Grab your tools and crank out your creativity on a deserted island getaway package courtesy of Tom Nook. With many new features including crafting and island customisation, alongside the return of Happy Home Academy, now with a new storage and furniture design tool, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is what every fan had hoped for and more.
It’s been a good four years since I’ve played Animal Crossing: New Leaf on my 3DS, the last in the mainline series. For the past couple of years, I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp – the free-to-play smartphone game. Like many Pocket Camp fans, we’ve come to expect the worst of Gulliver (who is forever etched into my mind as trashbird), been burnt by Fortune Cookies by playing the gacha system and have lost hours of sleep over the seemingly endless events. If you log in to the smartphone game now, there’s a New Horizons crossover event taking place. Trying to split my time between Pocket Camp – which I’ve easily invested 300+ hours into and some of my hard-earned money – and New Horizons has been difficult. For many fans, like me, who have invested countless hours into Pocket Camp, you’re going to have to let one go if you value your sanity. And honestly, New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch is completely worth it.
As we mentioned in our preview, Animal Crossing: New Horizons starts you off with a simple tent and a few items at your disposal. Tom Nook will quickly endow you with your NookPhone, which allows you access to several apps to make island life much easier to follow. In the first couple of days, you’ll be asked to run simple errands for the raccoon, including collecting tree branches to craft your first set of tools (fishing rod, bug net, axe etc.), delivering materials such as stones, iron nuggets and wood to Timmy and Tommy so they can build Nook’s Cranny, alongside crafting furniture for three new island residents before they move in. As per usual, as Resident Representative (akin to New Leaf’s mayoral duties) it’s your job to keep the island in tip-top condition, as well as fund new activities, bridge constructions and so on.
As of now, we’ve spent two weeks on our island. Of course, this is a drop in the ocean for any regular Animal Crossing game. However, we’ve upgraded our home to include another room, crafted all tools in the ‘pretty good DIY tool set’ and had every single one of them break several times, much to our frustration. Trust us on this one, if you hated it in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you’ll hate it in this too. However, to craft a regular tool (as you would have bought in New Leaf), you’ll now have to craft a flimsy tool first before using that tool and a surplus of materials to upgrade it. The linear upgrade is understandable, but it’s honestly baffling how often it’s required for every tool in your arsenal.
Speaking of crafting, that’s all you’ll do for the first couple of weeks. Between crafting items for your new home, your residents’ homes, finding excess materials for the Nooklings and Tom Nook’s requests and discovering new DIY recipes through message bottles, slingshot gifts, residents or purchasing from Nook’s Cranny, New Horizons has thought of it all. We’re half expecting DLC sets of DIY recipes to come knocking. But all joking aside, crafting is a fun new feature for the series, particularly as you can customise certain furniture sets with standard colours or your saved pro designs.
Just like any other Animal Crossing, New Horizons is all about collecting things. Between catching fish and bugs to collecting shells and fossils, there’s always a quick way to make some cash. But before you do, it’s always worth stopping off at the museum to say hello to Blathers. Using your NookPhone, you can access the Critterpedia to keep track of which creatures you’ve caught and which ones you’ve donated. It’s a shame there’s still no way of seeing which fossils you’ve collected (so far). However, you can always visit the museum to view them in full. Since the days of New Leaf, it’s had a complete makeover and looks awe-inspiring. Highlights include the butterfly garden and the pipes and portholes in the sea creature exhibit. Perhaps we’ll see Celeste when it’s ready to be upgraded, no?
Elsewhere on the island, you’ll notice NPC characters visit from time to time, including Mabel until she sets up the Able Sisters store, Sahara who has new wares such as rugs, mystery floors and wallpapers, and Daisy-Mae, the granddaughter of Joan the resident Turnip seller. Isabelle also has a starring role at the Resident Services building, residing there with Tom Nook. Depending on when you visit, it’s adorable watching them both go about their business. Around 7am, they’ll be doing some fun workout routines, by noon Isabelle starts making tea, and during the evening they’ll be working on their own projects. Even island residents will go about their days in different ways, often sporting new clothing or headwear. Just yesterday, Agent S and Iggly were building up a sweat using their kettlebells in the town plaza. With New Horizons, it’s the little things that count.
Perhaps one of the most interesting features in New Horizons is the Nook Miles Program. Working like the daily goals in Pocket Camp, you can easily obtain Nook Miles by catching fish and bugs, hitting rocks, chopping down trees or using your stone axe to fetch softwood, hardwood or regular wood. Plus, you’ll also get Nook Miles for taking pictures with your NookPhone, by calling a resident for co-op play, or by visiting a friend’s island locally or online. And don’t worry, you can still hit rocks for bells, plant money trees and return lost items to residents. Sadly, though, you can’t bury your shovel to obtain a gold one. Though we’re keeping our fingers crossed for gold tools in general.
At first, your Nook Miles won’t buy you much outside of inventory expansion and some standard wear. But once Resident Services has upgraded, you’ll be able to redeem Nook Miles for exterior items that can be placed on the island. Just like Public Works Projects in New Leaf, you can craft a lighthouse, an outdoor pond, a pool or a massive brick dragon to name a few. However, these items are heavy on resources, often requiring you to pick up additional DIY recipes to build the bigger items. And while resources are ‘restocked’ daily on your island, there’s no hard and fast way to stockpile them. Visiting a smaller island via a Mystery Tour using your Nook Miles Ticket (which alone costs 2,000 Nook Miles) is perhaps one way of getting more, but then there are your tools to think about too. New Horizons is first and foremost a resource management game.
Once you’ve upgraded your tent to a house, Happy Home Academy returns. As we mentioned in our preview, furniture and storage has been completely overhauled for New Horizons. While you can still push and pull furniture into their rightful place, there’s now an easier method. Simply tap down on the D-pad and you’ll be presented with a top-down view of your house. Those who have played Happy Home Designer will notice the similarities, as you can tap ‘A’ on any item to drag, drop and rotate it anywhere in your home. There’s also the option to select multiple items at once. Unfortunately, there’s no option to easily switch between rooms, so you will have to physically move your characters to those areas, but either way it’s heads and tails above New Leaf.
When it comes to customising your island, New Horizons breathes fresh life into the series. Now, you can allocate spaces for shops, residents and the campsite, so you can retain complete control over your island. And while you won’t unlock it during the first fortnight, you can also completely transform your island with the land and water forming construction licenses, enabling you to create waterfalls, curves in the rock or small ponds. You can add inclines and place a selection of bridges across rivers too. There are limits, of course, but it’s fantastic to see the creativity available in the base game.
Although online multiplayer is a feature we haven’t been able to test on the Switch, local multiplayer and co-operative play is great fun. The latter allows you the ability to ‘call a resident’ to play with you, with up to four able to join you at any one time. Players will follow one leader (while retaining control of their own character) who can use their inventory and pick up items. Followers, however, will only be able to cycle through their toolset and catch creatures, which then get automatically added into the recycling box at Resident Services. On the other hand, local multiplayer enables you to visit your friends’ islands to enjoy the fruits of their labour, while you freely roam their island hunting for new fruit.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a beautifully relaxing title – exactly as it should be. With so much to offer in the coming months, such as seasonal events and new NPC characters we have yet to encounter, it’s a rewarding game that takes pride in its little moments of heart-warming joy. If you’re an Animal Crossing fan, you don’t want to miss this.
9/10
A review copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons was provided to My Nintendo News by Nintendo UK.
Thanks for a very interesting review. Were you able to try any of the amiibo features?
+Rob
I second this, I’m also curious to how much the amiibo can do.
Colette will be able to answer this the evening 😊
Hi Christopher, see my reply to Rob further up the thread. :)
The amiibo feature allows you to get a poster of the character, and also invite them to stay in your town like how you did, you can also use them for the harvey photo island
It’s mention in the direct you can see it in the last questions mention in part 3 of the direct
Those are the feautres I saw from the direct tho
Hi Rob, the amiibo features are unfortunately very limited. You’ll unlock Harv’s island within the first week of gameplay, at which point you can visit his photo studio. Once there, you can use Animal Crossing amiibo figures or amiibo cards to place them into your photo studio. They won’t talk/interact with you at all though, so they feel quite lifeless. After you’ve left the photo studio, Harv will create a poster of them, and make them available for purchase (1,000 bells) at Resident Services via the Nook Shopping channel. Wasn’t a fan of the feature at all! In fact, I forgot about it all together as I didn’t even write it up in the review, ha! I hope that helps. :)
Wait, you can’t use the cards to get a villager to move into your town?
I believe you probably can, but at two weeks I haven’t yet unlocked that feature so I can’t confirm and don’t want to mislead you, hence not mentioning it in the review. If you put them in Harv’s Island, you can only get their poster so far.
Now that embargo has passed, I can confirm that you can use the amiibo / cards to get villagers to come to your town. :) I didn’t unlock the feature until after the review period so couldn’t say.
Thanks! Do you know how many animal villagers your town will hold? New Leaf only let you have ten villagers in your town.
I have 6 villagers at the moment, not including anyone at the campsite. You can reserve plots for 10,000 bells for new villagers, but I can’t confirm how many at this stage. Only what I know and have played. :)
Friday can not come soon enough! 😃
Please tell me the Happy Home Association is optional- I HATED getting daily letters from them every day in the GameCube game after being forced into it with no option to opt out.
I might get this, but not after I hear more about how/if cloud saves will be utilized, because I won’t support this game if they ignore the feature again. I’m still paranoid of losing my Splatoon 2 progress…
New Leaf made it extremely optional, I don’t know if I ever got a letter from them, maybe just an introduction letter. So you’re probably safe.
Happy Home Academy is a mandatory feature in the game, as you’re opted in to receive the letters as soon as you upgrade from a tent to a house. However, it’s not invasive like previous games at all (I haven’t even seen Lyle, if that helps). Basically you’ll get letters from the HHA when you reach a set number of points from the furniture you hold/how you arrange it etc. You’ll then just be gifted with a present when you hit those points. Delivers straight into your mailbox (which can hold up to 300 letters) and you can take the present and then delete the letter if you want. Hope that helps. :)
The wait is killing me.
Send help.
You and me both. Lol
Question: How long does it take for you to find out who your first two neighbours are? Do you see them on the place first?
During the tutorial section, you’ll find out who your first two neighbours are as soon as you ‘land’ on the island. So, within the first five minutes. :)
I’ve always been a casual Animal Crossing fan, but I feel I’m gonna go pretty hardcore with this Animal Crossing 😉
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I want this game so bad, but I am so broke and every paycheque goes into barely staying alive :(
And Final Fantasy 7 on April 10th… I might have the money for Animal Crossing by then, but then it’s going to go into FF7R instead.
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I just hope Gamestop isn’t closed on Friday when this game releases. It would be a sad day if I couldn’t go down and buy my preorder because of the stupid coronavirus. Even if I don’t play it right away, I still can’t wait to hold it in my hands. It’s been too long since the last major console installment of Animal Crossing. And I didn’t care for City Folk (a.k.a. Let’s Go To The City). Because of not liking City Folk, this feels like the first major game since the Gamecube original.
Of course it’s been too long since the last animal Crossing. I can say the same thing about DK, Pikmin, Starfox, Metroid, Super Mario Strikers the list goes on and on. Enjoy the game you want get another animal Crossing until around 2028.
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Before the Animal Crossing devlopers depart they should get started on a sequel. If they get started immediately it could come out the 1st year of the next generation console. But we know they going to take a 8 year period doing nothing. They could had also started Starfox immediately after Starfox Zero debuted on wii u. We could had been playing a new Starfox had they started it immediately for the Switch. SMH. What a shame.
Sadly it will cost you $469 to play the next animal Crossing game.
Nintendo sure does take a long time to make games. Last time he mentioned this, Obama was still in office.
“””Speaking during an interview held back in July, Nintendo’s top designer revealed that work on a fourth major Pikmin game was well underway.
“It’s actually very close to completion,” Miyamoto said. “Pikmin teams are always working on the next one.”
Nintendo then confirmed the news to Eurogamer in a separate statement:
“We can confirm that Pikmin 4 is in development but that is all we can confirm at present.”
The last title in the garden strategy series, Pikmin 3, launched for Wii U back in 2013″”””
So Pikmin 3 came out in 2013.
And Pikmin 1 and 2 came out in 2001 and 2003? Interesting how Pikmin 1 and 2 gap is closer in years than Pikmin 3 and supposedly Pikmin 4
And we cant say”it is Switch a more powerful console than Gamecube ” because Breathe of Wild 1 and 2 gap is closer like Galaxy 1 and 2 and Pikmin 1 and 2 is. So if they really wanted to make a sequel come out on the Switch without paying for a new console they can. Breathe of the Wild 2 is my witness.
So what’s Nintendo’s excuse why Luigi Mansion 4, No new DK, No new Starfox or Pikmin constantly being worked on like Zelda.
I would had added Mario adventure games but even that gap of Mario adventure games are getting wider in the gap of years also when Galaxy 1 and 2, was the last two sequels in one generation console.
Metroid debuted on Gamecube and Wii. Even her sequels are more and more spaced apart. By the time another Metroid come out I’ll be a senior citizen!!! And I am talking about the Metroid after the title they are working on now. They take too damn long to make sequels.
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Man, this game is really fun until you search it up online and see tons of amazing islands that are a million times better than yours. This is why you should avoid spoilers.
Also I had that type of teeth-gritting island that had a river separating it right down the middle that was COMPLETELY inaccessible until I got the vaulting pole from Blathers, and on the other side it was really raised so I still couldn’t access anything until I got the Terraform shovel.
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this is the best animal crossing yet
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