Hello and happy Easter everybody! It’s been awhile, but I’m finally back and ready to bring some fresh new content! It’s been a crazy month for me to be honest. I changed jobs, moved to basically the other side of the world and have been spending time getting established and set up in a completely new culture. It’s been nuts, but thankfully I’ve had Animal Crossing: New Horizons to help keep me grounded.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like all the new stuff in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I saw the crafting mechanic and though “oh man, that’s going to be a pain!” And…that’s not how it’s turned out. It’s certainly not perfect (I’m getting really tired of having to make new tools), but I’ve actually been enjoying it otherwise. It ensures that there’s more to do each day beyond checking the store and catching a few fish, and I actually like it. I like that the game’s giving me things to work for instead of just asking me to wait until tomorrow in the hopes that something interesting might happen. It’s even kept me invested enough to resist the urge to time travel, something that I routinely did in every Animal Crossing game up until now. It’s kind of incredible in that way.

Being able to place items outside and build things like fencing has taken the game’s obsession with decorating everything just right to a whole new level. It used to be all about getting your house just right, but now you’ve got a whole island to play with, an island that you can even edit to your heart’s content eventually. It’s amazing to say the least. The possibilities are endless! I’ve been putting in at least an hour a day since the game came out, and there’s still so much to be done and furniture to collect…and I can’t wait to do it. This isn’t even the best part too! No that distinction goes to Animal Crossing: New Horizons online functions.

Since the very first Animal Crossing on the Gamecube, the series has featured the ability to visit the towns of friends or nearby neighbors. It was an important feature, but one that for most players provided little more than a few minutes of fun. Going to friend’s towns was neat and all, but there was little point outside of gaining another kind of fruit or getting another chance to check the store. This is not the case in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Indeed the feature has finally come into its own thanks to a combination of Nintendo offering a proper online service and the likes of Reddit and Discord.

Where once the feature was a curiosity, it is now what I consider to be an essential component of the game. There are so many furniture recipes and such in New Horizons that one could play for years and still only see a fraction of them. There’s also the issue of raising enough bells to pay for one’s house and all the public works on the island. One could certainly do it day-by-day by diligently tending their money trees and hoping for a good price on turnips. It’ll take a very long time, but it’s entirely doable. OR, you could leverage the power of the greater Animal Crossing community and get exactly what you need.

Do you need Bells? Offer your crafting services or negotiate entry to an island with high turnip prices. Do you want furniture? Find someone online who’s willing to trade for it. Would you like a cool pattern for your town flag or character’s clothes? Look no further than the appropriate sub-reddit or Discord channel. There are hundreds of other players out there looking to make a trade, all you have to do is find one you can make a deal with.

I’ve met so many other cool people and seen a ton of awesome islands this way that I’ve really gained an appreciation for being part of the fandom. It’s awesome and I cannot recommend it enough. Don’t stay holed-up in your island; get out there and meet people! You absolutely won’t regret it! You might even find me on there sometime. I’ve got a lot of furniture on my list and I’m going to be out there looking for it!

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What do you think of Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Are you enjoying it as much as past entries or are there problems that are ruining it for you? If you don’t play, what about it do you find unappealing?

Image from Nintendo official website.