During today's announcement-packed Nintendo Direct, Nintendo showcased the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In the Direct, fans of the Animal Crossing series got to see a lot of what they can expect when Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches early next year, including new multiplayer functionality as well as a new crafting mechanic. Players will be able to play online with a bunch of friends as they work together to make the most of their deserted island experience.
While fans may be waiting a while longer to get their hands on on the game since the Animal Crossing: New Horizons March 2020 delay, Nintendo is making sure to get fans excited about the next installment in this classic relaxing franchise. In today' Direct, Nintendo showed off new multiplayer functions, which will allow players to play online with up to eight people on one island. There is also local co-op for the game, which will allow four-player to play simultaneously on the same Switch console.
Many of the staple Animal Crossing features also made an appearance in the Direct. In the video, players can see plenty of fishing, gathering, socializing, and decorating which have all become synonymous with the Animal Crossing franchise.
One other new feature was shown off was the ability to craft tools and items, which adds a whole new benefit for players to go out and scavenge for materials. Players will be able to create tools and key items that will help them shape their deserted island to their liking. Fossils, bug catching, and much more are making a return, so die-hard fans of the series will feel right at home on the new deserted island, all it needs now is cloud saves in New Horizons.
With the addition of an auto-save feature in New Horizons and more quality of life changes, it seems like it is shaping up to be a great new installment in the beloved life-sim franchise. While New Horizons is still a ways off, Nintendo will hopefully showcase more of this highly anticipated game as March slowly approaches.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches March 20, 2020, for Nintendo Switch.