The Rise and Fall of Animal Crossing New Horizons
Animal Crossing New Horizons is currently the second-best selling game on the Nintendo Switch
I recently started playing it again after taking a break for the past year.
The reason I quit in the first place is because I felt like I did everything I wanted to do, but part of it also had to do with the game not getting frequent updates.
Animal Crossing New Horizons came out on March 20th, 2020, after getting delayed in 2019.
For those who don’t know, Animal Crossing is a life simulator game. You start on an island with two animal villagers, a lot of trees, fruit, and weeds, and your main guide Tom Nook.
Tom Nook has been a main staple in Animal Crossing games since the first one came out in 2001. But he transitioned from being a store owner, to starting his own island getaway package, which is why you are on the island.
Animal Crossing New Horizons came out at the perfect time, as life was starting to change because of the pandemic. People wanted an escape into a new world, and Animal Crossing was able to fulfill that request.
People started celebrating each other’s birthday in the game, a lot of celebrities hosted events in the game, and I noticed a lot of podcasts were happening too.
Animal Crossing really helped people take their minds off the world for a while.
I got my first Animal Crossing game in April of 2020. I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t understand the hype around it. I just wasn’t used to games that you needed to take your time in.
One of the key things about Animal Crossing is that you play in real time. Seasons, time, and holidays all happen like they do in real life, this makes it, so you keep playing for a long time to experience each event.
I personally love this concept. That is what kept me playing for so long, I just wanted to experience everything.
My favorite thing to do in the game is to catch fish and bugs and submit them to the museum. Some fish and bugs come out only at certain times of the year. The fish I’m trying to get at the moment is called the golden trout. You can only catch this fish from September to November from 4pm to 9am.
There are many other fish and bugs that follow a similar pattern of only being available at certain times. That is one of the reasons that most people thought this game would last a while.
As the year went on, most people already finished designing their island the way they wanted, and most of them already caught all the fish and bugs and got every piece of artwork for the museum. People wanted more, as did I.
Nintendo’s response was to release updates every few months to highlight the holidays that were coming up. It was fine for the time being because there were some things to look forward to.
But after those holidays were finished. Nintendo went silent for a while. A lot of people assumed the game was over and that was Nintendo’s way of saying they were done releasing updates.
The people who played the previous Animal Crossing games were upset with the lack of content in New Horizons compared to the others. There were so many more shops, a lot more places to explore, and more things to do in general in the previous games.
New Horizons was more of a creative game compared to the others. The game’s content relied on what ideas you have to make your island cooler. But once people did what they wanted to do, there wasn’t anything left.
This made people say that New Horizons was only selling well because it came out at the perfect time, and I still believe that to this day. There was also a lot of talk that this is one of the worst games in the series. I didn’t agree at the time, and still don’t , but I understand where people were coming from.
In a Nintendo Direct on September 23rd, 2021, Nintendo showed a mini trailer to a new Animal Crossing update.
The trailer showed you walking through a museum onto the second floor and into a room on the left. This is where you heard the amazing music of Brewster’s Cafe, which is a coffee shop that was in previous games. In the previous games, the cafe used to be bigger. But I feel like nobody cared because they were so happy to see something new in New Horizons.
That is where they announced an Animal Crossing Direct was taking place on October 15th and that it would be the final major update.
After fans heard the news, the expectations were super high, but deep down I knew that fans would still find a way to be upset with whatever they announced.
The Direct starts off with you walking around the cafe and the narrator saying that you could invite your friends and your villagers to have coffee with you. Even though this is a mini hang out spot, it’s the place I hang out the most in the game. It’s a super calm place that makes me feel good.
After that, they announced the return of boat tours with Kapp’n. Boat tours were in the previous game, and they were pretty popular. In this game you pay 1000 miles (one of the two currencies) to take a boat to a mystery island that has special items that you can’t get on your island or any other island.
I rarely go on the boat tours. They’re cool every once in a while, if you have nothing else to do. But I prefer to take a tour to a random island using a nook miles ticket for the airport.
Next, they announced an extension to Harv’s Island. Harv’s island was a place where you could take cool pictures inside of his house area. I can guarantee you that nobody went to this place until the new update came out.
Now you can buy items from the NPCS that come to your island every once in a while, whenever you want. My favorite place to go to is Redd’s art area because he rarely comes to your island, but now you could go every day and buy art.
They also added new people like Katrina and Harriet. Katrina gives you your fortune to tell you if you will have good or bad luck, which plays into your day on your island. Harriet is there to give you new hairstyles, and don’t worry, if you don’t like it, you can always change it back to your original hair.
After that, Nintendo showed ground stretching from the original Animal Crossing game. It’s a funny little mini game. Then they showed you more ways to customize your house and your furniture, which is always helpful for anyone looking to make their island look better.
A few examples of farm crops they added are tomatoes and wheat, but there are many more. You can use the crops to make cool food, it is a great way to make your own cafe look better with real food on the tables.
They added ceiling decorations for your house, which is cool. You can increase the number of inclines and bridges you can make from 8–10, which is extremely helpful for me.
Then they announced new fencing options, that wasn’t something I’m interested in, because I usually use fences and shrubs.
Then they went on to show off new emotions you can use, a more in depth camera app, and a new tips app for your NookPhone. All of these are cool things, but the camera app is the most useful, at least for me.
My most favorite thing was that they added storage sheds and ATMS for your island, so instead of having to go inside of the town hall every time you wanted to buy something or get money, you can just craft an ATM, or a storage shed and place them wherever you want so it is easier to access.
One of fans’ most wanted requests was for gyroids to come back, gyroids are these little things that can make different noises when you are near them (they are super hard to describe but they are cool).
Another cool little thing they added was that animal villagers can come to your house and hang out with you. It makes the villagers feel more alive.
Then after that, Nintendo went into the big announcement of the Direct. A whole new place to explore.
It’s called Happy Home Designer. You can access it by selecting “I want to work” when talking to Orville at the airport.
I can’t say a lot about this because I never actually bought this expansion, but from what I’ve seen, it is cool.
You pretty much have to design villagers houses for them off the request that they give you. It’s as boring as it sounds, but I feel like it is only made for people who like designing.
If you are more into island living life like me, this expansion is not for you, hence why I didn’t buy it.
This was the end of the direct and marked the end of Animal Crossing New Horizons. After spending 520 hours and counting in this game, I can say it’s good, so I don’t regret anything.
But in all seriousness, this is one of my favorite games of all time and helped me through a lot of things in the past 3 years.
I’ve never been more excited to see what more a franchise could do then I am with Animal Crossing.
