Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Addictive Escapism

Image: Animal Crossing New Horizons Box Art

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What is it about a game about creating and managing a town inhabited by anamorphic animals so entertaining? Is it the customization? The personalities behind each animal? The various tasks we’re obligated to do? I’d say all of the above. Animal Crossing is a unique series created by Nintendo. It’s not a platformer like Super Mario Bros., it’s not a RPG like Pokémon, nor is it an adventure game like The Legend of Zelda. It’s a life-simulator game. Sort of in the sense of Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley. Or, if you want to think more simply, Animal Crossing is a more rated G version of The Sims. All these life-simulator allow the player to live in their own small city or town there they can live out their virtual lives creating homes, managing a garden, visiting other people in their setting and make friends with them, etc. It’s like living life outside of reality. On paper, these games sound boring. There’s nothing really exciting about living life in general unless you’re truly living It to the fullest. But, when you’re given control of your life as if you were a godly figure, suddenly things get fun.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons give you that ability in the most wholesome way possible. It starts out where you, the player, are invited by Tom Nook (a walking, talking Japanese Tanuki (or raccoon here in the West)), the head of Nook Incorporated. Nook Inc. is a development company that helps the player and other villager travel and make home on a deserted island. Originally, this island has nothing to it. The only things established so far is that there is a small committee that is focused on creating a small town out of this island. This would include building houses, shops, town hall, museum, etc. After establishing your home and settling in your new town, Tom Nook and his partner, Isabelle (a Shih Tzu dog) make things official and your adventure in New Horizons truly begins.

Image: Grand Opening of Blathers' Museum

Now that you’ve earned your freedom, it’s time to explore your island. This island is full of so many things to do! First, there are fossils to find. There are at least 4 fossils dug underneath small “Xs” in the ground every day. Once you’ve found your fossils, you can go to the owl and museum curator, Blathers, to let him assess these fossils. Once these fossils are assessed, they reveal their true form, which can be a multiple of dinosaur bones ranging from a pterodactyl to a tyrannosaurus rex. You can see them later in the museum themselves. They’re honestly remarkable to look at when they’re all put together. In order to complete the dinosaur, you need to collect all the bones, which will require several days. Especially since some fossils do repeat. You see, in order to make the dinosaur, you have to donate the bones to Blathers so he can put it in the museum. If any of them are repeats, then he won’t accept those bones, leaving you with 2 options: Keep the bones in your storage and make a dinosaur at home yourself or sell the bones to Tom Nook’s nephews, Timmy and Tommy, and get money in return.

The same thing applies to the bugs and fish in this game. You catch various fish and bugs on the island, donate them to Blathers, watch them swim or crawl in the museum, and then either keep or sell the duplicates. There is a massive difference however. That’s the fact that the fish and bugs change every month. Each month, a new species appears and a new one leaves until a couple months later. Thankfully, this keeps thing fresh. Some creatures are the same, but the fact that there is a new one each month makes things exciting. It makes the player want to come back to the game even after they’re bored of it.

Image: Sakura Petal Season

The customization of the game is incredible as well. Though everyone who plays New Horizonsstarts out with a small island, they can eventually customize their island into something truly unique. There are many kinds of furniture and items that the player can use to make their island their own such as slides, teacup rides, neon signs, rocket ships, and even a mecha robot. Not only that, the player can change the terrain of their land as well by covering the ground in grass, brick, cement, or even sand. If you want to elevate or lower your land, you can do that! If you want to make fancy bridges or slopes to get you to higher grounds, you can do that too! The possibilities for this game are practically endless. I’ve seen so many cool and unique island across social media. Some of them are dedicated to various pieces of media such as towns in The Legend of Zelda and Star Wars. Some are specifically themed like a large city in Tokyo or a town full of night clubs. There are some that are straight up theme parks. In addition to all of this, the player is able to customize their own character by giving them different hair styles and colors, different kinds of clothing (including ones you can create on your own), and even different skin colors and expressions. I’ve also seen many clothes dedicated to popular characters in our media such as Harry Potter or Ash Ketchum. I can only begin to describe how many cool islands and outfits people have made out there, so I highly suggest you look at them yourself.

Even with all these features, New Horizons’ greatest appeal has to be its player interaction. This means that up to 8 players can join each other on one of the players islands and hang out with each other all at once. This can lead to a load of antics and activities with your friends as you all traverse the island. People can trade things with each other, give gifts, and even look into the island owner’s house and interact with the stuff there. If there’s any fish, clothes, or furnature that someone doesn’t have, someone else can connect and give those creatures and items as a gift, ultimately helping them complete their collection. All in all, it’s fun to just casually hang out with your friends on a day where there’s nothing else to do. People have celebrated birthday, graduations, or even just hung out with friends across the country via New Horizons. In a way, this game proves how good video games can actually be for people in an incredibly theripudic way.

Oddly enough, the COVID pandemic (as bad as it is) actually enhanced this very experience. Everyone was forced to stay at home due to quarantine which meant we couldn’t go out and hang out with our friends and family anymore. New Horizons came out at just the right time for people to take advantage of this online interactivity. The best part about that is that New Horizons was delayed for release until late March when the pandemic suddenly hit and the two just happened to coincide with each other. Call it coincidence; call it fate. Regardless, New Horizons gave people something to keep them company. It gave people something to be creative with during such a strange time.

Image: Animal Talking Hosted by Gary Whitta With Special Guest: T-Pain

I think the greatest example I’ve seen of this is from screenwriter, Gary Whitta’s, virtual talk show, Animal Talking. Whitta has worked on several shows such as Star Wars: Rouge One, The Book of Eli, The Walking Dead, and more. Starting out as something for fun because the COVID-19 pandemic changed the setting of late-night shows, Whitta created a talk-show studio in his basement in his New Horizons’ home. Now, it’s become an actual talk-show on Whitta’s TwitchTV channel. It has all the elements of a talk show: a host, a co-host, a desk, couches, spotlights, and even music. Because it’s virtual show within a video game, he can get guest from all around the world to talk with so long as they have a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. No worries about the virus or social distancing here! Whitta started the project thanks to encouragement from his audience on his daily Twitch show, “Animal Crossing Mornings With Gary”. The pilot of Animal Talking started out with actress, Naomi Kyle. After launching a few more episodes, the show suddenly got popular enough to garner the attention of some big-named stars such as T-Pain, Elijah Wood, Danny Trejo, and even Brie Larson. It’s refreshing to see a game like Animal Crossing bring people as big as Marvel stars together. Just hearing them talk to each other and enjoying each other’s’ company for a few hours is something I feel like we all need right now in general. I have to thank Whitta personally for keeping this feeling alive, and giving us a sense of comfort and positivity for as long as Animal Talking can. I do hope Nintendo acknowledges this too.

2020 in general has been a nutty year to say the least. It feels like there’s one disaster after another happening with little light to look at. Despite all this, there’s still good in the world. Animal Crossing: New Horizons helped keep this light bright since its release. It kept us all occupied and happy. In a time where we’re all stuck at home and seeing friends is almost a luxury, a game where people can just do mundane things, customize their own home, and hang out with their friends is practically a necessity. Though I haven’t played it in a few weeks, I’m really glad I was able to play New Horizons’ when I did. I was having fun fishing for different sea creatures and catching various bugs. I was having a lot of fun finding fossils and completing the dinosaurs. I was having fun inviting and interacting with various villager who I became attached to over time. I was enjoying myself during quarantine. This game is what kept me and many others happy. It allowed us to escape from the harsh reality for a bit and just relax in a world where mundane things were legitimately entertaining. Nintendo intends to release updates for this game for (presumably) years to come and I, for one, will be anticipating every update to get a taste of bliss even for just a day.