Animal Crossing- The Jump from Wild Worlds to New Horizons

I remember playing Animal Crossing Wild Worlds on the DS and I absolutely loved it. I would play it every day at different times in order to collect every bug and fish I could find, I spent fortunes on giving my money to Crazy Redd’s in the hopes of finding real artwork and experiencing actual heartbreak when my favourite villagers would leave. This is the Animal Crossing I look back on with rose tinted glasses and have fond memories off. After playing Stardew Valley on my PC and being mildly addicted it (I currently have over 100 hours in the game), I yearned for something to play when I was on my break at work, or sleeping over at my partners house, so I decided to borrow Craig’s copy of Animal Crossing New Horizons, as I had such fond memories of playing Animal Crossing on the DS. I either had high hopes for the game or was expecting something more Stardew Valley related, but I tried to like playing this game, but I just couldn’t get into it.

My opinion started off positive and I absolutely loved the design and graphics of the game, as it was a massive upgrade from when I played on the DS. When starting the game, I loved the idea you could choose what island you wanted to live on and decide where you wanted your house as well as where your fellow villagers would live, which was also nice to see the introduction of new character. As the game progressed, the introduction of quest and having to collect materials to complete them or craft items using the materials you found intrigued me, such as when Tom Nook gives you instructions on what you need to craft for the new houses being built. It was nice to see that you didn’t have to rely on items appearing in the shop in order to purchase all of them and you could now build your own furniture and accessories. I also quite like the introduction of the phone and all the apps you could use, such as seeing what you have donated to the museum and the introduction of tom nook miles was also a nice touch, so you had extra achievements to complete and could use the miles to buy different items not available in the shop.

I played the game for a few days and it started out well. I wish the island was as big as it was in Wild Worlds and to be honest, I wasn’t a fan of having to use a ladder to explore more of the island. I explored and collected enough materials to build the museum, the shop and 3 new houses for more villagers to move onto the island which I did enjoy doing, but the thing I do not miss about playing animal crossing is the fact that the game runs in real time and you have to wait for things to happen and to me, this brought the game to a halt. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve gotten older, or the gameplay no longer appeals to me, but the game feels like groundhog day, where you open the game to shake the trees, chop the wood off them, hit the rocks, collect flowers and shells, go fishing, collect bugs find all the fossils, talk to the villagers and you can only do these things a finite amount of time, before you’ve completed everything you can for the day. The only thing you would come back in the same day is to find different types of bugs and fish, but even that wouldn’t take you long to do. The thing which I despised the most about this game was the constant breaking of your tools. I know when starting out, the use of the tools will be much weaker compared to unlocking the stronger tools later on, but I felt like you couldn’t go 5 feet without them breaking and that’s even when I unlocked the iron tools. The game makes it feel like your only options are to craft loads of tools and use up precious holding space, or constantly back track to your workbench to craft more tools.

To me the game is extremely slow paced and you could easily get you “dailies” done in 1 hour, if that. I love a cosy gaming, but this game did not make me feel cosy, it made me feel extremely bored and it’s far too repetitive for me to enjoy. As mentioned before, I adored wild worlds, to the extent I found lists online of when to catch every fish and bug and I would love playing it every day, but New

Horizons just didn’t click for me. They are both basically the same game, but I think I have just grown out of this type of game. I might one day return to Wild Worlds and see if it still holds so highly to me, but for now, I’m going back to Stardew Valley.