Animal Crossing: New Horizons is essentially the original reason I now have a Nintendo Switch. There are so many good games for Switch that are perfectly mindful and low-stress, but the media frenzy on it, as well as some close to home interest in the game, actually did sell me on the title and I think it’s worth checking out if you have a Switch. Although I played the Sims for years, this game introduced me to a new generation of cozy gaming.
Since this is one of my earlier articles, I’ll leave the journalistic narrative to the imagination, but basically I just wanted to write about what delving into Animal Crossing was as a focus piece. It’s a fairly intuitive game and almost anybody can play it. I found it to be very engaging and although not my typical genre of game these days, it is a good game. Read below for some basic tips, or at least impressions of the game and what to expect.
What Exactly IS Animal Crossing?
This is a collection and simulated social life game. At first, I just ran around and collected peaches for no reason. I picked up weeds and fished. That’s the way the game is. The bug net I crafted was the first step. This was all fun and games, it really was. Every little thing in this game can entertain. Then when I started learning about Nook Miles…
You can play this game however you want, but with Nook Miles, the imaginary credit system based on how much fun you’re having, made me realize the scope of this game. I started doing tasks listed in my in game smart phone. Yes, my character has a smartphone!
There’s actually a lot of content in the beginning despite what it looks like. I earned enough to build my first solid house and started course for Nook’s Cranny. There are merits to just wandering around indefinitely and trying things out, which invariably you’ll have to do to some extent. You really cannot go wrong with aiming to complete achievements for Nook Miles. They drive everything in the game.
Getting As Much Stuff As You Can
From what I’ve learned, the main goal of this game is to just collect more and more stuff, which you’ll do until you have a vast array of creative activities and possessions so that you can pretty much do whatever you want within the imagination of the vast Animal Crossing universe. I’m not an expert in the massive customization skills some players have, but probably any moderate patience with that feature or any artistic nature could be fruitful. (there’s so much fruit, jeez)
You can really play however you like though. I am more into symbolic tasks, which makes the Nook Miles system really motivating for me to play this game. There is always something new though. Just this month there are several tasks for October because of Halloween. I can only imagine that Christmas on the island will be epic.
By the way, you are not obligated to stay on your own island forever. About a week in I got a furniture offer for something call Luna’s bed that allows you to enter another player’s island using an island code, it’s simply observational–and amusingly introduced. And you can always buy a Nook Miles Ticket using Nook Miles and go to a mystery island or wherever you want!
Settling Up Tom Nook in Animal Crossing
You’re never really stranded in understanding how the game works. The few times I looked things up, I realized that if I was just patient with the tasks I was working on I would know what to do very soon. As you see above, these in game goals are nothing to worry about. If paying your move-in fees seems daunting, don’t worry, it’s not as hard as you think. And Nook’s Cranny: not that problematic either! The one thing I did learn that helped tremendously was how to mine iron ore quickly to build Nook’s Cranny. The article I read was a Polygon article here: Where to find Iron Nuggets in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It was tremendously helpful.
Pole Vaulting is another trick I learned to cross the rivers in my island. Those are obtained by showing bugs and fish to Tom Nook who will invite a friend that builds a museum. It’s kind of serendipitous story progression but very cool. Just experiment. And if you need a break, it is definitely not a big deal because there is a new experience every day, you won’t fall behind or anything like that.
“New Horizons”
Animal Crossing is a game that is suited very enjoyably to the format it is on, one more reason to love Nintendo. I decided to set Nook’s Cranny as the finish line for writing this article because it took about the right amount of time for me to figure out what this game is all about. And I’m confident that it will progress even more the more I play it. This game is family friendly, it is fun, and heartfelt.
Thanks for reading MrDavePizza.com. Feel free to look around. This was one of the first reviews I ever wrote, but there is a lot more content now. So, do some exploring!
