On one particularly hot summer day, when a friend’s island had become overgrown with weeds, I offered to spend the afternoon landscaping, in exchange for an antique furniture set, and we were able to chat together, in real time, directly from the game. You can send each other letters and presents, like funky, flower-shaped umbrellas and upholstered dining chairs. daylight saving be damned - bathing the island in golden light.Īnd thanks to the power of Wi-Fi, friends can fly to your island so that the two of you can collect sea shells and catch cerulean carp together, as friends do. Perhaps best of all, the sun still sets just before 6 p.m. Now that it’s fall, the leaves have turned a coppery red, and Monarch butterflies fly through the fruit trees. At sunset, the sky turns a mix of water-colored hues, and in the summer, fireflies flutter near the rivers. It’s the first title to ever be released in HD, so all of the graphics, down to each blade of grass, are visually stunning. And I’ve found it to be the most soothing of all the previous iterations of the game. The geography of the island, including the cliffs and waterways, can be molded to your desert-island vision, and the villagers, who range from jockish horses to snooty cats, offer positive comments about your island’s progress. What makes New Horizons different from earlier versions of the game is that you’re flown to a deserted island to build your community from scratch. (Refrigerators can mysteriously fit into your pocket, as can a king salmon.) It’s time-consuming, meditative, and oftentimes ridiculous. The game is synced to the clock on your device, so seasons and holidays pass in real time. ![]() You can spend your days reeling in rainbow trout, planting azaleas, digging holes. If you’ve only heard about Animal Crossing on Twitter, or need a refresher, the concept is simple: In all versions of the game, you move into a town or campsite or island full of anthropomorphic animals who are now your new neighbors, buy a house, and establish a life. After two weeks, $50 started to feel like a small price to pay for my own private (and COVID-free) island to share with friends. By 2020, I thought I had outgrown it, but the monotony of each day in self-isolation - trapped in my childhood bedroom, no less - felt eerily similar. I’ve been playing one Animal Crossing title or another since 2003 to survive my summers as a kid, which were long and hot and mostly boring in middle-of-nowhere California. The first quarantine purchase I made - besides a plane ticket back home to California and a gallon of hand sanitizer - was a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch.
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