I think it was Sam Beckett – the playwright, not the body-hopping scientist – who once said you can learn just as much about a city from your first day there as you can your first three months. I’m not sure how much you can say about an all-new Animal Crossing from just an hour spent in its company – these are games for – but between that and everything from today’s Direct I can certainly try. This is a gentle upgrade for Nintendo’s life-sim series, but one that brings more structure to your life while streamlining many other elements.
You start at a check-in for Nook Inc’s travel company – that company logo deliciously using Nintendo’s own logotype – with Timmy and Tommy Nook manning the desk as you set out on your package holiday. There you’re presented with the question – hypothetical, it must be said – of, if limited to the essentials, you’d rather have food, a lamp or something to kill time with, before you’re presented with more material matters such as choosing whether you want to play in the northern hemisphere or southern hemisphere – which determines what seasons bring what weather – and the initial layout of your island.
The options when it comes to your own avatar are still fairly limited, and while features are now no longer locked to gender it seems the bulk of the customisation will come later in the game. Having picked an avatar you’re then off to the island itself, with two other villagers in tow (this seems to be randomly generated – in my particular session I was paired up with Mira, a superhero rabbit, and Biff, a bodybuilding hippo).
When you get to the island itself, New Horizon’s own particular flavour becomes much stronger. You start your life in the wilds, essentially, the island home to only untamed flora and fauna as you and the other holiday-goers gallivant around amongst the weeds. You then choose where to pitch your tent – and, perhaps more importantly, advise those other holiday-goers where they pitch theirs. It’s an important new kink of New Horizons, as you can now determine where other animals live in your world – and what animals get to join you on the island, as they drift through as guests awaiting your invite for them to become full residents.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Trailer – Nintendo Direct – 25 Minutes of Gameplay Watch on YouTube
Once they’ve pitched their tents, another aspect of New Horizons comes into focus. Here, everyone starts out from scratch and in primitive tents that are slowly upgraded over time. You’re no longer an mayoral impostor in an already-established village that you imprint your will and creativity on – here, you’re crafting that space very much from scratch in tandem with those other animals. It’s tempting to say you’re in control, but of course we know that’s never the case in Animal Crossing as there’s someone else everyone must answer to.