Animal Crossing: New Horizons (30$/60$)
This is a drawing I did on my phone
Wowza is it bad
Animal Crossing is a game that gets by on it’s charm and it’s unique real time game world that syncs with your real life, but under that cool and cute concept is a game with poor systems that is basically a massive time sink with no real point. But I can not argue that the game works. It’s fun. I would say it is like gardening. Slow, boring, and with little material pay off but still brings incredible joy when it does (30$/60$).
The game does an amazing job of relaxing the player. While mindlessly chopping at trees you lose yourself in the sound of the wind that comes accompanied by a polite soundtrack that seems to constantly be inviting you to play just a little bit longer. Catch another fish, pick another fruit, talk to that anamorphic animal that gave you a cool shirt. You want to do these things because the atmosphere within the game can not be beat. Even the seediest characters are genuine and nice enough to make you want to hang out with them outside of the game, but that is impossible. With it’s newest release, Nintendo struck a perfect balance between adding new things to do without changing the core gameplay. The biggest addition is the new crafting system which is as standard as they come, and allows for a good bit of farming that is tied to daily cycles. I never came to a point where there wasn’t something I could be doing to get the materials I needed to make the item that I wanted and that is great game design. In past Animal Crossing titles there really was no set objective. New Horizons does a good job nudging the player in the direction of new gameplay and that alone makes putting time into the game feel more rewarding. Mastering the turnip market makes you feel like Jordan Belfort. Collecting items to put in the museum has always been fun, and it’s even better in this game because of the wonderful museum redesign. Visiting friends is a blast and the new ability to terraform islands and change outdoor scenery allows people to create islands that are built around a core theme. But because these game systems are very deep and very hidden, that can feel frustrating more than fun.
For example we will look at the turnip market. It’s basically a simulated stock market where you buy turnips one day a week and then try to sell them later in the week for a profit, or they will spoil and you’ll lose your investment. It seems like a fun risk reward system. But the real game is exploiting it. Using data mining and third party apps you can calculate what your turnip prices may be and use that system to make the millions you NEED in order to do a total customization of your island. I wish that the calculator was built into the game, or the game gave you more tools to make more money in shorter amounts of time. Players have come up with their own solutions to this problem by inviting other players to sell turnips on their max cost island, but even that is a chore to do. To visit a friends island they need to be on your friends list which means you need their friend code. Then they have to go to their airport and open the port, then you connect to them which takes three menus to do and then you watch a loading screen and then you are on an island with your friend only able to communicate with text bubbles and expressions. I know Nintendo online sucks, but the steps it takes to have a friend come to your island are silly when compared even to bad online systems like Pokemons recent abomination. The game struggles with common sense issues such as user interface problems that make inventory management and selling things a pain in the ass. Collecting a full inventory of fish to sell for pennies takes a lot longer when a forced display animation plays for each catch with no way to skip it. It doesn’t take long but since the main gameplay is grinding for more money that grind gets boring fast. It might pay off in the end but some days it doesn’t feel like you will never see that end.
I play animal crossing like I water plants. I do it every morning to make sure nothing terrible happens because I neglect it the rest of the day. Sometimes I might do an extra bit of work, but it’s rare. The plan is to put my faith in the game that it will pay off when I look back at what I started with. Also like watering plants, some people will get way too crazy with it and build green houses before my plants even flower. Those are the type of people that will get more than their money's worth from Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It’s not bad, it’s just not for me and I don’t think I will put a lot of time into it. 30$/60$
