Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Nintendo Switch

Ho boy. Im not sure where to begin. There is really a lot to say about the long awaited addition to the Animal Crossing family and to be fair, some of it is positive. To be honest, plenty of the criticism is deserved as well. As a mother of four kids and a fan of the game myself (yep, I played it on the wii and fell in love. The ONLY video game Ive ever truly been a fan of- what can I say? It helps me de-stress!), Im not going to pull any punches when I say that the one island per Switch thing is ridiculous and could in fact damage future development and/or releases. This is a deal breaker for a lot of families. We went ahead and bought the game knowing this was an issue but were hoping to give it a try. After all, we shared City Folk just fine. But one of the main issues is that the person who starts the game sort of gets everything and takes over the development of the island while the other players are just kind of left in the dust for a while. Sure, they still gain points, manage their homes, get DIY plans, but everything they do comes slower, fewer, and is held up by the first player. Theyre not really creating their own story- theyre following in the shadows of the story the first player started. I say that as the first player of our game and it stinks. I would have loved to have passed on some of the challenges and rewards to my kids to complete but instead I just felt rushed to get as much done as possible so they could progress as well. Another interesting tidbit- and many wont care about this but conservative parents might so Im mentioning it for them- are the few LGBT references in the American or English version of the game. The Japanese version strangely doesnt contain these references but they were included in the English version and this is notable to me. I firmly believe in equal rights but in what is very much a childrens game with talking animals, I fail to understand how it was necessary to include these references. Why do sexual preferences even need to play a part in a game such as this? Without warning, the creators have chosen to include references that feel out of place and a bit like pandering. Im left scratching my head and wondering, Why? And if it was so important to include, why was it left out of other versions? Cant we decide what we deem appropriate for our home and kids rather than having Nintendo make a blanket determination of our culture and then plopping something into the game that they wont even include in their countrys version? Its just an odd choice for this type of game. If this seems vague, search it out. The information about this is available. Another issue along these lines is the deletion of gender. Im aware that there was a group of people that wanted non-binary options in the game, but it seems that gender pronouns have been erased entirely in only the US version. Players are referred to as they and their by the animals. This is probably my biggest gripe. There is a VERY small population of the US that identifies as completely non-binary. Of that group, its another small population that plays animal crossing, but any references to she and he have been replaced in the game with they. My entire family would prefer to have our pronouns of she or he used but, so far, this is not an option. It would be great if we could at least choose to have standard pronouns acknowledged rather than erasing the option entirely. An update would take care of this. As far as some of the changes, like crafting your own tools, there is good and bad. It can be fun to get new plans for building and it adds an element of excitement as the game progresses. However, it can be incredibly tedious trying to constantly gather resources for the many tasks you will have thrown at you. And as the first player, you will be hogging resources the other players will need as well and there simply arent enough to go around at first. I quickly grew tired of having to gather, gather, gather for Nooks demands when I really wanted to just explore the island. But much of your exploration largely depends on getting those things done. Also, some islands start off with only about a quarter or less of the island available to build on. We stupidly chose one of those not realizing we wouldnt have access to the rest of the island for a while. This meant we had to place four human player tents, two animal tents, the museum, and Nooks nephews shop all in the same tiny area. Needless to say, some of us are relocating as soon as that becomes an option because were all horribly cramped into one space. Keep in mind, relocating is expensive. It becomes more expensive as the game progresses and you gain more control over the islands design. As for some of the positives, the graphics are lovely and pleasing. The island setting is fun and the water, the sounds, the scenery are awesome. This makes for delightful game play. They nailed the sound of rain, the distant rumble of thunder, the wind picking up in the afternoon- such fun elements!! Visiting other islands is a cool bonus even if it does get a bit tedious when four islands in a row are pretty much the same, but its a great way to pick up resources. The animal characters are more interactive, have more personality, and are fun to watch as they seem to do their own thing rather than walk around aimlessly. In spite of its flaws, there is something delightful and addictive about the game. Some fun bonuses: tarantulas are a bit easier to catch, you can uproot trees and just transplant them whole from other islands if you eat fruit first, and you can bring harder to find flowers in crossbred colors from other islands and transplant them on your island (this is rare however!). Also, after acquiring shoots from other islands, you can grow bamboo on your own island. This is a fun bonus, however, so far, Ive visited about about 8-10 other islands and havent seen another type of fruit other than my own and only came across bamboo once. My son has visited other islands about the same amount and has only seen one other type of fruit. All in all, this game offers some pleasant entertainment and a nice escape from real life for a bit. Im giving it sound 3 stars because the verdict is still out- I need to see how things develop before I decide if this was a fail or if it will unfold nicely over time. Overall, there is some disappointment and frustration, but the positives are worth noting so I cant pan it. Hopefully, as time passes and updates are made available, well be pleasantly surprised, but until then, Im not going to gush about this game. Edited 3/27: Im going to add another half star to one star. Things are picking up and there are more fun bonuses weve discovered as a family as weve played. The other players still dont have as many diy plans as the original player and theyve missed out on some things because of their status in the game, but those things become less important as the game progresses. A few still cause issues but were hoping that will be fixed in the future. In the meantime, there are a lot of things that make this game worth playing and its easy to see the incredible work that was put into creating the game. So. . . For our family of six, were currently giving it 3.5 to 4 stars after one week of consistent game play. Edited 4/21: Plan on having to spend a LOT of time to get the necessary DIY recipes to create furniture. The game is designed to absolutely need an online connection and to play with friends so you can get every type of fruit, flower, DIY recipe, etc. Count on months and months of consistent playing in order to unlock a few things to decorate your house unless you catalog with other players. Count on a lot of repeat DIY recipes you wont need, few furniture options for long periods of time, and count on having to track down other players in online forums in order to catalog items or share resources because there is no other reliable method of getting what you need. I dont like my kids playing with strangers or inviting strangers into our island (I didnt in past AC versions and we did just fine) and I dont have friends who are playing so this puts families like mine in a difficult situation. I appreciate that there were more options in past AC versions for people who didnt want to do a lot of online play but it seems ACNH depends very much on online interaction and help. Hopefully some future updates will remedy this. In the the meantime, our score remains at around 3.5 to maybe 4 stars.

As a lifelong Animal Crossing fan (Animal Crossing for the GameCube released when I was about 9), this is already my favorite installment since the original. Nintendo has managed to keep so much of the original nostalgia while adding in lots of new features. I love the addition of the crafting aspect that can add a bit of problem-solving to an otherwise straightforward life simulator. As always, its absolutely adorable and I cannot stop playing and improving my island. Awesome job, Nintendo!

Game arrived on time as was predicted, in great condition. Works amazingly. Very fun!

I love how kiddos can learn life skills while playing. My girl loves it. :-)

The Nintendo Switch has one of the best profile systems of any game console. Each player can have their own profile, and games saves are kept completely separate. Because of this, I was very surprised to discover that Animal Crossing: New Horizons goes out of its way to circumvent the profile system. The first player to play the game is given the full experience. All other players are given a downgraded experience. Parts of the game are just missing, like naming your island, or choosing its layout. And all players are forced to have the same island, with limited space and limited resources. If Id known this, I wouldnt have purchased this game, as we have one Switch shared by two kids. How is it fair to let one of them be the island representative, while the other is treated as a second-class citizen by the game? One can unlock things, invite others, etc., while the other can only do tasks that dont actually advance the story? I see others trying to excuse Nintendos behavior here, saying Animal Crossing has always been like that, but: 1. This is false. On the 3DS you could only have one game save per cartridge, but you could use multiple cartridges with a single 3DS. On the Switch you need two separate consoles. 2. When classic games with limited save slots are ported to the Switch, the number of save slots from the original are normally made *per-profile* on the Switch. For example, in Links Awakening there are only 3 save slots. In the Switch version, there are 3 save slots *per-profile*. Likewise, one would expect that Animal Crossing would have one game save *per-profile* on the Switch. 3. Having mis-features in the past is not an excuse for propagating them into the future. Nintendo went out of their way to make the game terrible for anyone but the first player. Its pretty clear that their motivation for this is greed. Instead, theyve made me strongly consider returning this game, and avoiding their platform in the future.

Kids likes. Nothing special though.

My entire family plays animal crossing. You cant go wrong. My 9 year old completes tasks and does really well, my 3 year old likes to watch me play or even walk through the museum by herself. Definitely worth it to get switch plus for online capabilities if you play with family members on separate machines. I have sunk 200 hours into this game and still play every day!

Its been a long time since Ive encountered a game that Im willing to spend a long time on。

My son loved it

I love this game so much! Truth be known, I may be a little addicted. It’s just a very simple sweet game that I find to be relaxing and enjoyable. It is one of the few video games on the market today that parents do not have to worry about their children playing. The game is 100% kid friendly. It even teaches kids valuable life lessons, like saving money, prioritizing, cooperation…it is just filled with good stuff! This is my first Animal Crossings game, but I am guessing it won’t be my last!