Considering the fact Animal Crossing: New Leaf originally released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012, it goes without saying that fans of the franchise have been hungry & eager for a new Animal Crossing title for a while. Although the series skipped a mainline entry for the Wii U, the announcement of the Nintendo Switch generated hype for its inevitable Animal Crossing.

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Flash forward to 2020 in the middle of a global pandemic, and New Horizons is here. As Nintendo has consistently done with their first party games this generation, New Horizons reinvents the wheel and presents a more complete vision of its series– but not without its problems. Animal Crossing: New Horizons may be the best game in the franchise, but is it really the best job Nintendo could’ve done? 

10 Loved: Visually Stunning

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The Nintendo Switch may not be as powerful as the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One, but Nintendo has consistently proven they don’t need cutting edge graphics when they have something better: competent art direction. New Horizons is one of the best looking games this generation, and it's really all thanks to its art style. 

A vibrant color palette, excellent lighting for both day & night, beautiful water effects, and a loving amount of attention to detail elevate New Horizons to brand new heights. This is the best Animal Crossing has ever looked, both graphically and stylistically. That’s quite the achievement. 

9 Don’t: Lack Of Early Game Resources 

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It’s not unusual for the first few in-game hours and real life days to move at a rather slow pace in Animal Crossing, especially for those adamant against time travelling. This is nothing new for the franchise, but New Horizons is a game with so much new content, that its early game priorities stand out poorly in retrospect. 

Between trying to track down Iron Nuggets and just figuring out what can be done to pass the time, there’s a distinct lack of early game resources. It’ll make those first few days a bit of a pain for anyone who doesn’t want to sit down and just power play a lot of New Horizons to start unlocking the new mechanics. 

8 Loved: Online Is The Best It's Been

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With a game like Animal Crossing, having strong online is incredibly important to ensuring the game’s longevity. New Leaf had an active online community for quite a while, but the limited online capabilities of the 3DS arguably held it back over time. Nintendo’s online infrastructure frankly hasn’t improved all that much since, but their competency when designing games with online in mind has. 

With 8 villagers allowed on the same island at the same time, Animal Crossing: New Horizons makes having an active community of visitors possible. Of course, there’s going to be some lag involved if there’s too much going on at once, but that’s nothing a bit of online etiquette can’t fix. Plus, just the sheer ease of getting and staying online is nice. 

7 Don’t: Multiplayer Is The Worst It’s Been

Friends in Animal Crossing

While the online multiplayer is the best it’s ever been, guaranteeing New Horizons will have quite the active community for years to come, same console multiplayer is the absolute worst its ever been. Poorly implemented multiplayer is excusable on the DS and 3DS where, realistically, only one player will be using the console, but New Horizons’ sorry excuse for same system multiplayer is a major design flaw. 

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Only the island representative (the first person to create their character) can actively influence the island in any meaningful way. Everyone else just kind of exists on the island waiting for player 1 to move things along. Worse yet, it’s not even possible to make your own island with a different profile. This is just bad design all around. 

6 Loved: Increased Pocket Size

Animal Crossing has always featured item management as one of its staple mechanics. Pocket size is limited by design, forcing players to only carry what they feel they absolutely need. It’s a way of padding out game length, of course, but it also creates a more intimate relationship between player and gameplay loop. Animal Crossing is all about the little things, after all. 

All the same, it’s annoying having to stop every few minutes to empty out full pockets. New Leaf’s 16 slots were nice, but not nearly enough. Thankfully, not only does New Horizons feature 20 slots by default, players can upgrade their pocket size up to 40 slots. 

5 Don’t: No Series Furniture 

Why, Nintendo, why? Series furniture is such an important part of Animal Crossing’s lifeblood and identity. Not only has series furniture been ingrained in the franchise forever, it simply helps players better organize their homes and priorities. Series furniture gives players goals. While New Horizons does this with challenges (which we’ll get to,) there was no reason to remove such a series staple. 

Sure, themed furniture still exists and can be paired together, but the actual sets don’t exist anymore. It’s disappointing as it also fundamentally changes how the Happy Home Academy rates your home, streamlining the spirit of decoration for the worse (even if the actual act is more involved than ever.) 

4 Loved: Best Gameplay Variety In The Franchise

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There’s something to be said for just how much New Horizons lets players do. Animal Crossing has always catered itself to a more relaxed, pick up and play, gameplay loop, but New Horizons is trying to do away with that to encourage long play sessions. Beyond the daily activities (fishing, bug catching,) perpetually refreshing challenges always give you something to do. 

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Whether it’s in the middle of the day or in the thick of night, challenges can be completed to earn Nook Miles, the ABD can be accessed at all times, and the island doesn’t sleep even if Nook Cranny’s does. Nook Miles Tickets can even be redeemed at the Dodo Airport whenever. Speaking of...

3 Don’t: Dodo Airlines Is Full Of Wasted Potential

The idea of having an airport on your island that you can visit at any time during the game is frankly fantastic. It’s a way of ensuring audiences always have something to do in New Horizons– arguably a design necessity given the impossibility to predict everyone’s schedules. People playing in the dead of night need something to do, too. 

Unfortunately, aside from Island Tours which are basically the exact same thing every time (find resources, meet new villagers,) Dodo Airlines isn’t all that valuable outside of connecting players to multiplayer nor does it expand the world of Animal Crossing (or the gameplay) all that meaningfully. 

2 Loved: Player Customization

Animal Crossing New Horizons How to Get Axe

While there’s a certain charm to playing as the goblin children that starred in the earlier Animal Crossing games, the franchise has made a steady effort over time to not only “smooth” out the basic villager’s characteristics, but to give players a deeper breath of variety. New Horizons takes this idea to its logical conclusion, more or less allowing players to run wild with their villagers.

Hair color, body type customization, more outfit options than ever before– when New Horizons gets things right, it really gets them right. In a franchise with as many social elements as Animal Crossing, it’s important that players be able to craft an identity for their avatars. 

1 Don’t: Bunny Day Sets A Bad Precedent 

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If Bunny Day is an accurate representation of what islanders can expect holiday-wise, New Horizons will more than likely end up with the worst implemented holidays in the franchise. On paper, Bunny Day gives players plenty of time-sensitive variety while redecorating their island in the spirit of festivity and giving the holiday itself an eventful impact. 

In practice, Bunny Day disrupts daily activities like bug catching and fishing, actively hinders the Cherry Blossom event which is happening at the exact same time, and litters one’s island with jarring filth that will realistically clash with the aesthetic players are going for. 

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