Back in December, the UK's National Video Game Museum announced their latest project: documenting and archiving the first year of the global pandemic, through the lens of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Nine months later, the exhibit is ready, and it's gorgeous, with Animal Crossing-style art, player stories, and plenty of images that act as windows into other people's play.
The main part of the exhibition — which you can find on the Animal Crossing Diaries website — is the stories, and they range from exploring fashion in pixels, to creating games within the game, and even feature players representing their own cultural heritage on their deserted islands.
It's a touching tribute to the game that dominated the first few months of the lockdown, becoming a cultural, historical moment all of its own.
The stories are divided into five themes: Keeping A Routine, Making Your Space, Representing Yourself, Sharing Creativity, and Staying In Touch, at least one of which you can probably relate to yourself.
There's also a timeline of Animal Crossing in-game events, an oral history of the game, and the background of how it was made — all in all, a pretty informative exhibition. It's just like going to a real-life museum, except with no gift shop.
For a little more background on the exhibition, you should read this feature by Jay Castello on The Verge, where they interview the people behind the exhibition to find out where it came from, and where it's going.
What are your best Animal Crossing: New Horizons stories? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments 11
Spent 8 months adoring the game and playing it for over 1000 hours then spent 10 months waiting for a substantial upgrade! I know a lot of people just restart their island so they can get more playtime and it's not that I'm not super grateful for what came in the game and all the little holiday bonuses but I'd sure love to hear about what's next for the game, I love my island too much to restart it and I really miss hanging out with my villagers.
@SpaceboyScreams it’s hard to complain about a game we have spent so much time on, but it seems to me that there could be so much more…just adding mini games as DLC would be awesome. Like, be able to play the pinball machine…tennis, bowling, even a race track…I would plop down $20 for that.
Well, this series is now dead, at least to the people who played the others. Shame.
It's a shame I burned out of the game as quickly as I did. The added freedoms compared to New Leaf were wonderful, but it always felt that the game was on a slower burn, and the amount of stuff to play with was also significantly reduced. To this day, they've yet to add back certain items or furniture sets I've wanted.
I will hope that the rumored update this year adds a lot more content, but I doubt that will happen. And if it doesn't, then my town of Alefgard will continue to rot in my memories...
"What are your best Animal Crossing: New Horizons stories?"
When my villagers didn't want to share their food to me, it made me cry. 🤣
When i wore Red top outfits and White bottom + Red and White Windflowers shaped like Indonesia's flag to celebrate Indonesia's independence day. 🇮🇩
@VoidofLight I have said this before... It isn't dead to me, and I have played the other games. I enjoyed the hell out of New Leaf, really enjoyed City Folk, Wild World, and the GameCube Animal Crossing.
So just because someone has played the other games... doesn't mean it is dead to them. What you are saying would be like if a Star Wars fan were to say, "well if anyone watched the original trilogy... then the series is dead to them now, because it is ***** to them". Meanwhile that argument falls on its face too easily.
I actually submitted a diary to this. 🙂🥰
@VoidofLight
Been playing since Gamecube, nah it ain't dead to me
@PBandSmelly,
Same here, and the latest one is awesome.
@Natsura It's dead to a lot of long time fans. I never said it's dead to all of them, but New Horizons kind of messed up the series for a lot of people who previously enjoyed it, and the fact it sold well effectively means that this treatment of the series is here to stay.. which is disappointing.
@VoidofLight yeah it is disappointing, but I do think your wording was a bit off.
"Well, this series is now dead, at least to the people who played the others." sorta sounds like you are speaking for the entirety of people who have played previous games. Try to word your comments on this aspect better in the future, since people like me do exist, and our feelings are still valid.
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