To be honest, there is a ton of stuff to cover when it comes to discussing the ins and outs of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I don’t want to bore anyone too much though, so those basics and main new features are the most important things that I wanted to be sure I went over. Now that I’ve done that, I’d like to finally discuss my actual thoughts on the game and which features and things I liked or didn’t like. Let’s start with the positive. Yes, I absolutely fell in love with ACNH, and it one-hundred percent surpassed my tame expectations. I had this undeniable excitement each time Nintendo put out another video or had a stream showing off the game. Nevertheless, I kept my expectations in check, going as far as purchasing the game digitally, thinking it’d be perfect as a little half hour break from more exciting games. I didn’t want to have to switch out cartridges constantly.
In the end, I had absolutely nothing to worry about. New Horizons oozes charm. Every inch of the game is full of the stuff. I feel like a lot of that is merely the upgraded art and graphics quality that got me excited for it to begin with. Many of the hairstyles in New Horizons now have added shine and bounce, giving your character more life. The scenery looks fantastic as well. Graphics aside, the Nook Miles are also a big part of making the game better than its predecessor. Having a reason to do all of those menial tasks in the game and seeing rewards for it truly helps. Another thing I love is how easy it is to decorate my home. New Leaf didn’t give you the ability to enter an actual editing mode where you can rotate items, select and move whole chunks of stuff and/or quickly send decorations back to storage. Not to mention, you’re able to decorate outside and handpick every neighbor’s plot of land. I found myself with an urge to play and at least check in on my island for a little bit every single day. Then by the time I got off I’d realize I played for three or four hours. When I was online with Quentin that day I got myself some roses, we spent a whole hour merely checking out each other’s islands. I’m sure eventually I won’t want to spend quite as long playing each time. Nonetheless, I’ve already spent over 95 hours on the game in only a month and it does not have any of that early game drag New Leaf had whatsoever. The soundtrack actually helps a lot with keeping me sucked in. I don’t necessarily think it’s better than New Leaf‘s soundtrack. Still, it’s relaxing in its own way and adds to the atmosphere. One final thing that I adore about New Horizons is how the guessing game to customize your character has been completely removed. You’re free to specifically pick what you want your character to look like without answering any obscure questions.
Yes, New Horizons is everything for me that New Leaf wasn’t. And yet, I still have a handful of things to nitpick. No game is perfect, I’m bound to have at least one complaint or another. My biggest complaint with New Horizons is how Nintendo changed the house upgrades. New Leaf gave me the option to pick my order of add-on rooms and afterwards I could increase the size of any room. New Horizons on the other hand forces you into a certain order of room extensions and as of right now, I have yet to read about or see any option to increase the size of those additional rooms. Nintendo is supposed to be periodically updating the game, so I can only hope that they address this. Which brings me to my second big complaint – I kind of feel like Nintendo didn’t put out a complete game. I appreciate the way they’ve updated some Nintendo Switch games. Fire Emblem Three Houses is a Switch title that has legitimately extra content added through DLC, not necessities or anything that was cut from the base game. But with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I feel like Nintendo was so ridiculously focused on preventing “cheating,” they cut out too much stuff for future updates. I mean, people who like to time skip by altering their system’s clock won’t even find any holidays in the game until Nintendo officially adds them. That kind of cutting of content bugs me. Animal Crossing is the most casual, carefree game series I can think of and while I don’t personally like to time travel in my own copy, I don’t believe Nintendo should have gone to the extremes they did to prevent it. I would much rather have a complete game at launch, and any updates released be for stuff that is truly extra. They also inserted other smaller limitations like putting a tiny cap on how many gifts you can send your friends in a day without visiting their island. One last complaint I have, granted a small one, is how clunky the island designer app can be. It’s a fantastic new addition, I only wish it was smoother. Whenever I’m doing anything with it, making paths, adding cliffs, or modifying my river, I find it’s all too easy to put stuff and get rid of stuff where you don’t want to. It’s simply not as smooth of an experience as it could be.
All in all, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a fantastic game and wonderful new entry to the series. For the most part, it does everything right and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested. If you’ve never played Animal Crossing before, keep your expectations in check, it’s not at all a fast paced game. It is extremely casual and even based on real time. So long as you keep your expectations in check, or you’re specifically looking for a casual game, then I most definitely recommend New Horizons. While I have already received my 3 star rating and gotten K.K. Slider to hold a concert, there’s plenty more I haven’t done yet. Fortunately, my more significant complaints weren’t enough to completely sour the experience and I look forward to playing for many more hours. With all that’s been going on in the world lately, it’s obvious that Animal Crossing New Horizons being delayed until March 2020 was the best thing that could’ve happened to it. It was well worth the wait and I’d almost believe it was destined to release when it did.
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Review copy was purchased by the author. A copy of the game costs $59.99.
