[Análisis] Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch – iGamesNews

Animal Crossing is one of the middle-aged sagas in the universe of Nintendo, which has managed to endure over time, achieving in the process an immense number of fans eagerly awaiting the news that the new titles may offer, always created with a carefree atmosphere and very particular for what we are used to seeing from other franchises.

The arrival of Animal Crossing: New Horizons the market represents a new impetus for those who dedicated hundreds or even thousands of hours to their towns and neighbors past in the deliveries of other platforms such as GameCube or 3DS. This new adventure comes into our hands promising an immense amount of changes and improvements that are capable of satisfying its users. Do you think he has succeeded?

An island "not so deserted anymore"

Once we start the game for the first time, we will meet the little ones Tendo and Nendo, also known as the assistants of the well-known businessman Tom nook. They will be the ones to carry this business forward, thanks to the support of their mentor and our collaboration. Our role in the entire plot will be to manage from small touches to large constructions, without forgetting that in the future we will even have the possibility of modifying the terrain.

It all starts on a desert island where, along with two other participants from the Settlement PlanWe will go live for a long time with the intention of creating new communities. The initial possibilities are too few to ensure slow, but safe learning, so that our new life does not overwhelm us with an ocean of possibilities. Whether it's picking fruit, choosing where our neighbors will live, or even delivering local wildlife to Tom Nook, everything will have a staggered advance with what the feeling of progression becomes constant, without leaving us at any time with the idea that we left something pending.

The addition of the DIY table leaves us an opening so that not everything works through the sale, in this way we can collect materials and creating our own tools, improving them over time, and even manufacturing all kinds of furniture and decoration. Although in almost all occasions DIY is optional, throughout the game we will see how recipes have a lot of value for the entertainment of the game, allowing us to create almost any object that we can imagine, although with its due cost of materials.

The absolute customization

The Animal Crossing saga has always been based on simulation of life, although from the most idyllic perspective possible, with the addition that all our acquaintances who are not other players, will be different humanized animals with their own personalities, tastes, desires and fears. All this taken together causes us to have only one concern … Capture them all! At least if we refer to insects, fish and fossils, although this is not enough, since getting all the customizable options will take us at least a year of play without using the "bad arts".

Thanks to Nookophone, we will be able to investigate all the creatures that it is possible to obtain, in addition to data on them such as the time of year or the conditions that must be met for their appearance, among other things. The functions that this device gives us are varied and very useful but, of the most used will be those of the Miles Nook and the different DIY recipes that we will obtain in numerous ways, such as the classic bottles found on the coast, maintaining a good relationship with our neighbors or, a method as simple as moving forward in the plot.

This installment was presented with the promise of allowing us to do whatever we wanted, removing the previously annoying restrictions. Perhaps a neighbor's house was in a place that we did not like, it could be the case that no model of the game could conquer us, although there was always one that caught our attention but, ultimately, Animal Crossing: New horizons It delivers all the tools that we already had, further improving its capabilities and giving us the possibility to touch up absolutely everything what we want to change at our complete choice.

New Horizons beyond the video game

I have always thought that some games stand out more for their own advances and their so particular genres than for a comparative stick, although, unfortunately, it is necessary to value them based on others, and this installment is the living example. From the beginning you can see the simplicity of the plot, we just have to pay some debts that work based on what we request from Tom Nook, which we can solve through the classic currency known as Berries

Far from what those less familiar with the beginnings of this saga may think, a simple story like the one it unfolds allows us to go at the rate we want, since not even the debts that I mentioned before have an expiration date. We can spend two hours a day fishing for fish, while we clean up our home and its surroundings as it strikes us most. The speed at which we advance depends almost entirely on how we decide to live our own history on the island, also valuing the daily events that require their time, in addition, having 383 neighbors from launch and having so many possibilities of choice on the islands, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, that we have the same experience twice.

Perhaps the highlight that Animal Crossing: New Horizons can bring us is the possibility of grabbing the remote, or the Nintendo Switch, and enjoy a bit of tranquility in a utopia where problems always have a solution, in addition to which they usually lead to a beautiful friendship. It may even be that the strange mouse that you helped at the time wants to see you again and decides to move to the island, although it is in your hands if you really want me to accompany you or, on the contrary, stay on a passing visit, completely depends of your decision.

Art, soundtrack, and multiplayer

The improvement of artistic level that this title has given represents a before and after at the barrier that separated him from Nintendo's biggest, despite the fact that he already had a fan base large enough to be considered one of them. In this installment we will not see realistic landscapes, but an artistic touch more similar to a middle ground between painting and caricature

Curiously, the soundtrack has also managed to evolve while maintaining its usual line. It may sound more and more repetitive but, it is perceived how everything has been created so that we let ourselves go with the passing of the hours. The environment that music creates around us, except in very specific moments, always consists of a calm and melodic rhythm, without big leaps that take us out of the state in which it places us once we forget everything else.

Despite the fact that it has not been possible to investigate much more than what we know in the multiplayer options, we do know the full capacity that it gives us in terms of modification, being much more limited on the platform itself than through online mode, where we can move with total freedom and participate together in unlimited activities. The main point to highlight would be the possibility of share an island with other users who share the same console, although that advantage may also prevent us from playing separately.

conclusion

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons there will always be something new to do, whether you are a new or experienced player, the title will not overwhelm you, since at all times you will have at your disposal a large number of guides and information about the environment around you and, the more you advance, the more you will enjoy searching for the hundreds of creatures that haunt the islands throughout the different seasons of the year.

Since you advance just a few days, you realize that the experience you will live in this installment has nothing to envy to the previous ones, being by far the one that gives the player the most possibilities. We could play for an hour a day and still need several years before our options start to run out.

Start from scratch on a desert island, collect resources to help its growth, form a small community, progress to make everything the idyllic place we dream of and, when we think that there is nothing else on the horizon, millions of players will share with us his own vision of our own history. A different game that stands out in what many others do not go deep, something that, without a doubt, is a sensation that lovers of video games should experience.