WHAT IS ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS & WHY IS THE WORLD OBSESSED?

Regardless of whether you’re a gamer or not, a little thing called Animal Crossing: New Horizons has likely found its way onto your social media feeds this past week. All this talk about islands, fruit, some dude named Tom Nook – & unless you’re partaking in the banter, it’s totally understandable you might be a tad confused. 

But as AC aficionados ourselves, we figured it was worth clearing the air (& TBH- seizing the excuse to further gush about the game) to give a quick run-down of this adorable virtual world & why it’s taken the world by STORM.

Because if you’re not on board & have already run out of ideas/projects to keep yourself occupied throughout the quarantine – then this could also very well be just the thing you’re looking for!

SO WHAT IS IT?

If you asked 5th-grade Alex about the fate of the her all-time favorite video game Animal Crossing, never would she have imagined that it would grow into a phenomenon still being raved about for decades to come. But 15 years & seven more games (if we’re counting Pocket Camp) later, the Animal Crossing franchise has proven to be popular as ever! 

The OG game debuted on the Nintendo 64 & GameCube all the way back in 2001. It was a smash hit (OBVIOUSLY), which led to a subsequently popular string of sequels, including Animal Crossing: Wild World for the Nintendo DS in 2005, Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii in 2008, Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS in 2012…& finally, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which debuted for the Switch just last week.

In between that there were also the smaller spin-off games Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (for the 3DS), Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (for the Wii U) & Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (for iOS & Android). 

So as you can see, Animal Crossing is basically the E! roster of Kardashian-related shows of video games. 

(If you don’t count Mario but whatever)

WHY EVERYONE LOVES IT

Aside from the fact that it’s a wildly cute, super fun & endearingly nostalgic social simulation game, Animal Crossing embodies a blissful escape that’s needed now more than ever!

Unlike a lot of other video games, there aren’t crazy time limits, races or bosses you think you defeat, only for them to rise from the dead with two health bars & skyrocket your cortisol. Rather, you get to decorate a house on a deserted island, run errands for your animal neighbors, fish, build furniture, make friends, get stung by the occasional wasp & repay debts to our fearless (& fiercely entrepreneurial) raccoon leader, Tom Nook. 

In fact, there are TONS of great life lessons the game exemplifies as well:

+ How to pay & manage your debt (Tom…what a mentor)

+ The value of being enterprising (let’s remember, Nook Inc. wasn’t born overnight)

+ Prioritizing money on what’s most important to you (furniture, better tools, clothes, savings – so many options)

+ Not getting used to instant gratification (Rome wasn’t built in a day & the same goes for your island)

+ And of course, figuring out how to maximize a good rewards program (Nook Miles+ Club, represent!)

But trust me, it’s not without its momentary stressors, too. Some of those fish are legit SOBs & I don’t know how many more late-night spider attacks I can take. So while it’s not all sunshine & rainbows (just mostly), the point is Animal Crossing is timeless.

So if you have a Switch & don’t own this game, then it’s time to reassess your life & figure out how to get your hands on it ASAP. And if you don’t, then I guess you’ll just have to settle for playing the Escape to Margaritaville soundtrack on repeat while hitting rocks outside with an axe in hopes money starts flying out of them.

Besides, who knows when your local axe-throwing bar is going to open back up so you can start welding those tools productively again.

How’s island life treating you?!

xxAA

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