The release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is both a critical and commercial success. Almost a month has passed since it launched, giving players enough time to explore what the newest installment in the series offers. It’s clear that New Horizons improves over its predecessors in (almost) every way.

What’s New In New Horizons

Apart from looking gorgeous compared to New Leaf thanks to nearly a decade of graphical and hardware improvements, there are several new features and quality of life improvements that make the game shine.

One of the most impactful features for players looking to develop their island in the long term is the Island Designer, an app made available on the NookPhone that allows for terraforming. This allows players to gradually reform their island as they see fit.

Some will use this for minor adjustments, but we have already seen more creative players recreate iconic maps from The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon series. While these are the most inspiring of efforts, the point is that while players have always been encouraged to play Animal Crossing in the way that best suits them, and now they can go a step further by literally reshaping the space whey they live with their favorite villagers.

Crafting Items To Personalize The Player Experience

Technically speaking, crafting first made an appearance in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the free-to-play mobile spinoff of the main series. Despite its appearance there in 2017, crafting has made a major impact on New Horizons by providing players a greater sense of control over both their island and the actions they take.

DIY recipes are needed before a player can craft, and these can be acquired in several ways, giving each player a different, unique experience. Players can create furniture, tools, décor, and more for a truly personalized play through. On the downside, and this is a big one, crafting multiple items takes forever. Nintendo should really patch in a way to batch order DIY creations.

Overall though, the introduction of crafting has the same sort of positive impact as island terraforming, expanding on the notion of allowing users to play the game in the way they like, which is one reason so many people find the game addicting as there is no wrong way to play, and so much to do.

Time Travelling Is (Mostly) Approved By The Developers

When New Horizons was first announced, a big question was whether or not the developers would allow players the ability to Time Travel, which in previous games was done by changing the date and time on the hardware being used to affect the in-game calendar. Doing so confers major advantages, but some consider it cheating.

In the end, Time Travelling remained in the game, and while it is not a new feature, its inclusion allows for all kinds of players to enjoy the game. Right now we’re living in the middle of a Covid-19 world, so more players have time to experience the game, but if and when life returns to normal, some players will work all day, and Time Traveling allows them to still enjoy the game by setting the clock ahead or behind a few hours, so as to appreciate the sunshine on the island.

Speaking to the Washington Post about time travel was game producer Hisashi Nogami, who states, “We think that in order for the players to play for a very long time, and also for players to share the experience with their friends or family, we do think that playing without traveling would probably be the ideal way.” The answer does not condemn the action in anyway, and instead only offers an opinion of how the one might play, but without casting judgement.

The Unexpected Boom Of Social Media For Animal Crossing

Finally, New Horizons has launched in the age of social media, and the two have paired perfectly together. We already know that the game has been the most talked about title on Twitter for all of 2020, and there are several benefits to this kind communication.

Players can share island decorating ideas, design codes for custom clothing, and best of all, invitations to islands where Turnip prices are through the roof, allowing everything to rake in the Bells on a weekly basis.

New Horizons is not without its problems, but its improvements have made it the best in the series by far.

Source: washingtonpost.com

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