You’re then tasked to go around the island and gather whatever Nook needs. He gives you a crappy tent, knowing you’re going to say yes to his “generous” offer of a big, new house for 98,000 bells ( Animal Crossing currency) instead. Sounds nice right? Well, Nook doesn’t do anything for charity. Here’s where the capitalist crook comes in.Īfter landing on your new tropical island, Tom Nook, the raccoon, gives you your first tent home. I just built a bridge they can cross, so there’s that I guess. This is a nice peaceful island, remember. I’d like to see a kid catch two coelacanth fish in one sitting. I’d never played a single Animal Crossing game until this weekend but now I finally understand what the hype is about. The point of the game is to build a utopian island filled with neighbors who are your best friends, and lush greenery to harvest. The game uses a real clock system, with your island changing to day and night appropriately, and different fish and insects appearing based on time and month. To go a bit deeper, players get to design their own character, pick an island, then spend forever on that island gathering resources, planting trees and fishing. The TL DR: you slowly build a delightful island using basic equipment like a shovel and an axe. There’s so much to do in Animal Crossing even though it’s going to read so simple. It’s the first since New Leaf, which was released in 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS.Īnimal Crossing stans have waited eight years for this game! New Horizons, released on March 20, is the fifth main-platform installment of the Animal Crossing series, which started all the way back in 2001 for Nintendo 64 in Japan (it was enhanced and brought to the U.S.
What is Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and why is everyone playing it?
I’ll catch you up on what you’re missing. Long-time Nintendo fans have been waiting nearly a decade for this game to come out. Everyone’s got a lot more time on their hands than expected. There’s so much hype for Animal Crossing because so many people are sitting on the couch, social distancing from society. There’s good reason! Nintendo Switch users are taking a well-needed break from reality to play a beautiful, charming video game set on a dream island filled with nice friends, fruit trees, a bright blue ocean, and a capitalist crook raccoon. You’ve probably heard someone talking about Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.