In this Indie Games Spotlight, we will travel back a couple of years and take a look at an old video I made.
Tag: Nintendo
Why Animal Crossing New Horizons is my last Animal Crossing game.
Introduction
Typically, when I play a game I try and get my money’s worth by playing the game for 60 hours or more: This changes depending on the cost of the game. I bought Animal Crossing New Horizons during the lockdown and I did get my money’s worth from the game.
On the surface, Animal Crossing New Horizons is a fun game and you will get hundreds of hours out of playing it depending on what your goal is when you play. I like to collect fish and decorate, while others might want to collect bugs and complete the small milestones the game offers.
Animal Crossing New Horizons is a fun game and I do not regret my purchase. I have made many friends, decorated my house to my liking, and I continue to log in every so often to mess around with the game.
However, Animal Crossing New Horizons is part of what I call the Nintendo Problem. I love Nintendo, and have been a supporter of Mario and Metroid for years! Over the last couple of years, Nintendo has had a steady decline in the content available in their games: Not to mention various games that keep releasing on the Nintendo Switch with a plethora of issues.
This article is not a review of Animal Crossing New Horizons: Instead, you can consider it a detailed rant about why I will not buy another Animal Crossing game moving forward.
Fun but Lacking
When I think about Animal Crossing New Horizons the first thing that comes to mind is the missed opportunity that the game presents. To me, there was a perfect opportunity to continue the updates for New Horizons: This happens a lot on the Nintendo Switch now, games will release with subpar content offerings. The “missing” content will be patched in through free updates later in the game’s life cycle.
The villagers become stale extremely fast: If they were not adorable I would never talk to them. A villager highlight is of course Cube, he can do no wrong.
Time traveling is still fun! I enjoy going ahead for an unknown amount of time and coming back to villagers thinking I was missing. The real lack of content comes from what you can craft and purchase: This issue is partially fixed with the DLC.
New Horizons feels incomplete in ways I can’t quite describe. It could be that the villagers have been scrubbed of all their personality, or that there are a lot of repeat furniture options in different colors. Something about this game makes me feel like corners were cut.
The other things…
There is a ton to like about New Horizons. I love the characters, and the art style and I like that there does seem to be some level of polish: Life simulators always seem to be lacking polish. I also appreciate new features like swimming being added to the game.
Crafting is such a chore, and getting the materials for crafting often feels like pulling teeth. Picking up any item is slow, especially when you have to pick up multiple items. Some quality-of-life options were lacking for New Horizons.
The last thing I want to touch on is the DLC. The DLC is my favorite part of the game! Although it is barebones and most choices you make won’t matter. Purchasing the DLC was a no-brainer and I still log on to play it as often as I can.
Why is this my last Animal Crossing game?
The answer is simple.
I don’t have faith in Nintendo to improve or innovate on the Animal Crossing formula. Games are getting more expensive and time and time again I often regret my purchases on the Nintendo Switch for games I would’ve typically liked on the older systems.
Animal Crossing is a game that screams constant updates or at the very least, multiple DLC releases. Nintendo does not seem to want to offer anything close to that for Animal Crossing. The villagers being one-dimensional is my biggest problem and the biggest reason I will not purchase another Animal Crossing game.
Titanium Gaming 