New Animal Crossing: New Horizons Details!

Nintendo's next big game is fast approaching. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is bringing the beloved series to the Nintendo Switch in a big way, with so many new features to let you experience island life at your own pace. The mobile Animal Crossing experience, Pocket Camp, has held fans over until New Horizon's release, but its time for a full-fledged game to dive into.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nintendo Direct

 

Nook Inc., Island Life, and NookLink

New Horizons is the first mainline Animal Crossing to take place on an island. Previous games had you move into an established town and find your way meeting neighbors, building up your house and enjoying the calm, quaint town life. Tom Nook, the famous ultra-entrepreneur businessman of the Animal Crossing world, has opened a new venture, Nook Inc. Nook Inc. is your gateway to your deserted island experience. It won't be deserted forever, but it is up to you to build it into the town of your dreams and more neighbors will come to join you. Like previous games, time passes realistically, and the island changes with the seasons. In New Horizons, you can even pick which hemisphere your island is in, so seasons will match your real-life surroundings. If you want to unlock even more options, NookLink lets you use your actual smartphone as part of the experience. NookLink is a new feature built into the Nintendo Switch app you can download on your phone that lets you import features from Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS as well as Happy Home Designer, so your special designs can come with you to New Horizons! The app also lets you use your phone as a keyboard, and enable voice chat so you can talk to your friends as you build up your village.

Crafting

Since you are essentially a pioneer in uncharted territory, crafting is a big part of the game. All the materials to build your dream town are around you, but you gotta harvest them yourself. You can craft tools to make creating easier, as well as an array of furniture and more that will be expanded as you take part in DIY workshops that unlock more and more options to play your way. Special skills you learn later on give way to even greater customization with decorations so you can fully personalize your island. If you have the right housing loan, you can build your home nearly wherever you want, and customize both the inside and outside of your home. Unless the tent life is for you, then Nook Inc. has you covered if that suits your fancy. New Horizons also features the most in-depth character creation in the series, with tons of different options to make the game uniquely yours.

Staying Connected with NookPhone

Even though you're on a deserted island, you'll still be connected thanks to the NookPhone. Tom Nook's smartphone venture lets you make the most of your stay and help you explore and document your island adventures. The phone has a map and a camera to start with, with the camera even letting you use "Instagram" like filters. The NookPhone will get new apps as your island is built up, but it is nice to start with the basics.

Nook Miles

Since Tom Nook is handling most accommodations on the island, he is also giving players who need a bit of a guide with goals to complete and rewards to earn. The program is designed to guide players into enjoying as much of the experience as possible. In addition to exclusive merchandise to decorate your house with, you can also earn plane tickets that you can use to go explore other islands.

Boost your Materials with Island Tours

If you need a bit more materials, you can sign up for an island tour. These tours take you to smaller, mystery islands that let you gather materials to bring back to your home island. These can be a great way to change up the scenery, and build up your village faster as well. Sometimes, tourists will even visit your island and offer to trade goods that you wouldn't be able to get your hands on otherwise.

Bring Your Friends!

If living alone doesn't sound like your cup of tea, and you want to bring along some friends along for the ride, you can! You and seven other friends can share the same island and build it up together. Four people can explore at the same time, and any materials the group finds can be stored in a special recycle box. The four-player group can select one as a Leader, and the others act as followers. If you want to change who the leader is, you easily can so no worries if someone has to leave.

Carve Your Path

In addition to being able to customize the buildings in your village, you can also customize the land of your island itself. As you strike out to explore, you can build structures like bridges to make traversal easier. At first, you'll get around the island using pole vaulting and climbing, but once you can get construction permits, the possibilities are all up to you. You can change how rivers flow, tear down cliffs to make exploration easier, or even pave your pathways around the island. Fully explore the island to open up these options to make the place, even more, your own. As your island becomes more developed, new buildings, characters, and opportunities will pop up on the island that offers up items that you wouldn't be able to get through crafting like special furniture and clothes. Even with all that, free updates promise to keep things fresh, adding seasonal events to make the world feel even more alive. All in all, New Horizons looks to delight both fans and newcomers with its variety of activities, options and ever charming world and characters. Animal Crossing: New Horizons releases on Nintendo Switch March 20th, 2020.

Share Your Thoughts

Are you ready for an island getaway? Are you ready to build the community of your dreams from the ground up? Let us know that, and your favorite Animal Crossing character below!

 

By: Noah Friscopp