Far across the sea, there lies a radical island. Oranges grow wild and free until Teddy the bear uses them to create his own bastardized version of Sunny D. Flowers grow and spread so goddamn fast you’d think they were some kind of invasive rabbit species. Shipwrecked seagulls just will not stop washing up on the pristine beaches (seriously, Gulliver, you’ve been here 3 times already). The name of this tropical paradise? Slam Zone.
As I’m sure you’ve figured out from the title of this article, Slam Zone is my island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I’ve never been a die-hard fan of Animal Crossing, but New Horizons has me playing with a zeal I haven’t had since the Gamecube original. The amazing quality of life improvements, the (mostly) wonderful new features, and the inherent charm of Animal Crossing have combined to make one of my absolute favorite games of the year so far.
My first day on Slam Zone was a perfect encapsulation of how New Horizons subtly iterates on the Animal Crossing formula. I placed tents for myself and my first two villagers, my first taste of just how much control the player has on how the island develops. I gathered materials for Tom Nook, who shortly afterward taught me how to use those same materials to craft. I was told that I could pay my first debt off with Nook Miles, the new secondary currency you earn for doing literally anything. Just like that, all the major changes are presented and briefly explained.
Over the rest of the week, Tom Nook had a new objective for me almost every day. These objectives unlocked new shops, vendors, the museum, and the ability to put more homes around the island. The workload for these tasks was enough to feel meaningful, without denying me the time to spend on more “traditional” Animal Crossing tasks like catching bugs and fish. The new vendors typically had rewards outside of their shops, too, like new crafting recipes or tools. Every task built on the one before, coaxing me ever so gently toward knowing what I was doing.
Crafting and gathering, called the DIY System in-game, is the backbone of New Horizons. Everything from tools, to furniture, to cosmetic accessories can be made using materials gathered from your island. Crafting is as simple as going to a workbench, having the required materials, and selecting the recipe. Recipes can be collected from floating balloons, bottles on the beach, purchased from a shop, or even received as gifts from villagers. Resources are also easy to come by, trees and rocks “refill” every day, but if you find yourself needing more you can travel to smaller “mystery” islands ripe for plunder.
A number of quality of life improvements surround and support the crafting system. Materials take up inventory space, something Animal Crossing has been historically stingy with. Fortunately, in New Horizons player inventory slots can be quickly expanded to a maximum of 40, more than double the slots of previous games. In-home storage also expands, growing as players upgrade their homes. On top of raw space increases, most items can be placed into bigger stacks than before, though some items still cap out at oddly small sizes. Unless you are the most obsessive of item collectors, you will have plenty of space to store your furniture, clothing, and crafting materials.
Village control and customization are also at a series high. Every building that isn’t the airport or Island Plaza, meaning stores, the museum, or homes, has to be manually placed by the player. Those same buildings can also be moved later, should you change your mind later. In addition, the very landscape of your island paradise can be changed thanks to the Island Designer tool. Some limits do exist, you can’t just erase the entire island or anything, but the customization tools New Horizons gives to its players are enough make any island into their own dream home.
No game is perfect, however, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no exception. There are a limited number of villager personalities, making it likely for you to hear the same comments from multiple villagers. You cannot craft with materials stored in your home, even if you are trying to craft inside your home. This problem is made more confusing when your dresser lets you peruse every clothing item in your home’s storage and wear any item without making you withdraw it. Tools have a durability, and do break, but making the tools is so easy it’s never more than a minor inconvenience.
The biggest shortcoming of New Horizons, in what is becoming a troubling pattern for Nintendo titles, is the online experience. Every online interaction requires excessive menu navigation, from opening your island to visitors to sending a friend a letter. When connecting to another player’s island, everything on the island you are visiting stops completely while you connect. Only one person can connect to an island at a time, meaning playing with multiple friends makes for an extended amount of time spent just waiting. To make matters worse, when you do have visitors on your island, many features of the game just stop operating. You can’t place furniture, you can’t donate new finds to the museum, you can’t modify the island in any way while you play with your friends. Your island is all but frozen in time, so you better have everything set up just right before you open your gates.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how the state of current events impacted my time with New Horizons. While strictly speaking, the two are unrelated, Animal Crossing has filled a void left by the quarantine. Getting out in the virtual sunshine and socializing with my villagers every morning has been a real morale booster for me. Improving my island has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for me, providing a temporarily comforting feeling of control and safety. Online troubles and small inconveniences aside, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is, in my opinion, the finest entry in the franchise to date and the perfect distraction for those stuck at home.
4.5/5
