As gamers around the world pass the time in quarantine with the newly released Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the debate rages on over how the tried and true Nintendo exclusive measures up to the competition. While Animal Crossing: New Horizons has taken the world by storm, its dominance is challenged by another successful life simulator that has also recently debuted on the Switch.
This competition comes in the form of breakout indie darling Stardew Valley, a game that has garnered growing acclaim and success since its release in 2016. The similarities are apparent: both Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley center around joining a small community, befriending a colorful cast of characters, and collecting fruits, fish, and fossils to earn money to improve their town. While both games have achieved their deserved success, there's nothing wrong with seeing how that competition plays out.
Gameplay
As mentioned above, both Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley have similar core gameplay mechanics: use tools, collect resources to craft, and garner new improvements. What gives Stardew the edge over New Horizons is how varied the player's options are in pursuing these goals. While Animal Crossing is limited to harvesting fish, bugs, fossils and fruits, Stardew Valley has all of these options and more, including an in-depth combat system, farming mechanics, the ability to get married, and the ability to raise and breed animals. In terms of the gameplay varieties it offers, it really depends on how in-depth or how simplistic someone prefers.
Difficulty
Falling asleep in the mines, accidentally giving a crush a gift they hate and losing valuable relationship progress with them, and getting walloped by a swarm of slimes are misfortunes that have befallen every Stardew Valley player at least once. In Animal Crossing, life is much more easygoing. Tom Nook is much kinder, getting attacked by bees only results in a few cosmetic welts on the player character's face, and the biggest dangers awaiting wayward explorers are those pesky Pitfall seeds.
Graphics & Replay Value
Stardew Valley's charming pixel-art aesthetic is impossible to compare to Animal Crossing's cute and cuddly presentation. No matter which look one prefers, no one can deny that both games look equally great.
Animal Crossing has always been the kind of game dedicated fans can play for years. Thanks to the game's real-time internal clock, players have incentive to come back each day to see what's new on their island, with special gifts, collectibles, and events depending on the time of day, day of the week, and even day of the year. Stardew Valley has a different approach, with in-game time moving only as the player plays. Both approaches have their pros and cons, but although Animal Crossing is designed to reward returning players, Stardew Valley's constant free updates keep fans consistently coming back. Either way, both games offer tremendous replay value.
Story
While neither Animal Crossing nor Stardew Valley is well known for being particularly fleshed-out in the story department, Stardew's narrative is more detailed than New Horizons. While New Horizon's story is essentially just an open-ended premise to get the player character on the main Island, Stardew Valley has an assortment of vignettes and subplots as the residents of Pelican Town grow and change throughout the main character's first three years in Stardew Valley (not to mention the various romance arcs).
Characters
New Horizons barely gets an edge over Stardew Valley in a battle of characters thanks to its memorable cast of villagers. While the townsfolk of Stardew Valley may be more complex and mature, the characters of Animal Crossing simply have a way of staying in the player's minds long after they're done playing. Isabelle, Tom Nook, K.K. Slider, Kapp'n, anyone whose played Animal Crossing once will instantly recognize any of those names.
Multiplayer
It's no secret that many gamers have Animal Crossing's multiplayer to thank for keeping them sane during self-quarantine, but Stardew Valley has New Horizons has a bigger variety of options. While Animal Crossing limits friends to merely being able to visit each other's islands, Stardew Valley gives players the option of starting entire games together, sharing profits, improving their farm side-by-side, and even proposing to one another. While both multiplayer modes are a pleasant way to pass the time with pals, Stardew Valley is the choice for players who are in it for the long haul, at least for now.
Stardew Valley is available now for PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and mobile devices. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is also out now, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.