Nintendo consoles will not be the most powerful on the market, but their exclusive games they are good enough that we all put power aside and focus on quality. Unlike Zelda, Animal Crossing and Pokémon are two of the great Nintendo franchises that they make you wait a bit when a new console comes out. Fortunately, New Horizons arrived just in time to soften the bad taste of the pandemic. In this post we will tell you everything you need to know about the title, from its development to its differences from previous installments.
When was it released?
Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrived on Nintendo Switch on March 20th 2020. This life simulator had already proven on previous occasions to be a "console seller", as Pokémon titles have been all their lives. The release, according to many fans, came quite late; passed 3 years since Switch went on sale until we could play this new installment.
The video game had the difficult task of surpassing Animal Crossing: New Leaf which came out in 2013 and is the previous title in the main saga of the franchise. In between are other games like Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer y Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival on consoles and PocketCamp on smartphones. Over time, New horizons has not only surpassed its predecessor for 3DS, but has also integrated the mechanics of the spin-offs in the main game, as we will see later.
Game development
On this occasion, our character will move to live on a requested island. He will do it through Deserted Islands Settlement Program, an initiative by Tom Nook to bring remote and lost places to life. As in the 3DS game, we will be able to influence the game to a certain extent. island mapwhere our adventure will take place. After a while, we will land on the island by plane, courtesy of DodoAirlines.
The start of New Horizons It may be somewhat shocking for those who have already enjoyed previous Animal Crossing games, as we will arrive on an island where there is no town hall, no shops, no museum. Only two neighbors will accompany us at the dawn of what will become our paradise island. The days will advance, and Nook's lineage will commission us different missions. We will found the town hall, Canela will come to lend us a hand, we will help Tendo and Nendo to build their business and we will decide where to place the houses of future animals that come to live with us on our island.
Once the base of the island is formed, we will continue fulfilling orders until we reach a key objective, Which is attract attention so that Totakeke come to our island to play live. Once you achieve that goal, the story of the game will be completed -The story of the game is more of a tutorial, don't be scared when the credits come out. From this moment on, we can walk free on our island, modify it at our whim and dedicate the time to what you most want.
Differences between New Horizons and its predecessors
This edition of Animal Crossing has quite a few differences from previous games, who followed a very continuous line. Some of the most interesting changes are the following:
Item Crafting
Animal Crossing: New Horizons drinks a lot of Minecraft and other games that have succeeded thanks to their mechanics. However, the evolution of the franchise indicated that, at some point, we would end this mechanic implemented in the game. ANDn New Leaf We could already customize our objects. In Pocket camp, is introduced for the first time crafting in Animal Crossing. AND This mechanic is the basis of New Horizons. For the first time, tools can be made. Y also they break with use —So far, this only happened with the ax. we can also make furniture, and all kinds of objects using the recipes that our neighbors will give us and that we will receive as a message in a bottle on the beaches of our island.
Terraforming
Also in New Horizons we will be able change the environment at will. This new function allows us to change the course of the rivers, create mountains and make valleys where we please. Nevertheless, is not available from the beginning of the game, but we will get this ability when our island gets the approval of the visitors.
Miles Nook
The game includes a huge list of small missions that we must complete. In exchange, we will be given Nook Miles, which are still redeemable points. We can exchange them for a multitude of objects in the town hall of our island.
wild islands
Making use of the Miles Nook, you can hire Dodo Airlines to be released on a deserted island. The I are procedurally generated, so you will never be able to return to a specific one once you leave. There are islands of all kinds. Most of the islands will be extremely boring, but on the other hand, in others you will find exotic species of fish or insects, minerals with which to produce quality tools or even the dreaded island of scorpions, which is the terror of many players of this title. .
Since version 2.0, we can also visit the captain's islands, paying the same number of Miles to the turtle to take us rowing. This character, Captain, is known in previous installments for having great skills with vehicles, as we have seen him driving taxis, boats and even a bus.
there is no mayor
Tortimer had always been the animal crossing mayor. At the time, it was rumored that the old man had passed away. However, Nintendo wanted to clear up the doubts by making it clear that the poor man is still with us, only that is enjoying a well-deserved retirement. Instead, we will have the 'Island Manager', who will be the first player to move to the island. He will have the power to move real estate and take important decisions on the island. The rest of the human players will also be considered 'Original Islanders', but they will not have as much decision-making power.
home customization
Taking example of Happy Home Designer, the player can now organize your house in a very comfortable way from a top view, with access to the entire object drawer.
Reorganization of buildings
En New Leaf you could do public works —that you paid by yourself out of your pocket—, and on this occasion, in addition to this, you can move any building. Thanks to this, you can create streets with neighbors, make your own shopping area or practically whatever comes to mind.
Nook Store
There is a downside to all these changes. Tendo and Nendo had already shown some expertise in the business world. But they don't even reach the bottom of their father's shoes. While in the previous game we could unlock a three-story shop, with an integrated luxury item shop, this time, we have to settle for a slightly more humble trade. However, players are still waiting for Nintendo to update the game and make a new expansion of the title.
Multiplayer game in New Horizons
As it had been happening in all previous versions of Animal Crossing, New Horizons allows the local and online game between multiple players.
Local multiplayer with a single game
De two to four islanders who live in the same party can play at the same time using a Joy-Con or a separate controller each. Its Tand cooperative mode You will have a main player (who has access to your backpack) and one or more secondary ones. Roles can be swapped at any time. This way co-op it is very useful for farm or make money during the first hours of play.
Local multiplayer between consoles
Making use of the Nintendo Switch wireless connectionh, you can visit your friends' islands as long as you stay with them and their consoles. For this mode, no Nintendo Switch Online subscription required
Online multiplayer
Dodo Airlines can take us to the island of any friend or relative as long as you both have a Active Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Thus, you can live all kinds of adventures as a couple or in a group. The multiplayer of New Horizons is complemented by themobile pp for Nintendo Switch Online, which integrates its own text chat, voice chat and also allows us to manage our list of best friends (that they will have permission to come to our island without asking for express permission, or even cut down and take some of our objects that we have lying around the island).
New Horizons Bonus Content
Content Animal Crossing: New Horizons it has been evolving especially during the first year of the game's life. The improvements were introduced gradually. This somewhat allowed players to ration the game a bit, balancing the online and preventing a few players from taking too much advantage and making spoilers to the rest of the players during the first weeks. Apparently Nintendo had no plans to continue expanding the game past the first year, but recently we've seen new base game updates, which leads us to think that the game could receive some more improvements in the future. Also added a new Paid DLC, as we will see in the following lines.
Nook Link
Only if you have Nintendo Switch Online, you can link your game with the nooklink app, integrated into the app Nintendo Switch Online for mobile devices. From here you will be able to consult data on the island, such as the price of turnips, manage your friends or even see the catalog of objects that we have been unlocking.
Happy Home Paradise. The first DLC of Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The previous version, New Leaf was the first Animal Crossing to have DLC. New Horizons has followed the same path. On November 3, 2021, the base game had a free upgrade to version 2.0. New objects, new characters and some extra mechanics were added. A couple of days later he arrived Happy Home Paradise, un Paid DLC wearing the mechanics of Happy Home Designer to this new title on Nintendo Switch.
The DLC presents us with a vacation agency called Archipelago Paradise. The person in charge of it, Nuria, will invite us to work with her to build houses for clients. As a general rule, the clients are usually characters that we already know from the base game, and here they will tell us about their intimacies, which we must understand and decipher to find the perfect house for such tenants. The orders of Happy Home Paradise They are really simple, and we can get more or less complicated depending on how inspired we are. Part of the fun of the DLC is take pictures and share the designs with other players, in order to get feedback and always find new fun and creative ideas.
Yes, the DLC is not entirely independent of the base game. It blends very well, and you can actually keep some of the recipes that you get in Archipelagos ParaÃso and use them on the island or inside your house.
Lastly, this added can be obtained in two different ways. You can buy the DLC directly from the Nintendo eShop, where this extra content will be tied to your account forever. And on the other hand, you can purchase a Nintendo Switch Online membership + Expansion Pack, which includes the DLC for free for one year, where you can also access Nintendo 64 and SEGA Megadrive games.