It’s been over eight years since Animal Crossing New Leaf was released to 3DS, so it’s been a long dry spell for admirers of this game. But the wait has been worth it. Since the release of the Nintendo Switch, fans of the longtime series wanted a new version of the game and were rewarded when Animal Crossing New Horizons was launched in April!
As a fan since the release of New Leaf, I pre-ordered this game in December along with millions of Nintendo users. I was counting the days until Spring Break so I could binge play and get my hours logged before coming back to campus. For those who are unfamiliar, the basic idea is that your character lives in an island village. To people who haven’t played the game, it seems like there isn’t much of a plot, to which I can’t disagree.
However, don’t let the simplicity of it cloud your judgment, Animal Crossing is enjoyable and creative! Animal Crossing allows you to customize the entire island, along with your house and everything that goes with it. Also, the raccoon known as Tom Nook (the island tax collector), along with island Deputy Mayor Isabelle (a dog), make things even more fun.
For thousands of students like me who never imagined ending the school year in a pandemic and finishing classes on Zoom, it was difficult to wrap up my freshman year online and not in person. Being quarantined since Spring Break has affected me along with everyone else my age. Animal Crossing has kept me going through these strange times and provided some joy on dark days.
This is a very pure and innocent game: there’s no violence, guns, shootings, armies or mass destruction. You find yourself getting lost in the different tasks you need to finish for your new Island town, such as donating butterflies to your local museum and picking weeds around the island. I also recommend using Nookazon to buy and sell goods to use for your game. The creators had no idea how addictive and popular this game was going to become. Animal Crossing has been a huge hit and in the first six weeks it sold over 13 million copies. If you have family members and friends who also play, you can “visit” each other’s islands via the local airport.
I love this game and I have logged 200 hours on it. I highly recommend it to anyone who just needs a fun distraction during quarantine. This game brings out my inner child as I loved the previous version when I was younger, and I am thrilled to have the new one, especially during the current state of the world. This game is 10/10!
