Game development
On this occasion, our character will move to live on a requested island. It will through Desert Islands Settlement Program, an initiative by Tom Nook to bring remote and lost places to life. As in the 3DS game, we will be able to influence the game to a certain extent. island mapwhere our adventure will take place. After a while, we will land on the island by plane, courtesy of DodoAirlines.
the start of New Horizons It can be somewhat shocking for those who have already enjoyed previous Animal Crossing games, because we will arrive at an island where there is no town hall, no shops, no museum. Only two neighbors will accompany us at the dawn of what will become our paradise island. The days will advance, and Nook’s lineage will order us different missions. We will found the town hall, Cinnamon will come to lend us a hand, we will help Tendo and Nendo to build their business and we will decide where to place the houses of future animals that come to live with us on our island.
Once the base of the island is formed, we will continue fulfilling orders until we reach a key objectiveWhat is it draw attention to that Totakeke come to our island to play live. Once you achieve that goal, the story of the game will be completed —The story of the game is more of a tutorial, don’t be scared when the credits come out—. From this moment on, we can walk free on our islandmodify it at will and dedicate time to what you most want.
Differences between New Horizons and its predecessors
This edition of Animal Crossing has quite a few differences from previous games, which followed a very continuous line. Some of the more interesting changes are as follows:
Crafting of objects
Animal Crossing: New Horizons drinks quite a bit of Minecraft and other games that have succeeded thanks to their mechanics. However, the evolution of the franchise indicated that, at some point, we would end up with this mechanic implemented in the game. ANDn New Leaf we could already customize our objects. In Pocket Campintroduced for the first time crafting in Animal Crossing. Y This mechanic is the basis of New Horizons. For the first time, tools can be made. Y also they break with use Until now, this only happened with the axe. We can also manufacture furniture, and all kinds of objects using the recipes that our neighbors will give us and that we will receive as a message in a bottle on the beaches of our island.
terraforming
Also in New Horizons we will be able change the environment as we please. This novel function allows us to change the course of rivers, create mountains and make valleys wherever we please. However, not available from the beginning of the gamebut we will get this ability when our island gets the thumbs up from visitors.
Miles Nook
The game includes a huge list of small missions that we must complete. In exchange, we will be given Nook Miles, which are still redeemable points. We can exchange them for a multitude of objects in the town hall of our island.
wild islands
Making use of the Miles Nook, you can hire DodoAirlines to be released on a desert island. The islands are procedurally generated, so you can never return to a specific one once you leave. There are islands of all types. Most of the islands will be extremely boring, but on the other hand, in others you will find exotic species of fish or insects, minerals with which to produce quality tools or even the dreaded island of scorpions, which is the terror of many players of this title .
Since version 2.0, we can also visit the Captain’s Islands, paying the same amount of Miles to the turtle to take us rowing. This character, Captain, is known in previous installments for having great skill with vehicles, since we have seen him driving taxis, boats and even a bus.
there is no mayor
Tortimer had always been the Mayor of Animal Crossing. At the time, it was rumored that the old man had passed away. However, Nintendo wanted to clear up the doubts by making it clear that the poor man is still among us, only that is enjoying a well-deserved retirement. Instead, we’ll have the ‘Insular Manager’, who will be the first player who moved to the island. He will have the power to move real estate from site and take important decisions on the island. The rest of the human players will also be considered ‘Original Insulans’, but they will not have as much decision-making power.
home customization
Taking example of Happy Home Designerthe player can now order your house in a very comfortable way from a bird’s-eye view, with access to the entire object drawer.
Rearrangement of buildings
In New Leaf could you do Public Works —which you paid for yourself out of your own pocket—, and on this occasion, in addition to this, you can move any building. Thanks to this, you can create streets with neighbors, make your own commercial area or practically whatever comes to mind.
nook store
There is a negative point in all these changes. Tendo and Nendo had already shown some expertise in the business world. But they don’t even reach the sole of his father’s shoes. While in the previous game we could unlock a three-story store, with a luxury item shop integrated, this time, we have to settle for a slightly more humble business. However, players are still waiting for Nintendo to update the game and make a new expansion of the title.
Multiplayer game in New Horizons
As was the case in all previous versions of Animal Crossing, New Horizons allows the local and online game between multiple players.
Local multiplayer with a single match
From two to four islanders that coexist in the same game can play at the same time using a Joy-Con or an independent controller each. Its Tand cooperative mode You will have a main player (who has access to your backpack) and one or more secondary players. Roles can be swapped at any time. East mode co op it is very useful for farm or make money during the first hours of play.
Local multiplayer between consoles
Making use of the wireless connection of the nintendo switchh, you can visit your friends’ islands as long as you stay with them and their consoles. For this mode, no Nintendo Switch Online subscription required
Online Multiplayer
Dodo Airlines can take us to the island of any friend or relative as long as both of you have a active Nintendo Switch Online membership. Thus, you can live all kinds of adventures as a couple or in a group. The multiplayer of New Horizons is complemented by thepp for Nintendo Switch Online mobileswhich integrates its own text chatvoice chat and also allows us to manage our list of best friends (That they will have permission to come to our island without asking for express permission, or even cut down and take some of our objects that we have lying around the island).
New Horizons Bonus Content
Content Animal Crossing: New Horizons it has been evolving especially during the first year of the game’s life. The improvements were gradually introduced. This allowed players to ration the game to a certain extent, balancing the online game and preventing a few players from taking too much advantage and doing spoilers to the rest of the players during the first weeks. Nintendo apparently had no plans to continue expanding the game past the first year, but recently we’ve seen new base game updates, which invites us to think that the game could receive some more improvement in the future. Also added a new Paid DLCas we will see in the following lines.
Nook Link
only if you have nintendo switch onlineyou can link your game with the nooklink appintegrated within the app Nintendo Switch Online for mobile devices. From here you can consult data on the island, such as the price of turnips, manage your friends or even see the catalog of objects that we have been unlocking.
Happy Home Paradise. The first DLC of Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The previous version, New Leaf was the first Animal Crossing to have a DLC. New Horizons has followed the same path. On November 3, 2021, the base game had a free update to version 2.0. New objects, new characters and some extra mechanics were added. A couple of days later it arrived Happy Home Paradise, an Paid DLC who wears the mechanics of Happy Home Designer to this new title on Nintendo Switch.
The DLC presents us with a vacation agency called Archipiélago Paraíso. The person in charge of it, Nuria, will invite us to work with her to build houses for clients. As a general rule, the clients are usually characters that we already know from the base game, and here they will tell us about their intimacies, which we will have to understand and decipher to find the perfect house for those tenants. The orders of Happy Home Paradise they are really simple, and we can get more or less complicated depending on how inspired we are. Part of the fun of the DLC is take pictures and share designs with other players, in order to get feedback and always find new fun and creative ideas.
Yes indeed, the DLC is not entirely separate from the base game. It meshes very well, and, in fact, you can keep some of the recipes that you get in Archipiélagos Paraíso and use them on the island or inside your house.
Finally, this added can be obtained in two different ways. You can buy the DLC directly from the Nintendo eShop, where this extra content will be linked to your account forever. And on the other hand, you can purchase a Nintendo Switch Online membership + Expansion Pack, which includes the DLC for free for one yearwhere you can also access Nintendo 64 and SEGA Megadrive games.
