It’s been about seven months since I put out my original review for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Since then, the game has received multiple updates and opened up even more than before. After the recent November update I found so many new little things to love and I’ve decided I want to talk about them. Let’s take a look back at ACNH and discuss how this one game just keeps on giving.
As I mentioned in my New Horizons review (linked above), Animal Crossing: New Leaf was not the most exciting game in the series for me. The concept was cool, but it failed to lure me in for more than a half hour or so per sitting. New Horizons on the other hand, has been the complete opposite. I went for most of the year since release, checking in, even just for a smidge, every single day. More often than not, I’d spend at least an hour or two doing stuff around my island. At the beginning, those first couple months, I spent numerous hours in the game any day that I had the time. Today, as of writing this article, my total game time is 385 hours. I got my island, Memoria, up to five stars, and while it’s not the most cool or extravagant island, I think it’s charming. Everything I’ve placed, like my main beach hangout area next to Octavian’s house, my little gaming deck where there was once a useless mini cliff, my park, all feel permanent. Sometimes I ponder making significant changes, however, I have no idea what I would do with my island if I did.
Each update that Nintendo puts out makes the game that much better. I had a blast all those Sunday nights in August, watching the fireworks and lighting sparklers or fountains while wearing my little bopper. I got great joy out of jumping off rocks into the ocean, in my specially put together outfit to match my wetsuit. And of course I really enjoyed October, collecting new clothing pieces and trying to decide between various Halloween costumes I put together, as well as placing all the pumpkin decorations I could across Memoria.
November’s update has yet again added so much more for me to enjoy and I’m not even at the holidays yet. I’ve been saying for months that I wanted to sit on the ground like my villagers and it’s finally a reality. The second I updated my game and hopped on, I purchased those new reactions and sat all over the place. In the plaza while Shari was singing, in Judy’s home where she refused to acknowledge my behavior, on the beach right where the water comes up, any place I could find that seemed worthy of gracing with my presence. And when I was done with that, I finally put together a somewhat decent outfit, more suited for the upcoming cold weather. Oh and let’s not forget how Nintendo just restored the ability to visit random dreams. I didn’t find it half as exciting when they initially added the dream feature. It forced you to find dream codes and you’d have some sort of idea in advance of where you were going to pop-up and what you might see.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been a game that simply keeps on giving. I’m now at a point where I don’t feel as bad if I miss a few days, when I’m absorbed into other things and I know there isn’t anything major happening in Memoria. Nevertheless, I still can’t stand not checking in at least a few times a week, cleaning up the unnecessary weeds and newly spawned flowers I don’t want and seeing what my villagers are up to. It’s not a perfect game though, I do agree with the fans who think New Leaf had a better soundtrack. I also am still completely against Nintendo having chopped the game to pieces and deciding to release things like it’s a free-to-play MMO. One never knows what was actually planned and what they only added in due to fan demand. Though I truly hope when they’re finally finished with all of these updates and any bug patches, that they’ll release a physical complete edition, just like they did for New Leaf. At the end of the day, New Horizons is a joy of a game and seven months later, I keep falling back in love with it.
