Review: Animal Crossing

If you haven’t heard of it, you’ve been hiding under a rock, or you’re part of a very niche area of the internet that has somehow managed not to let anything else in. But Animal Crossing: New Horizons — the fifth installment of Nintendo’s hit game series — has taken over both the internet and our time. 

The game mechanics are remarkably simple. Players are tasked with building up a deserted island from nothing, filling it with homes and villagers and stores and visually-appealing attractions. This is accomplished by crafting tools, chopping down trees, picking up weeds, fishing, catching bugs, and collecting objects that fall from the sky. Going off of nothing but its basic description, Animal Crossing sounds awfully boring. 

Yet players seem to be physically unable to put it down. A Forbes report found that Animal Crossing is “dominating” Twitter conversations, causing a 71% rise in video game-related Tweets since its release. People have written pieces about the “dark side” of what seems to be a relentless cheery and colorful game. Others are hailing the game as the savior of quarantine, the greatly-needed break from the chaos of our world. 

I do love how bright and cheerful the game is, with everyone in your village always eager to see you. I love the ability to decorate my own house with beautiful tropical-looking flowers and elaborate rock climbing walls. I love the detail and graphics that developers clearly worked hours on. I love planting and watering my flowers, carefully planning out my garden to breed rare-colored roses and windflowers.  The only semblance of stress I felt playing the game came when I almost forgot to buy turnips from the Sunday-morning vendor on my island. 

But I can’t help but wonder why. I’m chronically in debt to a tanuki named Tom Nook. I can decorate my house, sure, but seeing as I’m stuck inside all the time, I can do that in real life. And it’s nice to design my island and flex my creativity, but I don’t understand how even after logging 140 hours of gameplay, I’m not bored of it yet. 

I think the dominant pleasure of the game derives from the ability to go at your own pace. There’s no set time limit for repaying your loans. If you want to spend an entire day building fences, then go for it. It’s relaxing and peaceful and idyllic, to have the ability to spend your day at the beach even while you’re stuck inside. Animal Crossing: New Horizons truly is a lovely escape from the world, because the world of Animal Crossing exists only to you and the friends you choose to share it with — and that means it can only move at the pace you want it to.