Animal Crossing: New Horizons - thoughts over the trailer

[Alolan_Apples]

In the last few years, the E3 presentations have been without a new Animal Crossing game. I wasn’t ready in 2017, but I am ready in 2018, so a lack of announcement was disappointing. Finally, in September of 2018, we were given an announcement that a new Animal Crossing game is finally heading to the Switch. Today was the day we got an official announcement on what the game is like. After over six years (in fact, nearly seven years after ACNL’s worldwide release), we’re finally getting a new main series Animal Crossing game.

This new game is called New Horizons, where you live on a deserted island and build on it to make some community. It also becomes more realistic based on what you do in-game.

Here is what I think so far:

• Animal Crossing became one of the few (if not, many) Nintendo franchises that make a completely different turn from their traditional roots in gameplay when they made it to the Switch. Legend of Zelda was the first one to do this, as Breath of the Wild was more like Fallout 3 than Ocarina of Time. Mario, dropped limited lives, hub worlds, and organized levels in Super Mario Odyssey, as it was more of an adventure than a platformer. Pokémon, despite keeping the traditional battling mechanic, is already bringing in co-op and multiplayer features outside of trainer battles. Even Kirby and Fire Emblem are trying something new, as Nintendo is accepting more third party titles. Animal Crossing has just entered this league. It is more like Minecraft and less like a traditional Animal Crossing game, as we got crafting and gathering rather than shopping and mayoral features. It also altered other mainstay mechanics with these new features such as more human characters per island, hemisphere-based seasons, backpacks, and animals interacting with features more.
• It is also making a similar turn Pokémon did. Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee used a similar mechanic the mobile predecessor Pokemon GO had. New Horizons may be an expansion to Pocket Camp, except that it isn’t like Pocket Camp like how City Folk was like Wild World.
• In my personal opinion, it is not a spin-off. Happy Home Designer and amiibo Festival, as well as Pocket Camp, were all spin-offs since they were downgrades to ACNL that focused solely on different features. But this one is more of an expansion that is trying something new. We are now living in a time where people would want to do anything rather than stick to the limits we have.
• I was originally going to create four towns and write about them when the new game comes out, but when I saw what they’re doing is different, I’m only going to stick with just one.
• From what we know so far, I like these new features. I also like how realistic it is getting.

When this game comes out, I will be ready to play. I’ll just be playing a little every day, but I’ll eventually get addicted to the gameplay when I have more time.