Animal Crossing: New Horizons

As in previous installments in the Animal Crossing series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a nonlinear life simulation game played in real-time. The player assumes the role of a customizable character who moves to a deserted island after purchasing a deserted island package from Tom Nook, a tanuki character who is a staple of the series.[2] The game proceeds in an open-ended fashion as the player explores the island, and develops it into a community of anthropomorphic animals.[3] Players can collect different items to use as decorations within the game. Like in the 2017 spin-off title Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for mobile devices, the game introduces a crafting system that allows the player to convert materials into tools and furniture, which can be used to decorate the game's interior and exterior spaces.[4][5]

The game allows the player to customize the appearance of their character at will, and does not lock specific hairstyles or facial features to specific genders.[6] Players are additionally able to select their character's skin color, a feature introduced in the 2015 spin-off title Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer.[4] Nook Miles, an in-game currency earned by completing various tasks, can be used to purchase premium items.[7] Players are able to invite animals to live on their island, and have the option to choose or influence where the animal constructs their home.[8] The game's weather adjusts to the seasons of the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, depending on the player's real-world location, a first for the Animal Crossing series.[7] Another first is the addition of windy weather, which is expressed in the movement of the leaves on the trees.[9]

Once the player has made sufficient progress in New Horizons, Isabelle appears in the game.[3] Additionally, Mr. Resetti no longer lectures the player about saving (due to the autosave function and the removal of the ability to reset); instead, it is heavily implied that he is the operator for the Rescue Service.[10]

The game supports one island per Switch system.[11] Animal Crossing: New Horizons supports both local and online co-op gameplay, with up to four players locally and eight players online able to occupy an island at any given time.[4] The game does not connect directly with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, though there are collaboration items between the two games.[8] The game does support amiibo cards and figures from the Animal Crossing series, but does not support Nintendo Switch Online cloud saves, though the ability for Nintendo Switch Online users to recover game data if their Switch is lost, broken, or stolen will be added "sometime in the future".[12]

Development of a new main series Animal Crossing title for Nintendo Switch was confirmed in a Nintendo Direct on September 13, 2018, with an unspecified 2019 release date.[13] Nintendo released the game's title and first trailer at its E3 2019 Nintendo Direct on June 11, 2019.[14] The game was delayed until March 20, 2020, with Yoshiaki Koizumi stating that in order "to ensure [that] the game [was] the best it [could] be, [Nintendo had to] ask that [players] wait a little longer than [Nintendo itself] thought."[14] Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser cited a desire to avoid crunch and maintain a healthy work–life balance for Nintendo employees as the primary reason for the delay.[15] Nintendo's stock market value posted a 3.5% loss in reaction to the delay, amounting to a total loss in value of more than US$1 billion.[16][17] Director Aya Kyogoku and producer Hisashi Nogami stated that they selected a deserted island as the game's setting to differentiate it from previous Animal Crossing titles, which are set in established villages, and to allow greater freedom for the player to customize the game's world.[5]

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released on March 20, 2020. Video game retailer EB Games attracted criticism for allowing fans who pre-ordered the game along with Doom Eternal to line up at its flagship Canadian location on Yonge Street, Toronto amid a COVID-19 pandemic in the country, when all levels of government urged the public to close non-essential businesses and maintain social distancing.[18]

Nintendo confirmed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons would receive frequent post-release updates, most of them being based around real-life events. On the week of the game's release, Nintendo pushed an update in preparation for the game's "Bunny Day" event in April, which is loosely based on Easter. A second update was released at the end of April, including events for "Nature Day" (based on Earth Day) and May Day, and the return of Animal Crossing: New Leaf special character Leif as a gardening supplies peddler.[19] A third update was announced at the end of June for summer and split into two parts. Released at the beginning of July, the first wave of the update included the return of diving from Animal Crossing: New Leaf, long-time popular character Pascal, and an alternate version of Gulliver.[20] The second wave of the summer update is scheduled for release early August 2020.

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 90/100[21] Review scores Publication Score 4Players 8.5/10[22] Destructoid 8.5/10[23] Famitsu 38/40[24] Game Informer 9/10[25] GamesRadar+ [26] IGN 9/10[27] Jeuxvideo.com 17/20[28] Nintendo Life 10/10[29] USgamer 4.5/5[30] VG247 [31] VideoGamer.com 8/10[32]

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic,[33] becoming the highest-rated game in the series on the website. However, the game has been subject to review bombing due to its handling of Switch profiles and multiplayer.[34][35]

Jack Rear of The Telegraph praised the game, writing that its elements "[add] up to the perfect DIY recipe for the most chilled out, relaxing, and engaging life simulator ever."[36] Sarah Fields of Game Rant wrote that, "[i]n addition to making full use of the Switch's graphical capabilities, New Horizons fixes a myriad of annoyances and problems that New Leaf had", and called New Horizons "a laid-back game that ultimately lets the player choose what they're going to do at any given moment".[37]

A tie-in manga series, Atsumare Dōbutsu no Mori: Nonbiri Shima Dayori (あつまれ どうぶつの森〜のんびり島だより〜, lit. "Gather Animal's Forest: Carefree Island News"), began serialization in the manga magazine Ciao on December 28, 2019. The series is written and illustrated by Minori Katō, and follows a villager named Hana who moves to an unpopulated island.[55] Another manga series, Atsumare Dōbutsu no Mori: Nonbiri Shima Diary, will launch in the June 2020 issue of Coro Coro Comics.[56] Nook Tails, a tie-in comic strip series by Cho Hanayo featuring the characters Tom Nook, Timmy, and Tommy, began serialization on the game's Japanese website on October 15, 2019.[57][58] An English-language translation of the series has been posted on the game's English Twitter account beginning on March 4, 2020.[59] Multiple guide books have been released in Japan, some with well-over 1000 pages. These guides have been greatly popular in the country, with large queues (despite shelter-in-place orders), and prompting mass reselling online.[60]

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons official English website