Animal Crossing New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons may be the talk of the town right now, but like any video game, it's not going to suit everyone's tastes, as is evidenced by a recent opinion piece over at Business Insider.

The feature, entitled "It's time to admit 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' is a dumb, boring game for children", claims that Nintendo's best-selling life sim is "frustrating, tedious, and immensely boring" while also throwing rocks at the game's UI and multiplayer modes.

The author of the piece, Jack Crosbie, goes on to state that it's not a personal attack on the world of Animal Crossing, and that he knows and respects plenty of people "who love this stupid baby game," but cannot overlook the capitalist mechanics which form the backbone of New Horizons' core gameplay loop (somewhat ironic considering the piece is on a site called 'Business Insider'):

In "Stardew Valley," at least you get to choose whether to side with the monolithic megacorporation that threatens to overwhelm the diverse and thriving small town you live in. In "Animal Crossing," you start the game as a cog in the machine, and there is no way to escape.

Now, everyone is entitled to an opinion and it would be foolish to expect every person to fully appreciate and enjoy Animal Crossing: New Horizons' charms – but Crosbie seems to admit on Twitter that the whole thing was written purely to wind up fans and earn his paycheque:

Animal Crossing New Horizons is bad

Despite Crosbie's apparent distaste for the game, Business Insider has posted other very positive features about the game, such as this one which discusses why it's the perfect tonic for the current pandemic and this one on series creator Katsuya Eguchi.

[source businessinsider.com]