In the past I’ve tried to explain the appeal of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing franchise to friends—some of whom are hardcore gamers, while most of them just dabble. In both instances, their eyes glaze over as I explain the game’s primary objectives: to build community, to support the arts and to act in the spirit of environmental stewardship. There are no bosses to defeat and no ways for your character to die. You can’t even suffer a loss that a quick dose of medicine can’t cure.
Lately, though, people seemed to have warmed to the idea of Animal Crossing. Perhaps it’s because of the success of the game’s previous installment, 2012’s Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS; perhaps it’s because of the popularity of farming simulators like Stardew Valley. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because the idea of building out an idyllic island village—one with cute, gregarious talking animals for neighbors, and no responsibilities besides fishing, hunting for fossils and picking fruit—is particularly appealing at this point in time. Thankfully, Animal Crossing: New Horizons ($60), released March 20 for the Nintendo Switch console, is here to satisfy those desires with a best-in-franchise panache.
Game play is easy and intuitive. You’re recruited by Tom Nook, a friendly, avuncular raccoon with a relentless entrepreneurial streak, to live on a deserted island with two other animal neighbors; you’re assigned a tent, a mobile phone filled with necessary apps and DIY crafting recipes (you’ll need to make everything from simple tools to furniture, using materials scattered liberally throughout the island) and an open-ended set of objectives. Within days, you could begin to tame the wild environment through creative replanting and adding bridges; spur the creation of an island museum and local shop; even move up from tent to a tiny house.
And through it all, you interact with friends—critters generated by the game, and flesh-and-blood people you can invite to your island via the game’s online capability, charmingly represented in-game as an airport staffed by dodo birds. Inviting friends to your island—or visiting them on theirs—is a vital component of play; it furnishes you with materials your island doesn’t have. Plus, thanks to a free, optional voice chat app, it’s a nice way to stay in touch with the people you love and miss, which for me, right now, is pretty much everybody.
You only need look to Animal Crossing’s origins to understand what makes it a perfect game for these lonely, uncertain times. In 2002, game producer Katsuya Eguchi created the first Animal Crossing game to describe the feeling of being alone in a new town. Animal Crossing: New Horizons takes on that responsibility in what’s fast becoming a different world. And who among us wouldn’t rather escape to an island right now and begin a new life free of the worries of the old?
Animal Crossing: new horizons For the Nintendo Switch, $60. Available through Amazon, Target and others, and as an online download through Nintendo eShop.
