PAX East 2020 is now in full swing, and the event has given us a generous helping of fresh Animal Crossing: New Horizons information thanks to the fact that a playable demo is available on the show floor.
Our friends over at US Gamer have pulled together some info on the PAX East build of the game, and have reported the following new gameplay details:
Kicks the Shunk's store has new items
Kicks the Skunk now sells bags and other accessories, as well as shoes. Thanks to an off-screen photo taken at PAX East and shared on Reddit by user Sparr126da, we can see that Kicks peddles items like messenger bags, backpacks, purses, aerobics leggings, and more.
You can fish for new animals, including a snapping turtle
You can toggle the camera so it looks more like the GameCube version (thanks, GameXplain)
This is one of the coolest things people have found in the demo. By clicking the right-hand analogue stick, you can get a more extreme top-down view of the action, not unlike how it was in the GameCube version of the game. The interesting bit of the video below happens at the 6-minute mark.
Your phone case can be customised
It looks like you can buy a new case for you phone, which should be interesting!
You can place 'welcome' mats by your front door
Make everyone feel welcome with these attractive mats.
Face painting and gender are new customisation options
Message bottles make a return, and you can attach items to them
Blathers requires at least 15 items before he will officially open the island's museum
You won't be looking at a mostly empty room, at least...
We'll more information to this post as it happens.
[source usgamer.net]
Comments (64)
This has always looked great but the more I see of it the more it is beginning to look absolutely perfect.
Can't wait.
@Ooccoo_Jr I can wait lol
There is something difficult for me to describe, but there is a really beautiful post-processing graphical effect that really make the game pop. I think it's the lighting effect.
I still curious about Saving the game and Question before loading the game.
@ballistic90 I know what you mean. It reminds me of the Links Awakening remake a little bit.
@mist It's a game with Anthropomorphic animals but yet you draw the line at multiple gender expressions outside of an outdated binary? The cognitive dissonance is strong in this one haha
@mist booOoooo transphobic go play borderlands
The camera bit is something I was really hoping for.
Great news about not having gender options, the game has a capitalist raccoon, an annoying mole and the man, the myth, the legend Beardo so being able to create a character that represents everyone is a massive step in the right direction. Well played Nintendo, they don’t often get this stuff right but fair play to them.
@mist It is just male or female. However, from what I've seen everyone has the option of all eye styles, hair styles, and clothing. So technically anyone can look like any gender or any combination thereof. Also gender can apparently be changed at any time. Is that going to be too much "woke" for you to handle?
To be honest, I was hopeful for a 45 degree camera swivel. This other camera is still something I never had before so I should be happy. I just don't like the idea that all of the game faces the same direction.
@alpacatears
But you are either a man or a woman (or in very rare cases both). 🤷♂️
Apparently there are people, who think they are animals or tables or something, but in reality, they are not. 🤫
@MrBlacky Come on, such a straw man argument there. It’s always with this imaginary threat of people identifying as ‘insert object here’ when in reality, it’s just humans like you or me who struggle to be accepted for who they are.
Anybody think there's any chance of this game actually getting something to do along the lines of minigames found in Mario Party or something?
My kids and I were discussing the 4 player coach co-op yesterday and while it would be cool to all play together there really isn't anything to "play" in AC is there? I think ACNL got the island survival game from AC:aF in the "Welcome amiibo" update. We own AC:aF but we never played it enough to actually unlock that island b/c AC:aF is a stupid broken mess. Btu at least it was a game. Would be nice if they imported a similar smaller scale lame board game into ACNH. They let you travel to islands on the plane, every island could be it's own minigame. Not asking for COD or GTA, just a hill for all the characters to roll down, see who gets to the bottom first, winner gets some bells. That seems like something they would do in that game world.
@MrBlacky this is the dumbest stock argument out there. I like how you think you are breaking it down in easy to understand terms, but in actuality you are completely lost at sea in an issue that is too complex for you understand and empathize with
@rjejr
You're still trying to find a purpose to AC. There isn't one, except the building of the community and living the life there. You are basically a god making your world the way you want it, even more so in this version. At the same time you are also a bit of a slave doing favours to the inhabitants who often seem incapable of living without you. Which is probably good job security for a god.
@Crockin
Alrighty then. May I ask what you are? Man? Woman? Dog? Stone? God?
"You can toggle the camera so it looks more like the GameCube version" THIS. I've only played the GameCube episode and I didn't really like the "cylinder" look of the map in the next versions. I guess you get used to everything and this is just a detail but I love not seeing what's in the background, I prefer imagining it.
@MrBlacky lol wise philosopher. How do I answer such a riddle? You've bested me with logic.
Joking aside you are an idiot, and I identify however I see fit. It's not about rigid absolutes, it's about empathy and acceptance.
So many woke people stinking up the comments sections here these days.
@andywitmyer just lookin out for my people 🙃
@Crockin
Now that you've said this, I strongly believe, I'm a 14 year old girl who desperately wants her first time to be as soon as possible.
Nothing wrong or unacceptable with that, or is it? 🥰
That little baby holding the tools is TOO CUTE :3
@MrBlacky Kid, please log off.
@MrBlacky sure, whatever the hell you want. I think you're starting to get it ☺️
@Yorumi "The game is primarily about life experiences."
I'm 54 years old, I've owned video games going to back pong and those handheld sports games since I was a kid and teen, the only life experience I ever had is videogames. I think I'm also part of the "Boobtube" generation.
@k8sMum "You are basically a god making your world the way you want it,"
I want my world to have games. But I think you were write the second time, you aren't a god, you're a slave. Well actually that's insulting, an indentured servant. For real, they may as well call these AC games "Indentured Servitude". For real.
Thanks for the feedback you two. Really makes me wonder why people complained about AC:aF if that's what the main AC games are like, that game had all the boredom they could possibly want, plus all of the adorableness of AC.
The thing that made me think about getting ACNH, well besides there is seriously nothing else new for me to play after I finally quit Gems of War after over 300 straight days and 500 hours, (blame me for no Nintneod Direct), is the museum. That's it, the museum looked cool.
I asked my kids yesterday if they wanted to play it, b/c if they did I wasn't getting it b/c we'd fight over the island too much, boys will be boys, but they said they'd visit mine. Which made us wonder, what do we do when they visit? So I understand the gist of this game is wasting an hour a day watching cute paint dry, but w/ 4 player couch co-op what do we do?
If we can compete to see who can catch the biggest or most fish in a tournament that would be cool, but it always looks to me like fishing is a single player experience, even the tournaments.
So I'll get it, and after the museum is up and running and full of stuff they'll come visit. But I have a feeling it will be a 1 time occurrence. Maybe twice if they have a cool fireworks display for the 4th of July, my family likes fireworks.
@Kirby_Girl
No, thank you, grandma.
@MrBlacky @Crockin Can you exchange e-mail addresses and take this crap argument elsewhere?
@frabbit no
@MrBlacky You're being horribly inappropriate. This isn't the forum for this type of stuff at all. This is a website about games. Go to 4chan or somewhere if you want to continue with the incendiary views.
Never expected a tumblr gender discussion here in NL!
oh well, it's an animal crossing article, so it's almost tumblr, am I right...
Btw, whoever is being transphobic by any means, stfu and let people be.
I started looking at some of the screencaps of the game above and they are honestly gorgeous. I wasn't expecting it to be so polished. Can't wait to see it on my tv
Really interested in multiplayer - no splitscreen looks challenging. Split screen like in Lego would be nice but what I've seen suggests you all have to behave to and stay very close together.
@frabbit 🤷♀️
@MrBlacky lol I am!
@MrBlacky others agree. Log off or take your nonsense elsewhere.
@MrBlacky Did you just type out a ‘typo’ on purpose? Lmao you can’t pretend to get homophobic and transphobic mixed up via text, that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen 😂
Everyone is replying to people I’ve already blocked it seems 😆
Kicks the ... Shunk?
@frabbit Thanks for saying what we're all thinking 😂
Guys can you go and argue on reddit or something so we can talk about the cute animal game?
I have a feeling we wouldn't have these discussions if people stopped freaking out over customization options for a fictional avatar in a game. Those are usually the ones that start the discussions.
Anyway, guys could wear dresses no problem in New Leaf, and Pocket Camp already let you set your gender (though the eye options were still locked afaik), so I don't really see the issue here.
@MrBlacky
Um....
Please be careful before typing comments here.
@rjejr
Animal Crossing is basically NOT a Competitive game.
It's like The Sims / MySims with open ending and you can continue daily activities as long as you want.
The minigames from latest update on ACNL was only cherry on top.
Oh, btw. I do have Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival several weeks ago and it wasn't really bad after all since i have some Animal Crossing Amiibo and i can play SOLO with just my Amiibo. Whoever win (Player 1 or 2 or 3 or 4) doesn't matter for me since i play the game alone.
@Anti-Matter I should have just asked you, this is your type of game.
Good point about the non-competitiveness of AC, I should have been thinking of something more co-op to do. Like a jigsaw puzzle. Or we all have to catch as many fish as we can but it doesn't show the individual number, just the total. Though I suppose that's still competitive against the game, just not each other. Maybe we can all just tour the museum together, sort of like real life? Though it looks small inside, hope we can all fit.
1 big problem I had w/ AC:aF was there was 4 of us, but we only had 3 amiibo. The game does let you play 4 player, the person w/o an amiibo gets an in game character, but, and this is a BIG BUT, that person couldn't win, their character didn't get the daily earnings, or coudlnt' get stars, whatever it was was broken. Since you own the game play it 4 player w/ 3 amiibo and the 4th player uses an in game character. You'll see pretty quickly that the in game character can't win. That's broken.
We actually own 9 AC amiibo now but we also own Super Mario Party on Switch. Not sure if you have that game but with 4 people it's just way more fun than AC:aF and nobody will ever convince me otherwise. The river challenge, rowing down the river to get to minigames, is the best part.
@andywitmyer thank you. I wish I could do more than "heart" that comment one time. Folks really believe in their keyboard activism... 🤢
This game just keeps looking better and better. I am actually super excited about being able to tilt the camera. Took a long time for me to get over the perspective shift from Animal Crossing to Wide World. I've reserved a physical copy and bought a digital copy, the physical being for my Switch light, the digital being for the family's Switch. I may have bought the Switch light just so I could have my own Island and play local wireless coop with my wife/daughters. We are also probably getting another switch and copy of the game for my son as a Birthday present. Needless to say, we are big fans of the games, and love playing together.
@rjejr
Anti is right: there's no winning or losing an AC game. There's just the building of a community. I never played the amiibo festival. I just never got into amiibos that much. I generally play by myself. Tho my grandson used to visit my NL village and cut down all my fruit trees. That can't happen anymore, at least. The kid was axe crazy.
The museum in NH looks pretty amazing compared to last iterations
Like many games, one either loves it or hates it. I see myself more as a benevolent dictator rather than an indentured servant. There is lots to do, just not in a competitive sense.
And yeah: one can hear troll, troll, troll your boat playing in the background of some of the posts.
@Yorumi
That's one of the best synopsis of Animal Crossing games ever. It's amazing how involved we can get into our AC world. I hate screenshots taken in winter and the character is wearing short sleeves! Put a warm jumper on!
@Yorumi Thanks for all of that, I did read it all and it does explain things more than I already guessed.
Guess I should have been more clear in my question. I know that's the meat of the game. I've played a few free mobile games that do basically the same thing, the Skylanders one kept me busy for about a month, but that was all free, not $60. No wait, wrong topic.
I'm buying this to sit and relax after dinner. It may be a stereotype that fat old guys go into a food coma after dinner, but we do. So I get all of that peaceful blissful time killing stuff, and I'm looking forward to the change of seasons b/c I like holidays. Heck I used Home on PS3 just b/c they really did it up at Christmas.
But my question was just about the mutliplayer. The game advertises 4 player couch co-op, 1 Joycon each. You hit left on the D-pad to change the leader. What do WE do? I know what I do sitting alone in the dark. What reason is there for couch co-op? Playing follow the leader would get old after 30 seconds.
I guess as Anitmatter pointed out I don't play enough Sim games to get the whole social aspect. I don't even have NO, not even sure how this will work w/o it, hoping it does. If not I'll buy the family plan. Not buying the game digitally for $60 for a free 7 day trial though. I'm pre-ordering it on Best Buy w/ my $5 reward and getting another $10 reward, so sort of like getting the game for $45. If I'm bored after a month I figure I can trade it back in for $25 or so, so it's a $20 monthly rental.
Who knows, maybe I'll get online and come visit you all.
@rjejr
Forget to mention there are good fireworks shows!
Out of curiosity, I wonder if the animals will use "he" or "she" when referring to your character? Does Nintendo get around this by awkwardly avoiding any third-person pronouns or gender specific terms in the text? Or is this a customization option?
@k8sMum Great story about the grandkid and axe, I can envision it as a children's book.
It does still bother me though that my kids and I have to share an island when we each have our own accounts. Seriously if my kids wanted to play this I just wouldn't buy it. The game may not have competition but brothers do. If Nintneod doesn't want any competition in the game then each "Account" should have it's own island. Just seems like a nasty way for Ntinedo to sell more Switch Lites. Sorry, but it bothers me. I already went through that w/ SSB4 on Wii U, shared save file.
Thanks for the note on the fireworks. Have you seen these drones?
Oh, BTW, looks like you added that comment to @Yorumi in an edit as it wasn't in my email. When you add an @ into an edit it doesn't send a notification email. Unless they've changed it, it never did for me. So look up Yorumi, #56 if you haven't blocked a few folks.
I don't understand why people get bothered by what is different from most. I am proud to be a fan of a company that looks a little more at people than others.
@Yorumi "and sort of to what you're saying don't really see the point."
I probably wouldn't even be asking about it but they seemed to point it out in the Direct. It was a small point, not a big selling point, but why even mention it if it doesn't serve a purpose?
I know some of the older AC games shared an island, but they also did NOT have accounts. Well at least the Gamecube didn't. And handheld games and consoles have always been horrible at sharing. Some of those games don't even have multiple save options, it's all geared towards 1 player.
So w/ the Switch having accounts, and separate online for people who don't pay for Family accounts, each account should get to play the game alone. As you said, that's the way it's intended.
Worse case, I play alone, wasn't really a selling point, more just me wondering about it so I asked. And thanks for answering.
@Yorumi
That's one of the best synopsis of Animal Crossing games ever. It's amazing how involved we can get into our AC world. I hate screenshots taken in winter and the character is wearing short sleeves! Put a warm jumper on!
@rjejr
I accidentally deleted my post...hope it comes thru in your email! I'm in idiot mode today
@Yorumi
Gaming then - buy a box, get a game on disc and a memory card
Gaming now - buy a box w/ a code and need to buy a big enough memory card to download the game
I didn't know that about AC on GC thanks. I'd be ok w/ swapping micro SD cards on Switch. Or USB thumbdrives. Not ideal by any means but it's something.
Who knows, maybe they'll sell us separate save files for $15 each.
"I can only guess mutliplayer exists sort of because they just kind of said why not."
Local multiplayer exists so they can sell more Switch Lite to make more islands and more copies of the game so 2 people can play it at once. Yes, I am that jaded.
@k8sMum I had no idea what post you were talking about, since it was deleted, but yeah it's in my inbox, reading it now.
Wow, now I feel bad, rarely see you so wound up. Sorry for posting about my negativity towards the game. But you already knew why I was upset, just b/c I'm always upset, just who I am.
OK, time to focus on the positives, a game we can all sit back and enjoy w/o any competitive stress. Count me in. And I better go order it now before I forget.
@rjejr
Yeah, it may have been a Freudian slip my deleting that post. First one in 10 years here, heheh.
Don't feel bad about your negativity about the situation. I've posted elsewhere here about my feeling on ninty's nonsense re: ACNH.
We just need to keep calm and carry on. I will be expecting to see you online one day.
@k8sMum Game is ordered. If I actually play it, go online, and have an island worth visiting, I'll drop you a line on here.
@Yorumi That sounds pretty cool actually. I don't know about you but I had several GameCube memory cards, several Dreamcast VMU and half a dozen PS1 cards, so I'm no stranger to switching them in and out. We'll see how it goes, it's ordered and they said it'd be here by release day.
@rjejr
I want to add.
In ACNL, if you have two copies of the games and two 3DS, you can exchange the native fruits from different town, adopting the moving out animal villagers so they can stay at your town and by visiting other town for 100 times, you will unlock new remodelling for your train station.
Sounds interesting, eh ?
@Anti-Matter Sounds more like a cheat code, up, down, up down, left, right, left, right, A B Start.
@Yorumi Gave the Gamecube to my sister when here kids were little. Kept most of the memory cards, they're still in the Wii w/ the fake Wavebird wireless dongles. Hope you enjoy it too.
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