gamesandtings

I’ve spent an obscene amount of time playing this game – the lockdown came into effect here just a couple of days after release. The timings being so beneficial to one another you’d be forgiven for thinking that Nintendo’s PR department invented Covid-19.

To explain the game, you become the warden of a tropical island. Through interactions with Tom Nook (the Tanuki landlord) you clean the island up of its weeds, building new homes, inviting new villagers, constructing buildings and monuments, institute a museum and generally potter around collecting items, fruits, clothing, bugs and fishes. It’s a game with no natural end, with no real tasks, one that lets you play as much as you please but still makes you wait for things to be completed. For example, if I construct a bridge, I will need to find a convenient plot of land, pay for it and then wait; it will be ready tomorrow – no sooner, no later. Many things ape this timing – and it might appear strange to praise such a mechanic but it’s something that I’ve not really come across in gaming.

It has a confidence to make players wait, helping to create a familiar loop and entice players to continue to come back, discover new things and enact on their vision for the island.

What also helps create that magnetism are the cast of characters that inhabit and visit the island. All with their distinct personalities and quirks, reminding you of friends in real life. Take Hamlet, a hamster obsessed with body building and proving that under his fluffy exterior, exists a body Adonis would be jealous of. Guests include a seagull named Gulliver, that falls overboard, requiring assistance to fix his mobile phone so he can text his shipmates for a lift.

Or a cockney Skunk cobbler that is selling his goodies in the town square. Many appear in rotation, amending your daily routine in order to receive a gift the following day.

There are differences compared with its predecessors; on being that I largely ignore the villagers – no longer do I really need to do their quests as the Nook Mileage Program largely replaces those interactions. Before a villager might ask for fruit or to deliver a package to another – these may exist but it feels like it’s few and far between. Granted New Leaf received an update with the MEOW coupons, rewards for tasks similarly found, but I still found I needed to talk to my villagers in order to squeeze the most out of my daily session. With New Horizons, I find myself blanking the casts – interactions are down to a single sentence unless I can entice something from them by bribing them with a pear or wooden table.

This runs deeper with the supporting cast, the update in April helped reintroduce some characters that existed in previous entries, ones that I initially thought had been cut from the game. But again, with New Leaf, it felt like the game was gently unfurling the more you interacted with it – the more you bought and visited, other shops would open up on its high street. This is in contrast with New Horizons, new characters have not materialised nor new shops opened. This is probably going to be remedied with future updates, my guess being quarter updates to greet the new seasons coming in. But going back to New Leaf, you’re almost thrown in immediately; characters and rotations galore.

There is also a lack of co-opable tasks – inviting members to your island to help water plants and uproot weeds feels inchoate. I’d wish there were a little more to do with each other, even setting smalls tasks or have competitions incorporated – set a 15 minute timer with your guests, villagers join the crowning ceremony once it ends (appreciate we have official fishing competitions but informal ones offered for visiting guests would go a long way).

Other features just feel forgotten or purposefully ignored. Animal Crossing on Gamecube allowed players to play NES games that they’ve collected – imagine an integration of the NES/SNES games that are included for subscribing to Nintendo Online, able to be played within Animal Crossing – potentially with visiting guests. In fact, Nintendo related items have gone missing as well – in New Leaf, the currency earned by walking around with the 3DS was used to buy a single fortune cookie a day. In it, a token to redeem for a Nintendo item – from a question block to Fi’s mask. They’re not here in New Horizons and I bloody want them.

I wouldn’t want what I’ve written to betray the enjoyment I’ve had with the game – I’ve played it every single day since release and still continue to tinker. I just wish a few more favourites were reintegrated into the game and a bit of variety offered for online multiplayer to be more enticing. It’s still fully worth picking up.

Also, please keep me in your thoughts when your turnip prices are through the roof.

7 turnips out of 10 bunches