Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Super Mario Update Arrives This March

Yes, of course.
But i will keep them in storage as my current island already looks beautiful without Mario stuffs.

Can't wait for the update to auto-delete on the Date That Shall Not be Named.

Wow, they waited as long as they possibly could to introduce items based on other Nintendo properties. Sigh, I miss the cool stuff I had in New Leaf.

So they're adding some furniture that was included in the previous games?

...but it's the one year anniversary of ACNH. At least try!

@ianl579 I'll admit this would be funny if it was true. lol

Umm we already knew this? I really thought there was some new tidbit of info you were gonna talk about. Even you guys have already mentioned this.

I hope they give us some more game console props. I want my game room to have more games. And overall, I hope they give us, like, a Mario themed set of items. Not just random table sized super mushrooms or power stars.

You know what would be really cool? If we could get two Mario pipes, place them anywhere on the island and actually use them!

They're hyping this up as a big update and doing it for the 1 year anniversary of the game. So if March rolls around and all this is, is the ability to buy a handful of items from the shop and call it a day - I am going to be pretty bummed out...

Wouldn't it be cool if mario made a cameo not gonna happen but it would be cool.

@Heavyarms55
Let's not kid ourselves. It's all going to be cosmetic window dressing for social media bragging rights. 🙄

And in return, Isabelle will be playable in Super Mario 3D World...

But only until 31/03/2021, also dubbed the Mariocalypse.

@Heavyarms55 The warp pipe idea would be incredible!

Can't wait for a feature that was in all the past games to come back! I bet that this next update will only feature Mario items too, starving us even more with actual substantial content the game should of had at launch!

I already a have a room in my house ready for Nintendo themed items Mario/Zelda. I’m ready!

@JR150 That's a metaphor for the entire game...

No wonder why all the Mario games are going to disappear on March 31st - all the Mario characters are moving to Animal Crossing

@NEStalgia
Not a metaphor. That IS the entire game. Seriously. The villagers repeat the same things over and over, you don't have any real objectives, and there really isn't a whole lot to do outside of catch bugs and fish. It's a nice game if you want to collect things, but really shallow in all other areas. I'm honestly curious as to how previous games were if New Horizons is this barebones with updates that only add content from previous games.

@JR150 If you have a 3Ds, it’s honestly worth playing New Leaf. It’s a step back in terms of customization and town design, but it has way more content and more to do. The graphics aren’t the best, but it’s a 3Ds game, so that’s fine.

I wonder if the Mario items, and activities will be available through normal gameplay for a limited length of time, permanently throughout the year, or permanently yearly? Limited time as in, literally activities/items that are permanently part of the game code, but a one-time special event that won't repeat.

Also, for giggles, we need that developer test triangle from Animal Forest+/Animal Crossing (NGC).

@VoidofLight
I don't have a 3DS but I have heard pretty much everyone say that New Leaf is a better game overall. If it wasn't for the lockdowns caused by the pandemic, I think everyone would've been more critical of the game from the start. But instead, everyone praised it as the best game ever.

But now that the "honeymoon" period has worn off, everyone can see what New Horizons actually is. A half-baked game with content that is drip-fed just to keep anyone playing. Even Fire Emblem Three Houses had more things you could do--and that's a game about war and death!

Really hope that Splatoon 3 doesn't adopt this style of updates, given that the AC and Splatoon devs are the same people...

@JR150 were you there for the barbones splatoon 1.5 launch that drip fed weapons you had on wiiu already years ago for the better part of a year? Yep, same devs....

But yeah, New Leaf had so much more content. This always starts a flame war between the acnh fans and critics, but there are certain things that acnh did better. Decorating your island with furniture was a requested feature. Previously you could only decorate the inside of your house. QoL features like animals not arbitrarily leaving if real life prevents playing for a while are nice. But otherwise, most of the actual life sim was completely removed from acnh and it was replaced with a decorating collect a thon with repetitive mobile gatcha systems for everything, sans the actual payments.

Characters had way more dialogue, more events, more video game, more sim. Characters could actually be rude or dislike gifts. There were more stores in a dedicated shopping area. Timmy's had 5 upgrade levels. Every vendor had a store rather than a menu item when using furniture or a carpet in the plaza. And they're was no farming craft ingredients, just buying which could be a pro or con depending on preference.

Acnh made 5 steps forward but at the cost of taking 7 steps back. There no life sim in the life sim anymore. And the fact that it focuses so much on custom designs for clothing and such, plus Doug Bowser's comment about the appeal being user generated content, and it does really feel like a game designed for the sole purpose of promoting itself virally through social media.

And the killer is that the strategy is working. Maybe it wouldn't have without the pandemic. But even acnl accidentally became a social media phenomenon years ago. It's just painful to watch such a hollow game get so much praise. Sure, fortnite and cod did it... But they didn't destroy a one great franchise to do it.

This is not news.

@NEStalgia
Ah, see...I didn't play Splatoon 1 on Wii U. I started with Splatoon 2. But I guess I can see the heart of Nogami's team and their style. They make simple games that can keep people coming back for a long time but it has the adverse affect of getting boring if things aren't done right.

And sadly, NH has gotten really old for me and so has Splatoon 2 (mainly because of the fact that it's annoyingly difficult to find good teams that can coordinate). They're not bad games, they've just lost my interest.

@Snatcher ; I doubt Mario would make a cameo however, DK, Fox certainly could and that would be cool

Nintendo is better this update be more substancial or we gonna have a very serious conversation(where is Brewster?

I'd actually love for them to bring back the old NES consoles to where you could play the original NES titles, like back in the Gamecube era. Would also be nice to add the City theme back again too from the Wii version. A big Animal Crossing game would give players hours and days on end to continue the game, because let's face it...after a while, it gets old and gets put away.

So Mar10 then lol

@ianl579 this makes no sense

How about a cup full of Mario themed beans to throw around?

@Heavyarms55 Mario pipes is a fantastic idea!

@JR150
Actually, i prefer ACNH than ACNL despite i like both of them.
As i have experienced with The Sims games, the building aspects was the feature i like the most from ACNH.
I don't really mind with repetitive dialogues on ACNH since other games also have repetitive dialogues. I don't buy Animal Crossing for triggering long train conversations and yada yada yada. Just imagine how annoying on ACNL to get a simple haircut, i have to answer very complicated questions and i have no idea what it will be if i didn't look the guide of makeover from Shampoodle. Just shut up the yada yada yada, make it brief i want this hairstyle and this color, done and zip the mouth.
Not to mention if you talk with Lyle, he will explain very boring long train running explanation about Feng Shui / your house rating and i have to press B button repeatedly to skip his long train running explanation. I want to zip his mouth when he want to talk like that again.

The good point from ACNH was the villagers will NOT moving out by themself. They have to get permit from me to move out. I don't even want to experience with the feeling of being lonely, the villagers moving out like from the old Animal Crossing meant to be. That's idea was very lame for me. I want to keep my favorite villagers and NOBODY is moving out without my permit. No need to feel the loneliness (duh, i don't like the idea of being lonely), no more moving out without my acknowledge, just stay forever and happily every after. And ACNH was qualified enough for what i really want.

@JR150 I don't know about everyone else, but I prefer New Horizons to New Leaf. I put over 500 hours into New Leaf over two years, and I bought a 2ds just so I could have a family member interact with my town.

In less than a year I have played almost 400 hours of New Horizons. Yes, the games are different, but what sets apart New Horizons is the customization, crafting and the terraforming. And the ability to put items outside.

With terraforming and outside items, my island has become more of a creative expression of myself than New Leaf ever did.

Don't get me wrong, both are great games. But New Horizons, in my opinion, is a better game.

Are we going to go through all this again for the 40th anniversary?

No brewster. No party...

In NL i made a room in the museum for the nintendo studf.. because face it, it is not really stylish for a room, is it... I might add some things to my Arcade in the cellar...

@Snatcher They could add a new villager into the game that is based on Yoshi.
They did in ACNL for Zelda characters.

@NEStalgia

@NEStalgia,

I think destroying the franchise is taking things a little too far, sure there are items and features missing, but as you said they have added features as well. Nintendo seem to prefer the approach of adding things over time which for me prolongs the life of the game, how else would I have played a game like new leaf, with all it's additional features for a lot less?, if that game indeed offered me more to do.

The dialogue of the villagers has always been repetitive on every game, I can remember the villagers saying the same things on Wild world, New leaf and City folk over and over, at least with this new game they do say new things I have not heard before, even now after launch, of course mixed in with the usual repeats, I guess this depends largely on how much you interact with your villagers.

As for missing items and stuff I am not sure I would ever use all of the ones in this game , let alone if there were many more, and the crafting element is a very underrated feature in my opinion, the ability to make something and give it your own personal touch is very rewarding in my book, also the ability to design your island is another massively overlooked feature, of course if you are not into doing these things then I can see your point.

The visuals are also another massive leap for the franchise and you can't simply underestimate their value to the overall package, sure the older titles were good but the immersion was never going to be the same, so many little features that to most may go unnoticed, but they are there all the same. A villager on my daughters console was watching and following a snowflake for a few minutes, it was magical to watch to be honest. All these visual flourishes and details extend to your museum, which is such an awesome area now, as is everything else in the game.

Dream address DA-0957-2799-1843

@NEStalgia

Cont...

I know people have mentioned the social media aspect of the game which is of course there, but overall it's more of a community of people than anything else, sure some want to show off their islands, but they are in the minority more than anything else. Most owners of this game wan't to make their Island as nice as possible because it's an important part of the game now, and there is a sense of personal pride involved as well.

Overall I like the full franchise of Animal crossing and have enjoyed every title with the exception of the Gamecube version, which I did not own, each as their own features and benefits as with any title, but for me this one is the best and to be honest the sales success is a refection of that, and in my opinion the game deserves every accolade it gets.

I think a major issue for the more core gamer with this latest title is they treat it as a game, when i fact it's a simulation of life,some days you have more to do than others, depending on your time or inclination. It;s not a game to be completed even though you can rush to collect things if you want, I have spent hours just running around and checking out my island, doing things on a day to day basis with no real sense of time etc.

The social aspect of this game is also overlooked, I have a lot of good friends who i visit and vice versa, my daughter and their kids also get involved and we have such a great time, just hanging out swapping items etc, checking out the progress we have made to our Islands. I know a lot complain about the online app but it's always works fine for us, the voice chat feature is great fun and even just being able to tap messages to each other much quicker is also a great feature.

Dream address DA-0957-2799-1843

@Anti-Matter,

The villagers moving out feature was broken in previous games, sometimes as you say they just left, it's much better that you get the final say so to who leaves your island.

@dugan,

Awesome game changing features which are often overlooked in the quest to point out what is missing in the game, a lot of which has merely been streamlined for a better experience.

They better be generous with it....

@johnvboy
I have discovered about Moving Out prevention in ACNL. Here is my tips.

Make sure you check all of your villagers before you get hiatus from ACNL.
If you find a villager want to move out, say No and immediately you Save the game then log out. You can do something else before log out and make sure you save the game after you finish with your activities.

From here, villagers will not moving out no matter how long you get hiatus but once you log in the game again, there will be always 1 villager in your island is planning to move out. If you find one, ask them to stay then repeat the process again if you want to get hiatus again.

So you will never losing your villagers in ACNL by doing this trick. 😉

One more thing, villager that summoned from Amiibo card will never move out no matter what interactions you did with them (i have experienced by summoning Tad from Amiibo card and he never think to move out while my other villagers that wasn't from Amiibo card keep thinking about moving out) unless if you kick them by force by invite another villager from Amiibo card when you already have 10 villagers and kick 1 unwanted villager from your island when you being asked who will be kicked out.

My island will get chock full of Yoshi eggs. Especially if they come in multiple colours.

Also hope this comes paired with a huge update for the game to add various missing features and plenty of quality of life improvements.

@Anti-Matter,

Thanks for the info, I have several Amiibo card villagers and some of them have asked to leave at some point, so not sure if this is 100% correct, perhaps you are doing something different to me.

@JR150 "Let's not kid ourselves. It's all going to be cosmetic window dressing for social media bragging rights."

So basically, Animal Crossing...

@johnvboy
The Amiibo card that i used are the returning 50 villagers from previous Animal Crossing. Still haven't tested with current ACNL villager Amiibo cards.
Don't worry, even if they want to move out, just say No, Save and Quit, and do not continue on the next day if you want to get hiatus.

Honestly, I don't understand the complaints about missing content in New Horizons, or claims that there is less to do. New Horizons does not appear to have fewer features than New Leaf, it simply has different features, in particular the ability to literally reshape your entire island from the ground up if you choose, which is a literal game changer.

Meh. It's probably going to require hours of aimlessly waiting for balloons to shoot down to get the recipes. I have enough work in my life right now.

@Heavyarms55 "Umm we already knew this? I really thought there was some new tidbit of info you were gonna talk about. Even you guys have already mentioned this."

Thanks, I was a little confused when the entire article read like a tweet somebody posted while bored of something they already posted 3 days ago but they forgot they made the same tweet yesterday. So it's about as useful as my comment. 😂

So, Mario et al aren't actually visiting the island? Why not? Nintendo doesn't have a 3D model of Mario laying around they couldn't stick in the tent on 3/10 for a day? Or, what we deserve after 31 million sales, a mini Mushroom Island to visit. Minecraft has it, why not ACNH? Even if it's just Toads, how hard would they be to render, they're practically ACNH villagers to begin with.

Too much hype, almost certainly not enough payoff. 🤷

Thought MARCH was mErch and got hype

@rjejr “too much hype, not enough payoff”

ACNH Update 101

I thought last weeks update allowed islanders to come round your house, well not so far!

@Anti-Matter I agree with you. Villagers not moving out is a huge deal for me, I couldn't even imagine having to explain to my daughters why their favorite character suddenly left.

I keep hearing the same complaints from ACNL "fans" who keep repeating the same tired arguments about how Nintendo "gutted" ACNH. They don't seem to realize a lot of the things "removed" are for the better, at least for some people. I personally wouldn't even be playing an Animal Crossing game again were it not for how much they streamlined and removed unnecessary features that only made you a slave to the game, while making what is in the game a lot more polished and just satisfying. I'm glad Nintendo does their own thing and doesn't just follow what some "fans" think they want.

@nab1 I highly, highly disagree in all honesty. Things like villagers moving out on their own, and a bunch of the older features are a part of the charm of the older games. Not to mention, the way you say “fans”, seems like your acting as if fans of the series who don’t like this game aren’t fans at all, when that’s not the case. I’d say that the fans who dislike New Horizons are just as valid as any other fan of the games. We paid 60 dollars for a game that has less content in it than a 40 dollar game. We don’t want an exact clone of new leaf, but at the same time I personally feel like some of the features that did get removed do detriment the game. For example, in past games, villagers randomly moving out helped you become more attached to your villagers in general. Now knowing that they don’t leave unless you tell them, I rarely have any reason to talk to them, or do anything with them, as I know that even if I ignore the villager, they’ll always be there.

@Yorumi not to mention as well, the previous games in the series actually did build eachother up without cutting additions actual fans of the series did like, or series staples.

@VoidofLight I respect that, but for me that was a divisive feature that no everyone enjoys, and I personally think any feature that requires you to constantly play the game and/or do certain things for the game to work "as intended" (so to speak) is restrictive and at least for some people like me it works against the game.

In general, I'd like to quote an amazing reddit comment I recently saw on the subject: "Disagreeing with their method is fine, but at least recognize that sometimes the developer is just making a different product than the one you wanted, not failing to make a good game."

@nab1 The thing is, the game isn't good. New Horizons cut a lot of content that had no need to be cut. A bunch of the content they cut actually improved the series, and should've come back. They cut NPC's, a lot of villager interactions, and a bunch of features like Tortimer's island (Which allowed you to have something to actually do in multiplayer.), the Roost, bigger house expansions, shop upgrades, etc. The game may look good graphically, and introduce quality of life improvements, but other than that it's not a superior game to what came before, mainly due to it's lack of content.

@Yorumi This AC has become weirdly contentious. Fans of the existing series seem largely disappointed with the lack of activities and content. But the people that prefer this one seem to have adopted it as the holy grail, the perfect gameplay loop. Obviously it somehow appeals to a different audience, and the preferences of that audience I simply can not understand.

From my perspective, while the old games had constant surprises and tons of engagement and lots of variety, this one feels like an empty, sterile sandbox in which to plunk down objects for the pure function of decorating things for the sake of it, and spend absurd amounts of time farming materials and praying to RNGesus for drops of the only things that are actually meaningful in the game. It's a big doll house environment. Move an object from there to here. Move an object from here to there.....it means nothing, it does nothing, it unlocks nothing, it adds nothing. You just...look at it. And you have to grind to be able to look at it.

The simulation of a functioning village just isn't present. The life sim really isn't present. There are definitely improvements, I don't like how both the old games and still to an extent this game can try to tell you to skip real life to not miss the game. I've never liked that about the series, and I'm happy you don't have to derail real life to not lose villagers. But on the other hand the villagers are cookie cutters without much function now, so if you remove one villager with one of the same personality, you really have the same villager. (though I would be depressed if I lost Apple or Pecan....) Sadly, Cole is just Rex, and Candi is just Apple....so it feels like I have Stepford clones. Even if the animals aren't going to have variety, at least give them unique dialogue. Cole has a few unique lines Rex doesn't have about his default shirt, but that's about it.

There's that baseline charm behind the game, but I just can't ever find reasons to play it. Wander around, hope for balloons to drop DIY seasonal items before the season is over. Gather seasonal materials to craft said DIY recipes. Slave over catching snowflakes and crafting one snowman attempt a day. I don't get it. I had some fun with it for a while at first, the first time you do everything and build out the house there's some fun to be had. But after that, it seems like you're just moving stuff around, there's not much content to really have fun with, just doing the same grind. With less points of interaction than prior games other than your own outdoor dollhouse.

I can see why an audience might exist. Largely that social audience. Which isn't me. But I feel like appealing to that audience ought to have been a new IP rather than effectively deleting an IP to repurpose it for a different audience than the one it had. And even as content for that new audience it feels....very....lean.

@johnvboy I know you've found a lot to do in the game, but you still haven't really explained what it is you find to do in the game though to have spent so much time on it....I mean, really, you start it up, and then do...what? You're not alone in the pool of ACNH super fans that have somehow found a way to OCD it for thousands of hours But I still don't understand what exactly you found to do for those thousands of hours! Crafting an island you like, or even seasonally decorating it, surely doesn't take that long, unless you count the wasted time waiting for random drops of recipes that shouldn't rely on random drops you have to waste that much time on. Halloween did it right. You could buy unique versions for lots of bells, or DIY the random drop. Christmas did not do it right, the only way to obtain anything was RNG. I got one - ONE - Christmas decoration via RNG. I ended up just grinding ornaments and spamming the light-up reindeer all over to keep my 5 star rating I got from halloween while removing all the pumpkins.

I know the super creative people love coming up with their own art and importing it. If you're arty, I guess that's a thing that's fun. I wouldn't know, I'm not arty. But that's not what the games were really about before. I also wouldn't buy Flipnote or Art Academy for the same reasons.

@NEStalgia I highly agree. The game feels more like a grind fest, than an actual animal crossing game. All the unique and charming things that previous games brought with their holidays and events, as well as just normal day activities are just gone. It feels like the devs forgot what animal crossing was supposed to be about, and took out the contents that make it a good game, in order to just make it a live service. I struggle to keep myself interested in New Horizons as a whole, and I really hope that they do better the next game. However, I doubt they'll do much better, since New Horizons itself sold well, showing Nintendo that this was a success, and that all future games should be like this. I guess Animal Crossing really isn't for the previous fans of the series anymore..

@NEStalgia,

There has never been tonnes of stuff to do in any of these games, they are simply not set up that way, even New Leaf was full of filler, yes there were more items, but in reality how were you going to use them all.

It's like Brewster and the hair dressing salon, you did not need either of these things in the game, I never once had my hair styled or bothered to visit the cafe to watch KK.

You and others personally are not finding enough things to do, that's not the same as having nothing to in the game., amd I also feel it's not fare of you to suggest on the whole fans of the series are not happy, as we are down to the vocal minorities again complaining on the internet.

@VoidofLight,

So does that mean because New Leaf failed to keep me interested it's not a good game?, of course not, it's just was not my thing.

@johnvboy The thing is.. that "filler" is what makes the game for most of the fans of the original games. That "filler" is content that, yes while optional, is something that adds more to the simulation aspect of the game itself. More to the relaxing part of the game. Taking that stuff out means that you're alienating the fans of the original four games, who loved these features. Who enjoyed the charm of the game, and enjoyed the characters. You might see them as just needless shops, that add nothing new to the game itself, but they make a whole difference in the matter.

@VoidofLight

People always complain certain things alienate fans with no specific evidence to back this up, who is to say these people could be like me, and did enjoy these particular features and items, but are not bothered by their lack of inclusion, as there have other things that have been added, plus the game will be also updated over time.

@Yorumi,

You will always think what you want and will always be right, it's none of your business to why somebody should like a game more than you, and I fail to see why I or anybody else for that matter should have to justify themselves to you.

You constantly come on here an complain about each and every franchise, and as for the removal of certain features it's up to the developer, if we don't like it we all know the solution.

@johnvboy I mean, clearly this thread is proof enough that the game's alienating it's original fanbase, since multiple people hold the same opinions that I do about these games.

@VoidofLight,

Well it's proof a few like minded individuals do not like certain things, but even on these these threads there are those that like the game, so not sure overall what this is evidence of.

We are once again taking the opinions of a minority, then suggesting they are a much larger group of people than we have any proof for, this is anecdotal evidence at best.

@GannonBanned I know that's how all the ACNH updates work - that mystery island was atrocious - but this is Mario. We should be getting access to the Pinna Park amusement park island from Super Mario Sunshine. Or at least the roller coaster. I want to shoot rockets in FP view w/ gyro controls. 😁

@Mountain_Man,

Totally agree, people often complain when a franchise takes the safe route and simply copies the previous game, but when a game like this adds a real game changer to the franchise with the terra forming etc, they still complain.

@rjejr oh no I agree 100%, I was commiserating, not calling you naive.

If they can bring Jack and wedding llamas to our island, they can bring a Yoshi.

Catch a cheep cheep! Find a cape feather! Let me get a Bob-Omb Battlefield Castle Painting as a canvas! Let me fly to Peach’s Castle, the chief can he working outside

@johnvboy I still have to ask though, what is it that you found unengaging about New Leaf that you now do find engaging about New Horizons? And you still haven't really identified what it is you find to do in the game. We've all given examples of what we're dissatisfied with in comparison, so specifics of what it is you do find satisfying about the new one would be a useful counter argument.

So far, I get the idea that you feel people try to gamify the game too much rather than taking it as a relaxing simulator....but it's really the contrary point most of us that criticize it are making. Our point is that a lot of the engaging simulator aspects have been removed, and instead we're left with MMO-style gamified systems that you have to actively grind to make any use of. It's kind of the opposite of what you're saying you like about it so far. It's interesting that you have the opposite view that NL didn't retain your interest and NH does...but I'm curious why that is. What aspects you found make this one engaging compared to the prior entry (other than it looking better, which we can all agree on.)

@VoidofLight It's kind of telling what's wrong with the game when I mendioned in a thread a while ago about the christmas debacle of not getting DIY recipes. Someone helpfully posted a reply of how to manage balloon farming, consisting of the respawn rate and spawn points, as well as the scheduled position and direction changes from which to hunt the spawns. It indeed is helpful advice, but it highlights what's wrong about ACNH. To get the furniture that in past games you'd walk in and buy to decorate with, you instead have to mark down spawn points, note respawn rates, event triggers, and animation update schedules. All for the RNG of rare drops. It's a flipping MMO now. But without fun combat. Not to mention, and this is the big one, while many of us, myself included, begged for crafting and outdoor decorating to exist - we wanted that on top of the existing game structure to add to it. AC isn't a game about decorating. Decorating your house was more of a side activity to a degree that made the other game systems come together into a reward. It wasn't the objective of the experience until now.

Unfortunately, I agree, the extreme sales of this game guarantees that future entries will be more of the same. They've been shown this is a far more profitable formula, right or wrong, than the prior games. Though I wonder how true that is, and how much of the mega-sales are Wii type sales. Curious people that try it out once but don't necessarily return. We may find the next AC doesn't perform nearly as well just because this one was a blockbuster.

Then again, as long as this one sells there won't be another one. We waited 8 years for an NL successor, and what we got was NH.

@Yorumi "Sandbox without sand" - yeah, that's an apt description. I feel like the "UGC" has less to do with arranging furniture and more to do with importing custom clothing designs. It seems to be where they've put a lot of focus, even though it's for a particular audience.

@Yorumi,

Sorry if you see it as being defensive it's up to you, I simply enjoy the game at my own pace and decorate my island a lot, just fail to see why this matters to the discussion.

I do not constantly ask you to justify why you do not like the game, and think you are free to do so.

If you are suggesting I am somehow lying about my time spent with the game, then here is a friend request, you can see my statistics as it were, for yourself.

Nintendo Switch Friend code SW-8233-9981-3607

Animal crossing dream address DA-0957-2799-1843

@NEStalgia,

Well the reasons you and other give are still very personal, sure there will be fans that do not like the terra forming options and design, but by the same token some will love it, and looking at the sales figures, a lot of people do.

I think I did say in my initial reply to you why I like this game so much, it's the designing and crafting elements. the social aspects of the game, and the way you get content over time.

I guess I also do not see this as an argument, rather just people with different opinions of the game, and this franchise has always been a slow burner in my opinion.

@GannonBanned I'm not naïve. Just senile. There's a difference. 😉

There is literally so much they can do w/ probably little effort - game has N64 like graphics w/ a fixed camera - it's amazing how little they actually do.

Oh well, I'll stop complaining now before the $30 season pass gets announced and I have to go trade in my game to Gamestop. 😝

@Yorumi,

I do not remember the balloon drops on previous games any more interesting, and never as regular as on this game, plus I used to visit the one tropical Island on New Leaf to go fishing, and not much else.

Nostalgia goggles more than anything else, plus you tend to add every feature and item in every previous game, then claim they were all in every game. very dubious to me, but like I say you do not like the new game, so understandable.

@johnvboy We aren't saying that the Terraforming and design aspects are bad though. We're just saying that it's the only thing New Horizons has to offer. It's great for those who do like building their towns up, or customization, but prioritizing the customization aspect alienates those who play for the simulation aspect.

The Crafting system itself, while is unique and I think could make the game fun, isn't. It just turned New Horizons into a grind fest. The balloon aspect mentioned above is one of the results of the game becoming a grind fest.

While I believe the customization is a step up from new leaf as a whole, at least town design wise, I feel like it falls flat in other aspects. Not every single animal crossing fan is a fan of the customization aspect of the game, and generally previous games have been good about actually incorporating something in for every type of fan.

The item customization in New Horizons even falls flat. New Leaf had so many cool items that are just missing in New Horizons. There's so many furniture sets missing as well. Heck, things like mannequins or miniature fossil replicas are completely gone. Some items have multiple versions of themselves that you can buy, that are just color swaps, in order to pad out the catalog itself, due to the lack of items in the game, when in New Leaf you could just customize said items and change their color without having to buy them again.

Over all, the game does improve on customization, while having drawbacks, but this game more than others prioritizes the customization side over the simulation side of the game, when previous entries balanced both sides. That's why it's alienating to some fans, since some fans mainly play for the simulation, as they don't really do well with customization.

@johnvboy Also, our complaints aren't about the balloon drops being interesting, but moreso that it's one of the only ways to get certain crafting recipes, and leaves you up to RNG to even get those, due to the odds being less. You have to sit and grind for hours just to get the recipes from them. In past games, I admit the balloons had least interesting drops, but they weren't that essential, so most people just brushed it off when they got the fifth balloon wardrobe.

@VoidofLight,

Here is where our opinions differ, and there is no right and wrong to any of this, it's just opinions.

But because there are multiple items and d.i.y's does not mean there is a total obligation to get them all in the first place and in any certain time limit, sounds like you and others are missing the point of the game.

@rjejr haha “join the Nook’s Cranny VIP list for $200/year or $60 every 3 months - get access to sharks, tarantulas, and fossils at the same rate as before, or opt out and get nothing”

At least put a chain chomp somewhere

@Yorumi,

You always bring up the Straw man argument and suggest that people do not listen to your arguments, but fail to understand your and others complaints are still personal opinions.

I would not have half as much issue if you and others voiced your concerns in such a way, but they are always presented as facts and shared by a wider group of people, which is simply not true.

Sometimes explaining why one likes something is not a simple task, I did like New Leaf but just prefer this new game.

@johnvboy There is no obligation to get them all, but yet if you want certain items, you'll have to grind for them. If you want to decorate your town for holidays, you'll have to grind for them and hope RNG is on your side. It starts to become less relaxing, and more frustrating the more and more balloons you open, knowing that you probably won't get the items in time before the deadline is over. Sure, you can just wait until the next year, but with this game I'll have no real incentive to play for coming years, unlike previous games.

The holidays themselves in New Horizons are extremely shallow, and mostly replicate how they were done in New Leaf, except they effectively strip out the part of those holidays that made them good in the first place. Once you played the New Horizons holidays once, you have no real incentive to go back, as it's the same every single year, with no depth to make you want to play them every year.

@johnvboy Also, there is a wider group of people who feel the same way we do about these games. They're all over the internet. I've seen a lot of them in youtube comment sections, and in the comment sections for the Animal Crossing twitter. It's.. a pretty common opinion amongst the long time fans of the series. Maybe not to the newer fans though, since this is the first game they're playing in the series.

@Yorumi,

I do think we tend to get off on the wrong foot a lot of the time, hey we are both very passionate about our hobby.

Of course any additional content to this game would be welcome, as well as additional features etc, anybody would be mad to not want things that would improve the overall experience, but to suggest the game is totally broken is wrong, sure it could improve, as what game couldn't.

@Yorumi @Yorumi And remember, that design came with a half a year delay! I assume one of three things happened with ACNH. First, it's a team of like 15 people making the whole game. Second, they spent exactly a year making it, starting with ACNL, outsourcing the HD asset upgrades, and pasting it all together into a basic sandbox. Or Third, they spent 8 years on it, and the terraforming massively conflicted with the underlying systems, and they spent the entire time just fixing it so it didn't break, had no time left for design.

For all his good and bad, I think Iwata liked to aim Nintendo's products as quality for the sake of quality, and to always cram more into a game rather than less. Not purely out of creative enthusiasm and altruism but as good business. Nintendo products are premium priced but he set a tone that you always get a density of value that competitors don't offer. A Nintendo game always felt jam packed. Since his passing, they've made sure to include the absolute minimum for maximum margins. I'm the first to criticize Sony and their studios....I don't like the adulation they receive and feel a lot of their studios are overrated, however, when I compare what Sony studios are packing into games they drop to $40 within months versus what Nintendo puts into a game they keep at $60 for years.....I really have to applaud Sony.

@johnvboy Ahh, social and designing.....when you say designing, I assume you mean the clothing pattern imports and the like? And if you removed the social aspect entirely, as most AC players have not played these games socially, and just played the game on its own merits, would you feel the same about it? I.E. is it AC MMO or "Animal Crossing: Online" as almost a spinoff that's appealing to you more than the changes in Animal Crossing itself? (And related, are you an MMO fan in general?)

@VoidofLight,

They are still a minority, not saying they are wrong it's up to them what they think and feel about the game.

There is very little evidence either way to any of this, you could argue the games reviews and sales point to a sort of agreement, but there are people that only trust negative reviews, and call people sheep for liking something they personally do not.

The user reviews on metacritic do not shed much more likght either, 5500 or so reviews with a 5.5 overall rating, but their biggest complaint seems to stem for the one island per console argument.

@NEStalgia People often forget that Animal Crossing is a single player game first, and online multiplayer game second. Sure, while online multiplayer is a massive feature of the game, it's not the main way to play, with most fans opting to play by themselves.

Also, I heard that the game was in development around 6 years. I just feel like they stripped the content out of the game to push a live service onto others.

@NEStalgia,

I was talking about the design of my island and house, I have dabbled in the clothing design etc but do not have the talent or patience for it.

To be honest I have never been a massive online gamer in the past, and until this game came along used my Nintendo online subscription for the odd game of Mario kart, and the retro games provided with the service.

I have to split my gaming time with my other passion movies, and I am guessing having six months or so off with the pandemic, I have been able to spend more time with this game.

@Yorumi It's selling due to the perfect storm. A game releasing right around lockdown, when most people had nothing to do, and couldn't go outside. This game was offering an escape for people, so it sold to animal crossing fans, and people who never would've played the series otherwise. Then you had the terrible live service model, which kept the game alive, and more people bought the game due to that as well. Finally, the social media presence is what caused a big boom. It's not about quality, but it's merely just a trend that'll eventually flatline. I don't think the next game will make as much as this new one did.

@Yorumi Pokemon is mainly because it appeals to casuals, and has a huge brand loyalty. It's so big, that even if all the hardcore fans of the series left, there'd be loads of people who're playing the games for the first time. Which is sort of depressing to think about.

@NEStalgia " Move an object from there to here. Move an object from here to there.....it means nothing, it does nothing, it unlocks nothing, it adds nothing. You just...look at it. And you have to grind to be able to look at it."

You intend this as a criticism of New Horizons, but ironically, it could apply to every Animal Crossing game.

"To get the furniture that in past games you'd walk in and buy to decorate with, you instead have to mark down spawn points, note respawn rates, event triggers, and animation update schedules. All for the RNG of rare drops."

Or you can not do that and just enjoy playing the game. Seriously, Animal Crossing has always been a slow-burn experience that's supposed to be played for multiple years. This obsession some people have to see and do everything as quickly as possible seems to have spoiled it for them.

Honestly I'm having a better time with pocket camp at this point, more events, items, clothing, easier and better interaction with friends etc etc. so much potential but not enough to do after setting up your island. My villagers say the same lines and there isn't enough interaction between us, I mean what was the point of me spending so much time getting the ones I wanted. Just how I feel.

@VoidofLight Yeah, I also think the next one won't sell as well and this one was bolstered by circumstances. But it did similar socially driven growth in the less socially driven era of NL too. It seems to me there's a demographic crossover between the "playful creative sandbox" and social media mavens that makes the two work together. And I bet they're tooling the game to really lean into that market. Good for sales. Bad for fans that liked the unique game. There's underlying charm, but Nintendo's output keeps feeling more like mobile companies.... There's an insipid shallowness to a lot of what they do that is exactly what the mobile masses (which, remember is the old Wii customers) love. This is something that really started post-Iwata.

Pokemon is kind of a unique discussion off to the side. Nintendo might be using it as a rubric for other IP these days, but it really is its own topic. Mostly it's a franchise geared toward kids first and foremost. And kids have been groomed by mobile gaming. I think that guides a lot of their thinking on that series. It's like complaining that Dora the Explorer doesn't have enough adult content for long-time fans. It's intentionally simplistic. I know it got more complicated at one time, but I think it's a very clear "this is for children but you can also enjoy it" design choice. And the hordes of kids will always outnumber "core" Pokemon players. And each game is the first ever in their universe.

In a sense I think that may be what happened to ACNH, too. There was that awkwardly translated interview with the metrics showing it's mostly played by 25-45 year olds or something and they said something that I think the off translation about "you would think it would mostly be played by kids and young girls [who apparently are not kids], but we attribute that to not having been on sale a full year." or something like that. Basically, this is meant for children, but the metrics are showing adults play that. We think after it has a Christmas that will correct and be mostly kids." I.E. they aimed it at kids and are dumbfounded that's not who played it. Could explain the ultra simplicity.

Kids have every harder school than we had....yet they seem to have an extra-simplified world, too....I'm not sure where A meets B.

@Mountain_Man Prior AC games didn't revolve primarily around the furniture, yet had more variety of it, and only a handful of places you could put any of it. What is there to "just play" in ACNH if you're not focusing on drops and RNG and furniture sets? That's literally all that's there this time! What is there to play for years? Walk in a circle and hit rocks every day for 3 years? Actual activities and a sense of village interaction is just plain gone. Doing the laundry is more exciting!

@johnvboy I think your interest in the game is fairly unique, then. You're not really the target for any of the markets they're trying to cover. Somehow it clicked with you, but it doesn't sound like any of the things that it's been riding on are really your thing specifically.

I mean designing your house and island is fun at first, but it takes a few weeks, or even months, and then you've kind of assembled everything you want to assembled other than seasonal things. That's great you could get so much value out of it, but I think I will never understand how...

@NEStalgia,

I still like doing the day to day things as well, and I have been a fan of the series forever, guess I am just a sucker for the improved visuals more than anything else, tend not to overthink these things too much, if I enjoy a game that's it.

@Mountain_Man,

Agree with you, as at it's core this is a similar experience to the other titles in the series, but they have replaced certain elements with more simple streamlined actions, not a case of right or wrong as some are suggesting.

@Yorumi,

I think this game and the Switch in general is appealing to a much wider demographic, perhaps this is influencing Nintendo's choices, and judging by the sales they have got it right, as a lot of their franchises are getting the best sales on the console.

And we can't always just brush this off as people being easily pleased.

@NEStalgia,

Not sure Nintendo are aiming at any specific demogrphic with this game, and the Switch in general. I know many do label Nintendo and their games for kids, but it's not been that way for a while now.

The Switch from the start had adverts catering for a wide range of people, it's a more all inclusive demographic than any certain target,and while kids do feature it's more in a family setting than anything else.

The very first Animal crossing advert I saw, had a mother playing with her daughter online.

@Yorumi,

That's assuming they know what was missing in the first place, then decided to buy the game anyway, we have no evidence of this, only your personal belief that's what is actually happening.

And if they were unaware of all this missing content, and as you say an unfinished game, would they not simply sell the game as it was not enough value to them?, the issue with this is I do not see masses of second hand copies being sold at cheap prices.

Let the hype train begin.

@VoidofLight
Villagers moving out without my acknowledge is not even a charm of Animal Crossing game. That's very insulting feature to force me keep playing Animal Crossing like a slave or the game will punish you for not playing Animal Crossing by eliminating your villager by moving out. I don't buy Animal Crossing for that idea. That idea is very lame, it should be thrown away. Glad the villagers will not moving out by themself on ACNH. That was the right decision by Nintendo.

@GannonBanned " “join the Nook’s Cranny VIP list for $200/year or $60 every 3 months"

Did you copy and paste that from a Pocket Camp article, sounds familiar. 😉

I am still expecting $10 per extra island though. 😝

@johnvboy It's hard to tell because the translation was a bit wonky, but I believe the producer or director was more or less stating directly the target audience was kids, and was more or less apologizing/making excuses for that being the case, and trying to reassure that world change with Christmas. I presume because of higher ups or investor expectations of success in that demographic. So while it's "family", the management did seem to think they were trying to target kids. As @yorumi said, that was a rediculous expectation based on 80s kids in Japan or something. But it's what the expected apparently.

I don't think favoring switch-anything counts as being a graphics who....err... Snob .. But you may be the first . It's serviceable... But don't put it up on that projection screen

@yorumi I'm really curious to see how aounumas team with botw2 and retro do. That's the only big Nintendo games we even know exist at all. We'll see if they still overachieve still or if management has gone Full Activision.

@NEStalgia I honestly don't know where you're getting this idea that the Animal Crossing series prior to New Horizons was some deep and varied experience that wasn't centered around randomness, repetitiveness, and collecting. I played New Leaf regularly for five years, and New Horizons plays very much the same for me except that I'm not limited to just decorating my house. Even villager interactions are largely the same. Sure, there are some things I miss from New Leaf, but I know if I ever tried go back and play it again that there are a lot more things from New Horizons that I would miss.

@rjejr hahaha I “made it up” based on my realistic expectations

@Anti-Matter Most people consider it to be a charm of the series. It's a shame it's gone, since for a lot of people it kept them playing. Villagers moving in at random was another thing that got scrapped, which added charm to the series. You could randomly get an ugly villager, and have to put up with them, hoping they'd eventually move out. I don't really see it as "archaic", but I can kind of see the punishment aspect. However, you didn't have to play every single day, you just had to check in every once in a while, which if you like the game, you'd easily do.

@johnvboy I mean, people bought sword and shield and that game was incredibly flawed. Most of the people buying New Horizons are pretty much people who've never played an Animal Crossing game before, and know no better in terms of the content it's lacking. Some people, like me, got burned at launch since they bought the game before knowing that the game itself wasn't going to be complete.

@VoidofLight
Villager move in at random places was the most annoying thing in Animal Crossing games.
I don't want total randomness.
I want to decide by my own
It wasn't even a charm for me, it was like a troll that ruin my island layout.
For example, Villager move in and built their house on my beautiful flower garden.
WTH ?! It was not funny, it was like a slap on my face. 🤨
And thus i used 2nd player trick to see where was the move in villager build their house. If they build on the right spot, i will save the game but if it doesn't i simply quit from the game without saving then keep the process again until i got what i want.

About moving out in ACNL, i have discovered about moving out behaviours and you can keep the villagers stay safe, not moving out by themself even you get hiatus for very long time. But if i didn't discover the moving out behaviours, i could ended up by realizing there is one villager on my island has been move out without my acknowledge and i will make me really pissed off.

@Yorumi playing fenyx Rising and absolutely loving it, reminded me of how amazing botws design is, but also how much more it ought to be. I can't take any stars away from it though. It invented that template and paved the way for a new open world design i love. I don't necessarily think it needs more "focus", so much as it just needs less emptiness and more variety. I'm hopeful that now that the massive feat of the physics based design is in the can, development of 2 can really focus on content variety. And perhaps more intricate, multi level dungeon design.

Zelda sequels are a rare beast. Miyamoto did 2 that flopped the tea table and made it a platform rpg. Aonuma did majora... Which is both special and exceedingly flawed. But the only common thread we have is do far they both like doing something entirely different with sequels vs the original. I expect uproar when it's debuted because I'm betting it will upend the design somewhat. Right now, fenyx is almost a better botw then botw. Maybe not structurally, and the puzzles are basic, but it's danged fun and engaging, objective score be darnrd.

I'm hoping botw2 and either top that, or be something different entirely.

But it is indeed going to be the test. If it's a downgrade, and remember 1 was developed largely under miyamotos purview and overseen by Iwata, and 2 is mostly not, then ill be certain Nintendo has moved in to a new casual wii type market again.

It's hard to gauge now. All we've really had from them for 2 years is ac, some low budget filler, and Pokemon games that are really a separate subsidiary. And ports. It's hard to gauge what their real output looks like because there really hasn't been any.

Fwiw ac was a pet product for Iwata, and i bet he had input that helped prior games.

@NEStalgia,

I still can't see Nintendo wanting to take a game like Animal crossing, which has such potential for a very varied audience, and then just target children, it makes little sense considering their much broader demographic advertising with the Switch.

Also not getting the more simplistic game comments, as I do not remember any Animal crossing game having masses of depth, and I have played them all since wild world, I am sure we are imagining far more to these games than there actually was.

As for the graphics the game looks awesome on my projector, a huge surprise for me as i did not think it would hold up on my 10 ft screen, the games visuals pop, you notice things you didn't before on a smaller display, and the games sound going through my receiver is very good too, the first time I played a thunderstorm started, the first time which was a nice event, this sounded so awesome.

On a side note the Switch consoled home screens 720 p resolution does look a little bit lacking on my projector screen.

@VoidofLight,

Again we seem to be making assumptions based on little fact of evidence, I get the Pokemon argument, and have been involved in many on these comment sections , this game is developed for a much younger audience who watch the cartoons, collect the cards etc, the franchise is not designed for older gamers who have grown up with it, and expected it to evolve accordingly, so it;s not so much a broken game as a title out of touch with it's older core fans.

Animal crossing is a totally different animal (pardon the pun), I have grown up with this franchise and see little difference in each generation, in fact I would have been very upset if we just got New Leaf in HD, and again we seem to be looking at the content across multiple titles and suggesting these features were in each and every game, which is simply not true. Nintendo have added things and streamlined others, not a crime or a game breaker for many.

On a personal level you and others feel burned, but to simply suggest all core fans feel this way is incorrect, and that the new people to this franchised are somehow easily pleased is also based on no facts whatsoever, of course you can feel however you want to about the game.

@Mountain_Man,

Of course it does, it's nostalgia that gives things a different perspective.

@Yorumi,

I am sorry but I do not agree with this, if you are suggesting Nintendo have somehow decided to exclude some of the franchises fans on purpose, I can't see how it makes any sense.

They develop the game in the way they see fit, they decide what to include from previous entries and what to add new, now we can say that this has the potential to upset certain people, as you can't possibly please everybody, but I doubt it's a conscious decision on their part.

As for the content it's very much based on opinion as what is important to people and what's not, on a personal level I am not bothered with the loss of Brewster or the hair salon, one of which has been replaced by a much easier system, and replaces something I never used in the first place, I would also like the shop upgrades although the Nook app has made this feature less important, but still I would like it back.

If your argument is these features should be present no matter how many people like them or not, I would tend to agree with you as more content can't be a bad thing, even if you do not intend to use these features, but I am not going to agree the game is broken until they are included.

We also have to consider that content will be added over time as well as the great social aspect of this game, you do seem to be suggesting previous entries to the series had more depth, to which I totally disagree with, the games at their core have always been hope and collect, and villagers repeating themselves. in fact this is the only Animal crossing title where apart from the obvious repetition, the villagers do surprise me and say new things.

I did touch upon the social aspect and feel players need to embrace this more, the joy of visiting other peoples Islands and vice versa is great, plus the real sense of community by swapping items and making d.i.y items that you do not personally have is a great idea.

Overall there are some things missing but in my opinion the additions more than make up for this, the game feels like animal crossing and plays like it. I understand not everybody will be happy with this but it's still down to their own personal view, as is mine and others that the game is still great.

I think they could get some help from the team that makes AC Pocket Camp.
They deliver new stuff all the time.
Many things are semi-interactive, where the animals can ride Merry-Go-Rounds, Ferris Wheels and skateboard ramps.
There are flower planting games, Happy Home Designer games and more.
You can decide, and change anytime, which animals should be permanent villagers.
You can change the terrain, from tropical to snow to spooky, and more.
You have interactions with other players that makes the game more alive.
When I played Pocket Camp the first time I was anticipaiting at least as much from New Horizons.
I have played all AC games since GameCube and I am quite disappointed with NH.

@VoidofLight Animals still move in at random if there is an empty house lot and you have not yet invited a new resident.

@FarsanBaloo,

Totally unrelated marketplace, the mobile games work on additional paid for items and content, you have to give free stuff and updates to make them feel it's not just a one way street.

You are not happy with the new game?, nobody is forcing you or others to keep playing, get your copies on e-bay, they still fetch a pretty price.

@johnvboy
I have not payed anything and I have played on and off for three years.
The essential stuff you can get with a little grinding.
So, if I am not happy with a game I can not say what I think about it, or propose changes?

@FarsanBaloo,

You can say and feel what you want, but we get enough issues without the latest Animal crossing game being compared to mobile offerings, which I am glad you like by the way.

@johnvboy
Pocket Camp is good for what it is: a game to play when you have idle time (waiting for something).
New Horizon left me disappointed because I had waited long for a new console iteration and it was less of a game than previous handheld AC games.

@FarsanBaloo,

Fair enough, I feel it offers different things to do.

I just want my gyroids back, I want those weird little guys dinging and grunting and warbling all over my island!

Definitely prefer NH to NL. There's so many QoL upgrades in this version it's ridiculous. Every issue I had with NL's interface or setup was solved with NH. I tried booting up my NL town last year and I just couldn't get back into it. Normal games you put in 25 or 30 hours and you've completed it. Here with Animal Crossing you have people complaining there's not enough content when I bet most have put in 400 hours+ into the game.

@Mountain_Man I generally agree that Animal Crossing wasn't deep in, for example, a Sims-like way in its execution.

I will disagree with the idea that villager interaction wasn't varied. They had you doing much more tasks and games in past games. I also miss the random house visits. I also miss the fun interactions that would happen at Re-Tail in which you could give some input into an item a villager chose to purchase. I also enjoyed the idea that past villagers could visit your town and acknowledge they used to live there (though I recently experienced this when I ran into an old Claude who moved in to a friend's island. It was a hoot).

Now, that's not suggesting I prefer NL over NH. I can't see myself ever going backward and have absolutely enjoyed New Horizons and have already clocked in 750 hours. But that doesn't mean there aren't some things they can't improve upon and some really odd removal of certain features that I'm not sure why they removed

@johnvboy All I can say is that interview was more or less them apologizing for missing the target demographic and reassuring that Christmas would fix that.

You might want to play NL again, a little, to get a feel for what we mean by the difference. It's pretty stark, really. Between animal behaviors and the core play loop there's surprisingly little in common between the games. The most simplified way to state it is that they do not share the same primary focuses. ACNH's primary focus is resource-management, resource-procurement (via a boring gathering loop), and a giant gatcha machine that must be played continuously to maximize the chances of required drops. Mobile-esque. The reward is simply that the entire world is your "house" in which to place this oddly more-limited quantity of "stuff." You arrange your trophy room wherever you want. That's the reward.

ACNL on the other hand does not focus on the "stuff" at all, and yet there's substantially more of it. The focus of ACNL is largely on the interaction with the animals and the world's routines themselves, and the varied pop-up events (that are not random hide and seek), and the daily loop of checking on all the areas of town. There was also a sense of progression from building the house, to building up the town via mayor's edicts and through building up the shopping area. A late-game town felt bigger and more bustling. An early game town felt primitive. You can argue that ACNH lets you build the town how you want, but it doesn't. you can't build buildings of any sort. You can just plunk trinkets on the ground and make a cliff around it, declaring it a building.

The social aspect is probably part of the problem. ACNL actually had more to do in-game when someone visited your town than ACNH. But ultimately, ACNL and prior AC were self-contained games, and were not "social." That's part of what's wrong. They seem to have decided that ACNH's core focus is being "social" and sharing - it's a sandbox to show to others for the sake of showing it to others. That's not why existing fans bought AC games. It was the self contained world away from the real world to escape to where everything sucks less. Not a boring gatcha loop waiting for your Twitter friends to arrive. If I wanted to play a game with actual humans, I'd play Splatoon, where I can shoot them in the face.

ACNL and prior games had you as an interactive part of the world of animals, and the game carried a sense of actual interaction with them, and they had varied personalities and requests. ACNH scrapped all simulation aspects. What you do has zero effect on the world around you or the activities of your villagers. You can't influence them, annoy them, or really interact with them. You just get the same happy dialog and one of the same few repeating sub-events. What little bit of a meta simulation there is moved into the social aspect (animals that leave your town to go the town of someone you visited and some unique dialog can exist there.)

Which all goes back to the focus change. AC used to be a little self contained world. You could live in that world and leave your worries behind like a little snow globe you crawl inside and make that world your whole world. ACNH seems like a blank slate template for coordinating Facebook events in a shell like a rental convention hall. It, to me, is clear they abandoned the mission of AC and effectively "rebooted" it is a product for the social media generation.

@johnvboy FWIW, I still can't figure out what you actually have found to do in the game though. It's months in, you've played a ton. You built your island up, like 6 months ago. You've no doubt collected every piece of furniture by now so it's not like you have a stream of new stuff to play with. You booted up the game yesterday...what did you actually do during that time?

I continually struggle to find any reason to even boot the game. I boot it, and then what.....hit rocks. Go to and fro my house to dump said ore clumps. Try and fail to roll a snowman because it's based on eyeballing it, which is at least new for now. Deposit money....and......that's kind of it. There's nothing to buy, to upgrade, there's no value in talking to the animals and getting the same platitudes, there's no meaningful events (and the periodic events are just unchanging minigames of shallow and repetitive nature.) That's literally all there is to do. Christmas promised an exciting decorating phase, but the balloon RNG ruined that fun. Seriously, the folks spending hundreds, thousands of hours in the game, what are you actually doing during that time?

@NEStalgia,

You see the social aspect as a negative which is fine, I see it as a massive bonus, so on this we will have to disagree, I see it as an addition to the game rather than instead of.

And trust me I did play New Leaf a lot, and my sister had been playing it since launch, in fact she only stopped because she bought a Switch and the new game, she likes both titles, but absolutely adores new horizons. This of course does not make anybody right or wrong, it's up to them at the end of the day.

I get it you do not like it, and applaud you for saying so in a more constructive way, than simply stating people that love this latest game are somehow wrong, or stupid.

I still do not recall all this extra depth, but will bow to your knowledge on it, after all it's been seven years or so.

@NEStalgia,

I love games with a purpose as much as the next guy, but this game is pure escapism for me, I still like doing the daily task and collecting things, I still do not have all the items and d.i.y recipes, not that I have any desire to do so, there is just no rush.

I enjoy just wandering about the island and change things as I go, it took me ages to get my house to exactly as I wanted to, again no rush.

See you seem to see the social online side as a problem, when I love visiting peoples Islands and swapping stuff, I recently met up with a guy from the old Amazon video game forums, I had not heard from him in years, things like this are of great value in my opinion.

I would love you to have the same fun with the game as I have, as I know you really like the franchise.

@johnvboy That goes back to what I said yesterday. Rip out the network cable. No social. How do you compare the games now?

And that solidifies that it's a whole different premise. AC fans are expecting an offline experience to be fulfilling. You're saying the social aspect is a driving factor in your enjoyment. And there we are. ACNH is a social game for the social media world. Which is to say it's an entirely different game that effectively exists as the antithesis of the reasons people that played AC played it.

For someone that is intending to play the game without any social component, 100% offline short of patches.....what is in this game? It sounds like that might be what you're enjoying. Not the game, but using it as a medium for other human interaction. And it's pandemic success makes that much more sense in that context. But that is a problem for exiting fans. The social simulator was replaced by a real world meeting facilitator.

I fear Nintendo, rather than building out an IP on its own merits now chases a trends and aligns IPs with them. Commercially, they're clearly doing business right. It's working. But it does cast aside the dedicated audience.

I've said it a few times, but while Switch is a more satisfying console, Nintendo's games have gone back to the Wii era in a lot of ways with a "blue ocean" market focus that alienates the dedicated customers. In the Wii era I spent most of my time on PS360. In the 3DS/WiiU era I seldom touched PS4/X1 and spent all my time on Nintendo. But currently I feel myself kind of shrugging and going to PS5/XSX. Nintendo's offerings have been coming across boring, shallow, and "meant for someone else" - largely a younger, social media focused audience. WiiU had a small library but every game felt as though it was made for me.

So if we take out social play....no social, no humans, just the escapist animal world. It's unfathomable, and alarming, honestly, that with the thousands of hours you still don't have all the DIY's? That's abysmal even for mobile P2W standards.

But really, every day for months on end, you just wander the island and change things? No purpose, no real interaction...that's satisfying for hours on end?

I'm the other way around. I designed the island back in August. Boom. Done. It's the way I wanted it to be, did some tweaking, maybe 40 hours in, not a blade of grass needs ever be moved again. Ever. Other than seasonal decor. The game offers nothing new unless I undo what I did just to do it again. Why do that, it was fine in August, it'll be fine in 2067. Not unless they actually introduce new options that make it worthwhile to remove something in favor of something I prefer more, the things I chose from a fixed list aren't going to become unpreferred by magic.

Yeah, I do wish I could enjoy it so much. And it's not that I don't like it, but every time I consider starting it I just think: "why"? What will I actually do with that time I don't regret? Meaninglessly harvesting resources in the same circle....meaninglessly racking up bells, with nothing to spend them on (unless they add arbitrary gatekeeping of "2,000,000" bells to buy x) which isn't really helpful as it just incentivizes an endless grind to get that one macguffin.

It doesn't need goals, but it needs activities.

I still play the game solo for the most part, and as I said the online is just a nice addition to the overall package.

As you stated the games on the Wii U felt made for you, the issue with this was it was not selling enough, Nintendo has had to reach out to a wider audience, we either have to accept this and move on from certain franchises, if we feel they no longer tick all our boxes, or just get on with it.

Still would like this massive list of activities from New Leaf, as I am am struggling to remember them all, and if I am having trouble recalling them, how important were they in the first place.

I do remember a villager agreeing to meet you at your house, I hated this as I was never free at that time and just ended up annoying them.

I don't have an online account, and I've still manage to put over 300 hours into New Horizons. That's an average of less than 1-hour a day, which clocks in roughly the same as what I put into New Leaf. Animal Crossing was never a series to play for hours a day grinding away on your item collections. It's supposed to be a relaxing, casual experience where you pop in for a few minutes, do whatever you feel like doing on any given day, and then put it down until the next day when the town refreshes. I don't feel this obsession to see and do everything in my first year with the game, and that may be why I'm enjoying New Horizons more than some.

@johnvboy not saying that children are playing animal crossing, but seeing how it recently blew up, one can guess that most of the fans of new horizons never played the series before, and some of those fans only got interested in it due to it being a trend.

@FarsanBaloo also I’d never honestly want animal crossing to be like pocket camp. That’s probably one of nintendo’s worst mobile games

@VoidofLight,

Well I am not being funny here but that's a given, New Leaf sold around 12 million copies and the new game has sold around 31 million, so which ever way you slice it there are a lot of new players.

As for them following a trend or being easily pleased is open to debate, and to be honest we do not have enough data to indicate either. We simply can't just state that as some longtime fans do not like this game anymore, that all these new people to the franchise are wrong to have no issues.

@johnvboy I mean, the reason why it sold well to the people who don't play animal crossing, is due to the current pandemic that's ongoing, and due to the social media hype the game generated. People saw it as a way to escape reality, and took it. That's also why New Horizons made the Animal Crossing fanbase one of Nintendo's most toxic communities, rivaling smash in it's toxicity. And I'm not saying that all the long time fans dislike this game, or all the new fans must like it, but from what I can tell it seems to be somewhat like that.

Why do people always try to excuse away the success of something they don't like?

@VoidofLight,

While the pandemic helped it was not the only reason the game has done well, I mean take games like Zelda and the 3-D Mario games for example, these games have never sold 20 million copies or so, even on the Wii they were only around 12 million or so.

The Switch has a good software take up rate, it seems people
do not want to give Nintendo games and the Switch any credit at all.

Of course that's why people love the Wii U so much, as it did mot dare sell to well.

And as you said in your post from what you can tell, these forums and YouTube are only representative of a very small minority of people, so it's hard to tell for certain.

@Mountain_Man,

Seriously man, just finished my post and have seen yours, people on forums like it when Nintendo do not get above their station, you should see the Nintendo Switch sales threads on Neogaf.

It's because even on here most people who comment own multiple consoles, and they just prefer the core machines like the Ps4 etc.

@johnvboy the Wii sold well, but City Folk didn't get as many sales. The 3Ds sold well, but New Leaf didn't get as many sales. The console selling well isn't the main factor. It's one of the reasons yes, but it doesn't mean it's the main factor, or even the main reason why. Not to mention, most games on switch don't sell as many copies as New Horizons. New Horizons is coming close to beating Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which has one of the best life-time sales in terms of switch games. Honestly, It really is mainly due to the pandemic and the game being a "trend". It'll soon die down like most trends do, and the next game in the series will try the same tricks this one pulled, but it'll be less successful, since most of the fandom moved on to more "trendy" games. It's the way of how things work.

@VoidofLight,

A lot of assumptions there, and we will not know how the next game will sell, as it will depend on a lot of factors, the main one being the success of the platform it's released on.

To claim the sales are mainly down to the pandemic is again based on pure assumption, the Switch was a big success even before the pandemic, as was Mario Kart 8, and you have still not explained why titles like Zelda and Odyssey have sold more copies on the Switch, even without the pandemic.

I would not mind if you stated it was partly down to the pandemic, but to suggest this is the only reason is once again a guess, and does seem to suggest you are so upset with this game you are looking for any reason to downplay it's success.

@johnvboy I'm not saying it's the only reason though. Social media is another reason. The game literally became a trend because of social media itself. Trends normally die down though, like how Pokemon Go blew up in popularity, then died down after a few months to a year, once the honeymoon period ended, and most of the "fans" didn't care about pokemon anymore, due to it not being trendy. The game still has it's fans, but it's not as big in numbers as it used to be.

@VoidofLight,

Mobile games are different and the audience is very fickle, not sure the Switch is having the same issue, you did mention the Wii however, which is a prime example, a lot of casuals rushed out because of Wii sports etc, but then did not buy the more traditional software, and then at some point simply moved on, any console based on a gimmick like that will have the risk of this happening.

Nintendo have been wise to keep these sort of features low key on the Switch, although in reality the popularity of motion controls has diminished pretty much altogether.

I mean, if a game's trendy, people will do anything to get it, even if they couldn't actually care less about the game itself.

@johnvboy Zelda and Mario don't lend themselves to being social media phenomenons to the masses of overall non-gaming consumers. BotW somewhat did, but generally AC, including prior entries in the earlier (anti) social era, by its nature tends to trend easily in social media. Including with non-traditional gaming consumers. It was very visible with NL, and 8 years ago social media was not as dominant as today.

Remember, Animal Crossing launched around the time the West started hoarding every roll of toilet paper in sight because it was going around social media that people in China were buying it up months prior, and Hawaii was running low. Yeast followed that, to the point you could not find a pack of yeast for months, and people were scalping 1lb bags for $50+. They normally cost $5-10. It's not specific to AC or gaming to say that whatever trends on social media, especially in 2020, the masses simply jump into blindly en masse. It's also not ACNH specific as the same happened on a smaller scale, in an earlier less dominant social media era without a pandemic, with ACNL. There's no question that all contributed to overwhelming sales of the game. The same is true for The Last of Us 2 which sold unprecedented week 1 sales and is now Sony's best seller of all time. It was the first "big" game to launch in the lockdown era. It was a sequel to a critically acclaimed game. Then sales dropped off a cliff by month 2 after some amount of backlash became evident and there were major criticisms about the game.

I'm not sure video game sales from 3/1/2020 to 8/1/2020 or so are indicative of overall predictable industry future sales, it was an exceptional period bolstered by temporary and unstable consumer behavior. I believe Jim Ryan of Playstation addressed TLoU2's sales as not being the success story fans like to paint it as, either. It was quite profitable, but not the traditional sales arc, either, so the early surge was temporary, followed by glacial sales. Sales-wise, I think there's a lot in common between ACNH and TLoU2, despite being remarkably different games for remarkably different audiences.

@VoidofLight Smash, Pokemon, Animal Crossing. Metroid. Mother. Is there a Nintendo franchise that doesn't have a toxic fanbase? At this point, Nintendo should buy Naughty Dog from Sony and make it an clean sweep.

@Mountain_Man Reality TV is successful. Should we praise Jersey Shore as high quality entertainment despite not prefering it?

Commercial success in a mass market often tends to reflect a low quality product more than a high one. It's how the mass market works, unfortunately.

@VoidofLight "...most of the fandom moved on to more 'trendy' games."

On what do you base that conclusion?

@NEStalgia,

Your figures do not stack up though, the original last of us game sold 7 million copies on a console with 87 million base, whereas the second game has sold 10 million copies from a 114 million base, not seeing your overall massive jump in sales there, other than the second game benefiting from a much bigger install base, as it was released towards the end of the PS4's life cycle and was a massively hyped game.

Another big PS4 exclusive Ghost Of Tsushima sold around 5 million, why did this game not benefit from the lock down?, again a game with a lot of hype, and released at the right time.

I don't see how this is in any way similar to the success of Animal crossing on the Switch, as the ratio is massive in comparison, and can't we just admit that part of it was down to the fact Nintendo have done things right with this game, and it's far more indicative of the massive success the Switch has enjoyed since launch, and it's awesome software sales ratio on first party titles.

@Mountain_Man,

No real evidence, only opinions.

@NEStalgia "Commercial success in a mass market often tends to reflect a low quality product more than a high one. It's how the mass market works, unfortunately."

That simply reinforces rather than refutes my point. Some people become annoyed when something they don't like is popular and successful, and they usually reach for the "lowest common denominator" rationalization to try and make themselves feel superior for not liking it.

There are millions of people who legitimately enjoy New Horizons. You don't happen to be one of them. That's fine. Accept it and move on.

@johnvboy @johnvboy "It's because even on here most people who comment own multiple consoles, and they just prefer the core machines like the Ps4 etc."

FWIW, I, and you, of course are multiple console owners. But FWIW, I started on Nintendo (mostly) and Atari. My expectations of what to expect from a video game were set by Nintendo, and largely Miyamoto. If another platform is the one stealing my interest at any time, it's because that platform is sticking more to the experience Nintendo and Miyamoto trained me to expect than Nintendo's current offerings.

In the Wii era, I almost never touched that dreadful system. There were a few memorable games and cherished experiences, but most of that gen it was a waste of plastic and I spent most of my gaming time on PS360. However the 3DS was simply exceptional in every way. WiiU was awful but was a great supplement to 3DS. I almost never touched my PS4. Everything I wanted to play (including ACNL ) was on 3DS. And occasionally WiiU. SNES was my favorite console of all time. 3DS easily replaced it.

When Switch came out, it was easily in pole position to surpass even 3DS as my favorite system of all time. But they've dropped a heck of a lot of balls since the 2017 high notes. And the machine has slipped back to being unengaging, and I now prefer the XSX and PS5. Atlus may save the Switch for me this year, pending other Nintendo games. SMTV is a big deal.

Overall I'm Nintendo first, except when Nintendo stops meeting the expectations they themselves set decades ago for what desire in games.

"Mobile games are different and the audience is very fickle, not sure the Switch is having the same issue, you did mention the Wii however, "

I think the point that Void is trying to make is that the (new) ACNH, Wii, and Mobile audience are one and the same. It is that fickle audience that bought a Switch and ACNH, but didn't also buy Zelda, Smash, Splatoon, and Mario. ACNH is their Wii Sports.

But let's not confuse things. There's two discussions. There's one that is core gamers discussing the game with a schism between people like you and Mountain_Man that prefer the latest entry, and people like Void, Yorumi and I who feel it's a let down. That's one discussion among gamers about the newest entry in a series we're all experienced with.

There's a separate discussion in which the gamers that prefer the new one try to connect their preference for it to the commercial sales success of the game as though that validates their preference. It's that point that we're saying is somewhat fallacious due to the unique circumstances, audience, and nature of a significant portion of those sales. that doesn't invalidate the debate we have as seasoned gamers that are debating about the different iterations of the series. But it invalidates leaning on sales success as some sort of proof that those that prefer it must be "right."

TLoU2 benefited from the lockdown among core gamers, but not that "Wii/mobile/social" "blue ocean" mass market. AC (the series overall) benefits hugely from its ability to trend socially. And that was the right cocktail for pandemic success when it launched. There's no question that the majority of ACNH buyers have never played AC before. The simple explosion of sales numbers compared to prior entries tells us that much. As such, new customers can't be used to evaluate if Nintendo did something "right" in changes to the game, because the majority of it's customers have no knowledge of if they prefer this direction or prior direction of the game.

If you're standing in the board room, you can make that case for commercial success all you want and you'd be right. But here we're not talking about the secret sauce for market sales goals based on demographic segments. We're talking about cutting a game's content to the bone and making a killing anyway. By that standard, FIFA should be considered the pinnacle of video game design. And sales clearly bear that out.

@Mountain_Man if we were talking about a new game, a new franchise that one doesn't like, then not liking it and moving on is valid. When we're talking about changing a game from one audience to another audience by changing its focus and telling no one, that's a valid criticism on a forum more or less about the series.

@Mountain_Man I base it on other games that became a trend, and then fell off after a while. Undertale was one of those games, with most of the fans of homestruck migrating to that. Then those fans simply migrated to something else after they got bored of Undertale, leaving the undertale fanbase with less people, and more chill people. That's generally how fads tend to happen. A group of people moves on to something else after getting bored, only to get bored of the next thing and move on again.

@NEStalgia,

Sorry if you though me suggesting some people that owned multiple consoles preferred the PS4, that was more on a general thing I have experienced on many forums.

And again there is no right and wrong in any of this, weather it's sales or liking or disliking the latest Animal crossing game, as we will all in our own way feel our stance is the correct one, the exact truth of the matter is far more complicated than any of us realize.

Your assumption again seems to always be suggesting that great sales do not equal quality, or popularity is not indicative of a great product, weather this be a game or T.V show, but you never really seem to take into account it may be just you and others that simply do not like these things, and their actual quality is very much based on personal opinions.

For example I do not like musicals, in fact I would go as far to say as I detest them, I just do not see people in everyday life bursting into song, so I could suggest a show with massive ticket sales, great reviews is rubbish, and anyone watching it easily pleased and deluded, I would of course be wrong as it's just not my personal cup of tea, as it were.

Now of course I do understand you guys love video games, and it's a shame you are not getting as much out of the Switch, as it's been a great success for Nintendo, glad you are enjoying the latest next generation machines though, I still can't get my hands on one , and will not pay a penny over retail price on principle.

@johnvboy FWIW, while the stance of preferring one or the other isn't right or wrong, the sales data is tangental to the conversation I think and best left out. Discussion should be on the features of the game compared to past games without leaning on sales data to an audience without experience with the prior features. If presented a different game, the one some of us say we wanted where it contained a fuller feature set, those new fans may will prefer that theoretical game to this one as well.

Or put another way, if I serve you an 8 oz milkshake for $7 made with artificial vanilla, you may think it's a fantastic milkshake and worth the $7. But if you were to find out that last month I was selling 12oz milkshakes with real vanilla for $7 and you just bought the new worse value, worse tasting one for the same price, you might feel kind of cheated being suckered into buying that. These new customers are buying the 8oz and happy with it. But we don't know how we'd feel if they got to try the 12oz with real vanilla and were then told that next time they're only getting the fake 8oz.

Terrible analogy, I know...

Also, you're not wrong, anyone that likes musicals is easily pleased and deluded into buying rubbish. That's a scientific fact.

And, yeah, the new machines are going to be a nightmare to get ahold of for some time. Be persistent if you want one, they do come around with frequency, they just sell out that fast. I think as time goes on and people lose interest in trying to get them "right now" they might free up stock. It sounds like AMD has provisions in place that around July/Aug they might start producing more chips as more factories come online, so Sony and MS should be able to increase production around that time, hopefully.

TBH, the scarcity of consoles is the only reason I'm using my Switch to play Hyrule Warriors right now as my pick up and play for 10 minutes handheld instead of using remote play on the XSX....I don't want to clock more hours of runtime on it while it's hard to replace than I have to to use it at its best. (I'd use RP on the PS5, but Sonys Android RP app sucks and doesn't support BT controllers on Android still, just their own controllers. I think they do on iOS. )

In December I'd play ACNH for an hour or so and then go to SpiderMiles. Then after the frustration of the ACNH RNG and the last straw of my animals going to bed before I could get my sleigh on Christmas (I did time travel back a day to actually get it), I put it down and haven't picked it up since. Soulsborne causes less frustration. And I hate Soulsborne. Switch has been getting Hyrule Warriors time, but that game isn't really doing it for me. I'm counting down the days until SMT.

@NEStalgia,

I knew I was right about those musicals.

And to fair you are correct about the sales, but in fairness it was brought up by somebody else on here, if I recall correctly, and then has been expanded upon several times.

I get people want more, hell I would change some things about the game, but I guess I just do not remember any of these titles offering lots of depth, not saying they did not have extra things to do, I just do not find any of it all that memorable, like I said it's been seven years or so.

I can wait for the next generation machines, I have my Xbox and there is lots of great stuff for it, kind of waiting for that new Lego Star Wars game to drop, has a lot of potential that one.

@NEStalgia You're arguing like everybody shares your opinion.

@Yorumi No, I'm not saying that at all. I understand that there are people who don't like New Horizons, and that's fine. I don't expect everybody to like every game, even a game in a series that they liked previously. What I don't understand are why people who don't like a particular game seem to spend so much time trying to convince those who do like it that they're wrong. And it's always with an air of self-serving superiority, as if they're somehow a better person simply for holding a contrary opinion.

@Yorumi I haven't attacked anybody. I'm only stating the obvious. Look at the general commentary here from people who don't like New Horizons. It is frequently suggested that those of us who do like it are ignorant, undiscerning, naïve, and easy to please. Case in point, one of your own remarks earlier in this thread where you wrote:

"I think there's a certain level to which people are unwilling to criticize Nintendo and admit they're taking many steps backwards."

Here you suggest that people like New Horizons not because they genuinely like it but because they're Nintendo sycophants.

Or this comment from VoidofLight where he literally says that people who like the game simply don't know any better:

"Most of the people buying New Horizons are pretty much people who've never played an Animal Crossing game before, and know no better in terms of the content it's lacking."

Presumably he considers himself to be someone who does know better and is therefore superior to those of us who supposedly don't.

Comments like this suggest that some people think it's more than just a mere difference of opinion, and that other people are objectively wrong for liking a game that they don't, which is an absurd point of view.

@Yorumi "You are attempting to make an objective claim that one side, conveniently your side, is made up of better people than the other."

I have no idea where you are getting that from because I have neither said nor implied it. In fact, I have said the exact opposite.
Seriously, don't you have a rebuttal better than "I know you are but what am I?"

@Yorumi "you are attacking the motives of everyone in this thread who is criticizing the game."

I'm actually not, but my comments have obviously touched a nerve considering the length and vehemence of your reply.

"They are going to try to convince people the logic they are using is correct."

You're trying to debate opinion. Logic doesn't really come into play. I like chocolate ice cream. Is that logical? Of course not. Now if someone came along and said, "You only like chocolate ice cream because you're afraid to criticize the company that makes it," well, that would just be silly.

@CyrilSockbone
you don't own the Great Moor library gym mate, you hold it for 3+ days and then refuse to let anyone stay on it longer than an hour. share the gym or you'll be targeted every day and won't get to stay on anywhere. share the gyms Brandon, i know who you are.

@CyrilSockbone mate you've got your coins overnight, why do you insist on taking the great moor library gym back instantly? it's not your gym, you don't own it. let other players sit on it for a bit otherwise you'll make yourself a target and trust me you do not want that. play fair