{"id":23089,"date":"2020-04-23T15:06:38","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T05:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23089"},"modified":"2020-04-23T15:07:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T05:07:07","slug":"animal-crossing-new-horizons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23089","title":{"rendered":"Animal Crossing: New Horizons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"acnewhorizonsposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Developer:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Nintendo EPD
\nPublisher:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Nintendo
\nPlatform:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Nintendo Switch<\/p>\n

E<\/span>very now and then, a game comes along at just the right time, offering just the right type of gameplay that clicks with audiences, that it becomes something more than just a video game.\u00a0 It transcends the medium and becomes part of the cultural zeitgeist of the time.\u00a0 Think of Pac-Man<\/em> arriving\u00a0in America at the height of the popularity of arcades in the Eighties.\u00a0 Or\u00a0Nintendo single-handedly revitalising the home console market with\u00a0Super Mario Bros.<\/em> on the Nintendo Entertainment System.<\/p>\n

In 2020, during a historic and world changing pandemic that has forced the entire planet into self-imposed lockdown, Nintendo had the\u00a0serendipitous\u00a0good fortune of releasing\u00a0Animal Crossing:\u00a0New Horizons\u00a0<\/em>in March, just as the severity of COVID-19 restrictions really kicked into gear.\u00a0\u00a0Animal Crossing<\/em> is famous for its relaxed, stress free gameplay where players are encouraged to while away long hours fishing, catching bugs and socialising with their friends.\u00a0 It was the perfect<\/em> game for this moment in time.<\/p>\n

This latest version is a substantial iteration on the Animal Crossing<\/em> formula, incorporating new customisation options for\u00a0clothing and furniture, first seen in\u00a0the 3DS spin-off\u00a0Happy Home Designer<\/em>.\u00a0 Thanks to the ability to scan in your own textures, images and artwork, its never been easier to make an island or a home that is truly your own.\u00a0 It has also turned this game into a living, breathing meme factory as its massive online community has produced all kinds of satirical recreations of real and pop culture locations.<\/p>\n

It’s a game that can be played for dozens, if not hundreds of hours.\u00a0 For the uninitiated,\u00a0Animal Crossing operates on a real time clock, changing from day to night and from weekday to weekend just as you do in real life.\u00a0 The inclusion of timed seasonal events like Bunny Day and Earth Day throughout the year seem likely to keep\u00a0Animal Crossing<\/em> at the forefront of the video game landscape for months, if not the rest of 2020.<\/p>\n

\"animalcrossingnewhorizons\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After putting in nearly sixty hours in the first month since the game’s release, I’ve come to really admire the meticulously designed play mechanics and gameplay loop that make\u00a0Animal Crossing<\/em> so successful at luring players back day after day.\u00a0\u00a0New Horizons<\/em> starts at a much slower and more methodical pace than its predecessors which threw you into a populated and fully constructed community from the get go.\u00a0 In\u00a0New Horizons<\/em> you literally start on an island that is nothing but tress and stone with just two companions.\u00a0 Once the game teaches you about crafting and resource gathering in those first 2-3 days it gradually introduces new concepts to the player over the next week or so.\u00a0 This includes the various collectables in the game (fruit, fossils, bugs, fish) and items you can spend with your hard earned money (furniture, clothing, houses in the neighbourhood to accommodate new residents).\u00a0 All of this is funnelled through the game’s longstanding custodian Tom Nook, a soft spoken raccoon who has a ferocious business acumen that keeps the player almost permanently swamped in debt.<\/p>\n

The secret sauce that makes the\u00a0Animal Crossing\u00a0<\/em>formula sing is that it gives the players a\u00a0ton of goals to achieve (attracting fun residents, expanding your home, finding rare collectibles) but it\u00a0leaves it completely up to the player which tasks they want to pursue.\u00a0 The player is never, ever penalized in the game.\u00a0 If you change your mind about where you want your home, you can relocate.\u00a0 If you decide you don’t like the features of your island you can customize it by demolishing hills or reshaping entire rivers and waterways.<\/p>\n

It is also a game that exudes charm with its colourful, minimalist art style and cleverly written dialogue for the residents who can be anything from exercised-obsessed rhinos to neurotic night owls.<\/p>\n

In a series that has existed for nearly two decades,\u00a0New Horizons<\/em> is the definitive game in the series.\u00a0 It has never been bigger, more customizable or easier to share with friends.\u00a0 There are small annoyances that emerge once you put in dozens of hours of playtime (the crafting and online are especially cumbersome) but these pale in comparison with the overall product.\u00a0 In an absolutely disasterous and gloomy year that has delivered relentlessly bad news day after day, its nice to have a game like\u00a0Animal Crossing<\/em> to distract from our troubles.\u00a0 It is an absolutely wonderful, crowd pleaser of a game and couldn’t have come at a better time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Nook is back and he’s invited players to visit his tropical island and make it their new home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1733,441,2618],"class_list":["post-23089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-animal-crossing","tag-nintendo","tag-nintendo-switch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23089"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23101,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23089\/revisions\/23101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}