Animal Crossing: New Horizons review: one year later

The snow has finally melted, and I can go digging for fossils without wrapping myself in a jacket and winter hat. It’s t-shirt time, and spring means mine Animal Crossing: New Horizons the island looks more alive. There are insects singing and more fish in the lakes and in the sea. Even my cute little neighbors look more animated. But the change in the weather also signals that I have been playing this game for an entire year. I’ve seen seasons, holidays, wildlife and even other players and villagers come and go. In some ways, New Horizons it is not the same game that I started playing in 2020. But for the most part, it is almost identical. So, why am I still playing?

When I wrote my original review of New Horizons Last March, I spent about two weeks with the game. I called it slow burning, even by the laborious standards of the Cross between animals Series. I also said that his pace was “an acquired taste”. It turns out that I was very wrong, at least for a certain part of the audience that was able to bend the game at will. With everyone trapped inside the house, New Horizons it turned into an intoxicating experience, with apparently everyone rushing to pay off their mortgages and “complete” the game as quickly as possible. The stem market has exploded. Time travel has become acceptable. There were talk shows and celebrity appearances that came and went. The result was that many players, or at least most people I know, were exhausted after a few weeks or months.

And there I was, walking heavily. Since the original on the GameCube, I’ve always treated Cross between animals more like a little distraction than a game to be won. I rarely play for more than an hour at a time, but I check in regularly. In the beginning, friends, colleagues and family kept me company; sometimes we fought over resources, with arguments spilling over into the real world. Now, it’s mostly me and my animal friends.

But while a large part of the audience seemed to have slowed down, Nintendo continued to update the game. Since launch, New Horizons added swimming (and deep sea fishing), an art seller (along with a new wing for the museum), the ability to dream (and back up your rescue in the cloud) and holiday celebrations that span everything from the Day Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve for a carnival. There were also quality of life updates, such as the recent expansion for customization.

Some of these updates have changed the way I play the game, at least in small ways. As the type of person who wants to collect all kinds of animals and complete my museum, I spent a lot of time diving for mollusks and squid. Likewise, I log into the game almost every day to see if Redd, that slippery art dealer, showed up to sell me some fraudulent paintings. Events, however, at least give me something to look forward to; generally, everyone follows the same formula, but it’s still fun to collect new items, especially around the holidays. Aesthetics can make a big difference. I can’t go to the real Super Nintendo World in Osaka, but I can give my island’s outdoor market a Super Mario– thematic reform.

Surprisingly, however, the way I play on a daily basis has remained largely unchanged. I start a game, change clothes, go to the stores to see if there’s anything new to buy and then take a quick run around the island to collect fossils, clean the flowers and weeds and maybe fish a little , if I have time. If I find a neighbor, I’ll say hi. This changes on days when there is an event, such as a fishing tournament, but otherwise, New Horizons it is a routine exercise. The weather can change, there may be different butterflies floating around, or maybe I’m dressed as Mario, but I always do pretty much the same thing.

This is not necessarily a complaint. Part of what makes Cross between animals so attractive, at least for me, is that it is comfortable and inviting. I’m not looking for big surprises. After a long day, it is good to just spend time in a cozy space, performing some tasks without time pressure or failure. If I don’t finish all the day’s gardening, there’s no problem. I haven’t even paid my entire mortgage yet; after my house was completely renovated, I didn’t see much reason to spend more money on it, especially since there is no punishment for not paying.

But it’s also not how I expected things to go with New Horizons. In my original review, I praised features like terraforming, crafts and the Nook Miles reward system because they looked like genuinely new additions that could shake the formula. A year later, this is no longer the case for me. Nook Miles is an afterthought; I collect enough of them without trying, but there is little incentive to spend a lot of time worrying about meeting goals. Crafting is useful for getting some rare items, but it is generally easier to buy things. And although terraforming helped me create a beautiful waterfall, I found it too tedious for larger projects. Many of the changes seem significant when you start playing New Horizons, but, eventually, the game establishes itself in the same rhythm of the past Cross between animals titles.

I think what kept me playing, in addition to an ingrained desire to fill my island’s museum, is that I long for that familiarity. A 30-minute break every day is something I need; this was true last March, it is true today and will likely remain so in the near future. A year ago, I praised the game for giving me more control and was excited that so many people were playing from the beginning. But I found that what I wanted most was comfort.