Review for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 20/03/2020
The Animal Crossing series is one of the purest in the entire gaming scene and Tom Nook, as a good entrepreneur, has decided to broaden his horizons by returning after years to New Leaf, from which he is inspired. We are obviously talking about the coveted Animal Crossing: New Horizons, ready to give us up Nintendo Switch a new oasis of comfort in doses of virtual life. Let's not hide behind a finger: New Horizons is the flagship title Nintendo of this first part of the year and as such it was treated by a catchment area that could not be more diversified. Between several new features and unshakable loyalty to the winning formula of the series, will New Horizons be that long-awaited step forward?
To find out, all you have to do is leave with us on a journey ... on a desert island!
Different seasons
With Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the series heads to new horizons bringing with it an eight-year-old baggage, starting with New Leaf: the designated destination is an island included in the Nook package Inc., the new branch of the business raccoon, offering the opportunity to paint whatever you want on a blank canvas. Here we will leave the role of mayor by chance and we will be asked, even more than then, for all our creativity.
We are among the first to take advantage of this dream possibility, after having created the character with a fairly basic editor (at the beginning) and after having verified the reservation (our data such as name and birthday) with the grandchildren by Tom Nook, we are ready for a change of life. New Horizons always remains an Animal Crossing in the soul, but arrives on Nintendo's mother console with several small innovations that raise the bar of the series. One of the first differences is the important choice between the northern and southern hemisphere, which they correspond to different seasons.
In the northern hemisphere the seasons follow one another as we Europeans are used to, in our case with spring just around the corner, while in the case of the southern hemisphere it will be quite the opposite. Different climatic conditions are naturally connected to the seasons, so in autunno the trees will be covered with red leaves and the ground with mushrooms, while in winter the same trees will be covered with snow and it will be possible to build snowmen, all with different animal species. This change also ties in with the fact that New Horizons is also the first Animal Crossing to be released simultaneously worldwide, even abandoning the idea of tanning in exchange for more skin colors (finally).
Before leaving for the deserted island Marco and Mirco will offer the possibility to choose which atoll we want to plant our roots in, proposing a rose of four islands with similar but different conformations. Once we have chosen our favorite island, we will be catapulted to our new home, followed by a quick orientation course held by Tom nook in person. The raccoon will welcome us by giving us our tent, allowing us to choose where to place it. With this freedom of action Animal Crossing: New Horizons can officially begin.
An island for everyone
The beloved series has always stood out for its gameplay relaxing without any kind of plot or real goal, and New Horizons does not betray this rule. Compared to the other Animal Crossing this is a game evolving where we start with an empty world to fill as we please, an island whose first days are spent among fruit trees and a couple of tents but which hides incredible potential and can become the realm of imagination and constancy: The choice of to make the island blossom or leave it to its fate is up to the player alone, who will be repaid over time with his own personal paradise.
There are several conditions to be accepted at the advent of this new Animal Crossing chapter on Nintendo Switch, first of all the question that there is one island per console and this must be shared among all his accounts even in the case of multiple copies of the title. To create a new island it will be necessary to delete all game data directly from the console settings and with it all the progress made over time. The loan shark raccoon is very clear on this point and requires everyone's consent in the case of a family subscription. Another big shock is the debut of autosave. In addition to leading to the firing of Mr. Resetti, now looking for another job, this causes the game to save progress more often than not.
Following the words of the developers, the reason for the introduction of the automatic saving is to avoid time manipulation - and for the same reason cloud saving is not available at the moment. As per tradition, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is synchronized with the real time. This means that a day on the island has a duration of 24 hours and follows the day / night cycle, just like everyday life. After several tests, however, it must be specified that a manipulation space exists, since New Horizons only saves when the icon appears at the top right of the screen.
To be really sure to save our every action, in short, we will still have to resort to a sort of guided save before exiting the game.
There is no need to be frightened by its nature, which is only on demanding paper: fans of the series know well that it is possible to spend even just an hour a day in Animal Crossing, the time to attend to daily chores or take refuge in a small corner away from the stress of everyday life where optimism reigns supreme, only to return the next day. On this New Horizons is no exception, and is based on a growing debt with Tom Nook to be repaid in total peace of mind, without deadlines or interest. The first duty as an islander will be to repay our patron for the relocation costs, including the Nook Phone last generation. The smartphone, which will be "given" to us after placing the tent, marks our obligation to Nook and our position as spokesperson for the island. In short, the task of making the island less deserted will be up to us, passing from the construction of theamazing museum, which makes its return, to many other realities, making us become a responsible and very active part of our new home.
Do it yourself, do for three
The Nook Phone can be seen as the emblem of news of Animal Crossing: New Horizons: one of the first apps we will find there will be the Miles of Nook, a points system that goes alongside the famous stars as an alternative payment method. The first debt will have to be paid off with a handful of miles that are collected simply by living life on the island: collecting fruits, selling shells, pulling weeds, fishing, digging up fossils and much more. Everything that makes Animal Crossing so basically earns points, but miles have other uses as well, including buying more. space for inventory (!) and do travel with the so-called Nook miles coupon. Through this ticket it will be possible to visit other smaller islands where to raid and invite other anthropomorphic animals to slowly populate our islet.
Another app on your mobile is called Laboratory. From here you can see a list of schemes that you can create to make life on the island easier and decorate your home. Directly from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the crafting returns and reaches its full evolution in New Horizons with a do-it-yourself system with which tools are built, such as the famous insect net or a watering can from raw materials such as branches and stones. After a certain number of uses the tools will break and you will have to return to the workbench to resume the daily activities, which are the core of Animal Crossing.
The construction of these essential objects requires minimal investment and manages to make weeds useful, for example, with the creation of a leaf umbrella that will shelter us from the rain. Everything else is the most disparate furniture, with which they can be beautify both interior and exterior: the only limit is the imagination.
To close the Nook Phone chapter it is necessary to talk about the Call Resident option, which is none other than the co-op, both local and online. The biggest victory, perhaps, of this new chapter of Animal Crossing is certainly to play with loved ones, as long as share the same island. The cooperative mode is based on an invitation system that allows you to roam freely once the number of controllers has been indicated. The players (up to a maximum of four) are thus divided into leader e participants: the leader can carry out all actions, while the participants cannot use chat, pockets or the Nook Phone, but only use tools and move objects.
This system can be a bit daunting at first, given that the islanders also share the same camera and are dependent on the leader, but it is possible "take over”And go from leader to participant (and vice versa) in no time just by shaking the controller. Once you get used to it, you will be able to exchange hierarchies dozens of times per session in order to make the island progress by mutual agreement, for better or for worse.
The online instead involves going to the airport and receiving or visiting the islands of other players. In this capacity it will not be possible to use some tools to prevent an attacker from stealing the wealth of another islander: only once the latter registers him in the list of best friends will he be able to interact freely on the island of which he is a guest.
I hate you a little, I love you a little
From the graphic point of view Animal Crossing: New Horizons presents itself a lot clean and changing according to the seasons, all to be captured with the mobile phone camera. The Nintendo Direct dedicated to the title has let a glimpse of the charm of autumn and a northern lights in winter, moments that will be jealously guarded thanks to the atmospheric soundtrack for which the series is known.
The game world will become more alive day by day and sees the reuniting characters most loved of previous chapters, such as the aforementioned Tom Nook and his grandchildren, the curator of the museum Blathers, Gulliver, without forgetting Fuffi, the melancholy KK Slider and all the other animals that have made Animal Crossing a conquest for players big and small. To get an idea of the series' appeal and its possible longevity, think that a nice 85-year-old granny has spent more than 3.500 hours on Animal Crossing: New Leaf and has yet to finish the collection of fauna!
The downside is that by nature Animal Crossing is repetitive, newspaper - a video game for some atypical, which serves to unplug and not think for an hour about the problems that knock on the door. We assure you that with a little care and in the space of a few weeks the island will transform and will be very different from day number one: from the tent you will pass to a house, shops will sprout like mushrooms, the course of the rivers can be diverted. Experience it was and remains that of an Animal Crossing, only taken to the nth degree.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons represents the evolution of the series while remaining firmly anchored in its tradition. On this island of our own - the little kingdom of this new chapter - we will find everything we love and not about Animal Crossing, including the unwritten rule that asks us for patience especially at the beginning and that will put us up to our necks in debt with Tom Nook. The changes of the seasons will transform the island just like the player, who can shape it as he pleases as if it were clay, up to make it alive, also thanks to the crafting system taken up and expanded by Pocket Camp. The pixels, left to the last generation, allow the game to take a small but necessary leap forward and the possibility of playing with the family with the local co-op mode is delicious and to be experienced. Who doesn't like it, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has little or nothing to offer; On the contrary, those willing to give him a chance could find a trusted virtual companion to turn on when you want to escape from everyday life and see that the characters have worried about his absence, celebrate birthdays and holidays.
► Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a Simulation-type game developed and published by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 20/03/2020
