (March 20th, 2020), and was quickly sold out everywhere. The game itself is a sort of life simulation, open world game. The game’s story is that your character moves to a deserted island and works to make the island into their new home. Throughout the story the character invites new animal neighbors to build a home too, welcomes new island staff and their business to the island, and performs many tasks to work up to making their island known in the world of ACNH.

There are so many little aspects that go into the island. In terms of villagers, you can have up to ten and the story makes you work your way up to all ten. For the most part you can pick who lives on your island once you make enough progress in the game but at the start you get what you get. Eventually you can go “villager hunting” to other islands to find the villagers you want to live on your island. There are hundreds of potential villagers that are different animals, colors, personalities, and so on. There are a few other ways to get new villagers but I don’t want to spoil too much either!

I would say I’m pretty casual in how I play. There are people who will “time travel” or change the date and time on their Switch to make gameplay a bit faster, as well as seek out certain villagers or items online to get what they want right away. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that at all! That’s super cool that people have that option but I personally don’t do that as I feel it would just make the game feel more like “work” than a way to relax.

The game is ultimately built to be played a little bit every day, so there’s things that you do have to wait a full day (or longer) to complete. There are also daily tasks that benefit you as the player to do every day, such as finding a glowing spot that will grow a money tree if you plant money there. That’s also why people loved the game so much, it was perfect for the quarantine to pass time!

A Little Bit About my ACNH Island

So I figured it’d be fun to add a little bit about my own island here! I named my island Aquila, after a constellation. My character is named Star, after my blog, so I thought that would be a cute way to name her! I did create a bit of lore for my island, where my character decided to follow in her sister’s footsteps (my irl sister’s character) and try out island life!

Right now on Aquila my residents are:

• Margie, a normal elephant
• Winnie, a peppy horse
• Bianca, a peppy tiger
• Pietro, a smug sheep
• Marina, a normal octopus
• Apollo, a cranky eagle
• Julian, a smug horse
• Mac, a jock dog
• Whitney, a snooty wolf

Some villagers that have moved out in the past are:

• Buck, a jock horse
• Sylvia, a sisterly kangaroo
• Elise, a snooty monkey
• Al, a jock gorilla
• Dotty, a peppy rabbit

For now, I am planning to keep my villagers as is! However, I do think Pietro will be the next to move out as I want to get a sisterly villager and I don’t want to have two smug villagers. I also have two peppy and two normal villagers but for now I’m okay with that. I also think I might make a second character on my island so I can get a second home, which I plan to use for extra storage. I also want the second home to be a sort of department store sort of area with the restaurant moving in there and maybe the cafe, both of which are currently outside, but we’ll see!

Aquila is currently a five star island! I got to five stars at the start of this month, and even though I think my island still has a long way to go, it’s pretty cool to have five stars. My big project for the month is to move all my villagers out of the neighborhood and scatter them about the island. This is for two main reasons. First, I want to use the space where the neighborhood is at to move the outdoor restaurant/cafe/market to. Second, I think that if I were to move to a deserted island the last thing I would want is to have to live in a suburb type layout! I currently live in a suburb, so no shade to suburbs, but that’s not what island life should be! Clearly, I’m very invested into this game haha!

I was going to do a separate video tour of my island but when I recorded it the footage was terrible! I don’t have a capture card and I don’t really want to spend the money on one that I’ll only use for one video when I’m currently unemployed, so I put my camera on a tripod and recorded a whole tour. I watched the preview screen on my camera and all seemed to be going well, but then when I imported the footage the recording of the Switch screen looked horrible and I decided I didn’t want to put that up. I did figure out how to get my photos off the Switch though so if you want maybe seasonal updates on my island, let me know and I’d love to do that!

Review of ACNH

So onto the actual review! I don’t think I need a spoiler free section as it’s not really a game that can be spoiled. It’s super easy to play and very straightforward. This is the first game I’ve played from the Animal Crossing series (I believe there are about five games prior to this one) and it was really easy to jump in as the game guides you through it. I should also add that I watched a lot of ACNH content though, so I also had a lot of knowledge about the game going in.

Once again, the game can be as casual or as methodical as the player wants. While it does take quite a few hours to really make good progress at the start, those are easy to put in as I was super excited to play. After a while, the game is less intense and moves much slower, so it’s a great game to just relax with. I like to play a little bit throughout the day so I can get my daily tasks done a bit at a time. Since I’m job hunting I’ll apply for a job and then reward myself with a bit of play time on my Switch.

Another cool thing I like about the game is the regular updates. I started playing in August, so by the time I started the game had already had updates for Easter, a wedding event in June, and the addition of diving creatures and art at the museum. Since playing, I’ve been able to enjoy the debut of pumpkins for Halloween. While I’m sad I missed the Easter and wedding stuff, and I think I could time travel to try to get some of what I missed, I am also excited for whatever comes next as updates do tend to be monthly. I am hoping that a character named Brewster will be added as he has a cafe!

I would say one thing I consider to be a negative item is that in order to play with others you have to get an online subscription. Now, it’s not that much, as it’s $4.99 a month, but I was still surprised by that! I don’t really mind paying it because I love to visit my sister’s island and have her visit mine, but it seems like an unnecessary extra cost as I already paid for the console and the game.

Another negative, that doesn’t affect me but I would still call a negative, is that the game is set up so there is only one island per Switch. So if you share your Switch with someone and they want to play, both players have to share the island. I am the only one that uses my Switch so I don’t have to worry about that, but my sister actually uses her roommate’s Switch. Since my sister was the one that started the game, she is the main character on the island. I believe other players can still do what they want to decorate or change things, but at the start all the progress was linked to my sister’s character only. Her roommate doesn’t play as much so she didn’t mind but I imagine it would be weird if multiple people shared a Switch and all wanted to play the game differently.

At the end of the day the game is a ton of fun and a great way to spend the time while staying home. I’m in suburban Illinois so while restrictions are lifting more and more in the area, I’m still mostly at home to stay as safe as possible. I’m also still job hunting so I do have a lot of time on my hands. Due to all of this, I’ve really found comfort in ACNH, and the creativity that the game allows.

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So those are my thoughts on Animal Crossing: New Horizons! Let me know what you think about the game if you’ve played, or if you want to play it someday. I’d love to know. Also, do you want to see more of my island? Star would love to show it off!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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