After waiting half a year Nintendo has FINALLY given us some new news about Animal Crossing Switch.
First of all, the name of the game is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In this game, we are not in a town but the resident of a deserted island. It’s just us, a tent, and of course, Tom Nook.
I assume the general idea for the game is to build up the island and make it your own, we still don’t know a lot about the game but here are the things we were able to learn about from today’s E3 announcement and Nintendo’s Treehouse presentation.
Our Own Island
So like I said, we start off out on an island, just us and a tent. It’s a bit rough looking in the beginning but we can turn it into whatever we want! It looks like we can place furniture items pretty much anywhere we want, including right on the beach! We can even live on the beach if we want to.
The style of the land is a bit similar to the island in Animal Crossing: New Leaf in the way that the land flows directly into the beach, there are no slopes or cliffs like in precious Animal Crossing games.
Crafting Things From Scratch
Another feature of the game is that you can craft furniture using materials collected around the island. It seems there is finally a use for the weeds that grow everywhere! That and you can gain different types of stones from the rocks on the island and different kinds of wood from the trees.
I imagine you can unlock more items as you progress throughout the game, but not to worry you can still buy things from Nook such as flowers and tree saplings. I’m not sure how split furniture items are between crafting and buying but it will be interesting to see what the game has to offer.
Who Needs Bridges?
I’m not really sure if this is the only way to cross the river in the game or if we will get the opportunity to build bridges but you know I would be totally okay with it.
One of the most shocking things about this new game is that we can pole vault ourselves over the river. I don’t know who decided this was going to be a thing but I am a fan.
Making Paths!
Another new feature in the game is making our own paths! They look super cute and add to helping shape up the island. A lot easier than having to place floor tiles and cringing when they aren’t placed in the correct place.
A Handy New Gadget
Another thing we get from Nook when we arrive on the island is a NookPhone. It contains quick access to options such as a camera, Nook Miles, a recipe book for crafting items, the town map and you can also use it to phone a villager.
You can use the regular screenshot button on the joycon remote to take photos but you can also use the new camera feature on the phone which will allow you to zoom in, zoom out and add the perfect filter to your photos.
Nook Miles
Nook Miles is a reward scheme program where you get ‘miles’ by completing tasks in-game. They haven’t revealed what kind of things you can use the Nook Miles for yet but I imagine they will be exclusive items. I guess this means Phineas will no longer come around to give you badges?
Call An Islander
This feature kind of made me think of Stardew Valley. So apparently you can have up to 8 characters on your island and everyone gets their own house. And this ‘Call an Islander’ feature allows you to have local multiplayer functionality by using up to four joycons.
In local multiplayer one person is the ‘leader’ and the other people help you collect materials to build items in the game, the downside to this is that because it is local play everyone has to stay on the screen and so you can’t wander off on your own. As well as that, I think that only the leader can access their pockets and if you choose a tool then everyone has that tool.
As for online multiplayer, we don’t know too much about that yet but the fact you can have up to 8 people in your town at once is exciting. Finally, no feeling bad because your town is full so one of your friends can’t come over to hang out.
Weather Settings Depending on Location
Animal Crossing is a game that uses real-time and so the weather in the game is affected by the time of year. This will also be true for New Horizons but with an added feature.
We will now have the option to play in the northern or southern hemisphere. This will affect the weather within the game so the example they gave in the Treehouse demonstration was if you played in the northern hemisphere in June, it will be summer but if you were to play in the southern hemisphere it would be winter.
Not really sure where the setting for this is or anything yet but it will be interesting to see the differences in game based on which hemisphere you choose.
Fishing Bait
Something else that is new is that we have the opportunity to make fish bait! There wasn’t a lot of information about this but it was thrown in at the end. I imagine this is a feature that hasn’t fully been fleshed out yet but I’ll be interested to see what kind of fish we can collect with bait.
Other Small Things!
To finish off this list of features here are some other small things that I noticed while watching that weren’t officially mentioned.
Cloud shadows! Now when it is cloudy in the town you will be able to tell by cloud shadows on the ground, this is a small feature but I got excited about it because it just adds more detail to the game. As well as that, something that was mentioned was that the leaves on the trees will move depending on how windy it is within your game. Another cute touch.
Villagers carrying logs! So we didn’t see a lot of villagers today but I did notice that one was carrying some logs, and also they walk a lot slower than before. I like the new walking style, though your character still keeps the fast pace which makes us seem like we are always rushing around while the villagers are chilling and enjoying the island life.
In terms of communicating with players through online play, we have not been given any information on that yet but I imagine it would be similar to how it has always been done through chatboxes. But one thing we always have in Animal Crossing is emotions! This game looks like it reverts back to only giving us a limited number of emotions to choose from unlike Animal Crossing where you got two full pages of emotions for characters, including the Shrunk Shuffle which was a favourite of mine.
I’m sure there are lots of other little things that I missed within the game but I shall leave it here for now, otherwise, I think I would be here all night talking about Animal Crossing.
I am super excited for this game to come out, I have been waiting for this since I bought my Nintendo Switch. One thing I am bummed about though is that the game’s release has been delayed to March 2020. Though I am grateful we got any kind of release date after waiting so long.
I’m hoping that Nintendo will keep giving us regular updates for the game though to help us get through the waiting period. I think it was bad enough we went nine months without anything at all since they gave us the announcement of the game. I mean there was a chance they might not have shown us anything at all today which I did think about earlier…
Anyway, I’m off, let me know in the comments what you are excited about in the next Animal Crossing game, I’m honestly excited about everything. It’s all so new and shiny and I can’t wait for it!
~ Courtney x
P.S If you guys want to see my live reaction to the new Animal Crossing game please see the video below, it is definitely not as composed as this blog post was lol:
gosh darn it nothing is going well for Richard…
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