Mountain_Man

Sheesh... we'll never get a Mario Kart 9 if number 8 keeps selling like this.

Is this the part where we pretend that New Leaf offered a deep and varied experience despite having the exact same core gameplay as New Horizons?

I'm honestly surprised anybody thought they were actually on location, because to my eye, it looks obviously artificial. The Unreal Engine is capable of so much more, for example, the completely convincing photorealistic imagery you see in The Mandalorian, but I guess this was done on a much smaller budget.

@michellelynn0976 Since you have ignored my polite request, my only recourse is to place you on ignore. Bye, now.

@eltomo "So is it worth buying some now for a quick profit?"

Anybody who tries to play the stock market as a "get rich quick" scheme usually finds that it's more "get poor quick". It is extraordinarily difficult to beat the market. Long-term investments in mutual funds are your best bet.

@michellelynn0976 Please, stop trolling.

I would love to see a pocketable handheld from Nintendo with games and cartridges that can also be played on the Switch.

@michellelynn0976 It appears I struck a nerve.

@michellelynn0976 If it will make you feel better.

@michellelynn0976 You can believe that if you wish.

If this were a real bike, and you tried it ride it, it would almost certainly snap in two where the front half and back half of the frame are joined at a single point.

@michellelynn0976 That's the kind of response I expect from someone who can't admit they're wrong.

I didn't like this game. Something about it just didn't grab me, which is odd, because it had a lot of things I usually enjoy in games — tactical combat, exploration, RPG style character development — but after a solid 8-hours with it, I simply wasn't having fun. Nothing against the game since by all other accounts it's terrific, but I guess it just wasn't for me.

@michellelynn0976 You're wrong. Q.E.D.

@MajorTom "I am not talking about the aesthetic content."

You then go on to describe what is essentially aesthetic content. Think about it: adding new shops in New Leaf doesn't actually let the player do anything he couldn't already do from the beginning, which is buy items. Sure, the shops change appearance and give you a slightly larger selection, but there's not actually new content or gameplay mechanics being added. It is still, at its most fundamental level, nothing more than the daily item slot machine with a new coat of paint. Then you have structures like Roosters and the police station that can be added at some point, and you can eventually change the external appearance of the Town Hall and the Train Station, but at the end of the day, all you're really doing is progressively changing the look of your town, which is exactly the same progression you get in New Horizons, just presented in a different fashion.

@MajorTom "I myself prefer progression in features instead of decoration."

But what is the meaningful difference between a player actively shaping the look of his island in New Horizons, and spending bells to passively unlock aesthetic content in New Leaf? Frankly, I don't think there really is any meaningful difference. They are essentially the same game mechanic — that of decorating your town — simply presented in a different way.

@johnvboy Shop upgrades could be easily incorporated by keeping the footprint the same while giving the exterior a visual makeover and expanding the interior (the structures in Animal Crossing already have a "bigger on the inside than the outside" quality to them), but honestly, even that wouldn't satisfy the complainers. Here's what would happen if Nintendo added shop upgrades to New Horizons: people who have stopped playing would rush back to the game, they would spend hours grinding for bells to unlock the next bit of gated content as quickly as possible, and then they would go right back to grousing about how New Horizons isn't an exact copy of New Leaf.

@MajorTom "Outside of unlocking the first Nook shop upgrade, the museum, clothes shop and terraforming what is there more to unlock?"

One of the problems with this discussion is people having such a narrow point of view about what qualifies as "proper progression". To hardcore New Leaf fans, the only "proper" form of progression is grinding for bells to unlock gated content. New Horizons measures progression a little differently. Instead of new shops (in some cases seemingly arbitrarily) popping up on Main Street, your town grows and develops as the player actively expands it. As I look through my New Horizons photos, there is an undeniable sense of progression from my first days on a barren island to now with my (almost) fully developed town (I say "almost" because it's fun to tinker, and it's not unusual for a new item or crafting recipe to cause me to completely rethink a corner of my island paradise).

And this is why the debate will never end. There are more similarities than differences between new Leaf and New Horizons, but some people can only see the differences and bitterly complain about them. And that's why this will likely be the last time I participate in the comment section of an Animal Crossing article, because I'm getting tired of the handful of people making the same negative remarks.

@NEStalgia "The fact that there's a debate that can go on and on is what indicates Nintendo massively missed the mark on the game..."

I suppose that's one way to look at it. Another is that some people just like to complain.

Downloaded the demo for Samurai Warriors 5. I was concerned about performance considering how poorly Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity runs, but SW5 runs really well. Gameplay seems fast and smooth with no evident slowdown. Might be worth a purchase.

@VoidofLight You're right that there's lots to do in New Leaf beyond my deliberately dismissive description suggesting that the only thing to do is grind for bells. Similarly, there's lots to do in New Horizons beyond your deliberately dismissive description suggesting that the only thing to do is decorate.

Ah well, the debate will go on and on... and on...

@VoidofLight Like I said, the debate will never end. You claim that "After the first two months in New Horizons, unless you want to decorate, there’s nothing to really unlock or do." Of course I disagree, but let's flip that around to illustrate a point: "After the first two months in New Leaf, unless you want to grind for bells, there’s nothing to really unlock or do." You see? Describing something in the most negatively biased way possible isn't really a very good argument, is it? That's why I'll probably just avoid New Horizons comment sections going forward.

@VoidofLight "I keep pointing out why New Horizons is different from previous entries..."

Of course it's different. Wild World was different from the original Animal Crossing; New Leaf was different from Wild World; City Folk was different from New Leaf; New Horizons is different from City Folk; and the next Animal Crossing will be different from New Horizons. However, there are more similarities than differences across all the games. They all offer the same core Animal Crossing experience that has been in place since the original. It's mostly just the busy work that has changed from game to game. The primary difference between New Horizons and New Leaf is that New Horizons seems to have less gated content. In practical terms, this means less time spent tediously grinding for bells, which the overwhelming majority of New Leaf players did through repeated visits to Tortimer's Island to farm beetles and sharks. Honestly, I really can't say I miss that aspect of New Leaf.

At any rate, this is a debate that will never end, and I should just stay out of it, because those of us who enjoy the game will never convince those who don't, and vice versa. But allow me to make a prediction: when the next Animal Crossing is released, there are going to be malcontents saying, "This sucks! Where are all the great features we had in New Horizons? I've been playing since the original, and that was the best one in the series! Nintendo is ripping us off with this water down crap!"

I guarantee this will happen.

The name "Easy Flight Simulator" puts me off. Sounds like a game definitely aimed at casuals. I have X-Plane, the gold standard for flight modeling, on my PC. Anything less than that would just be disappointing.

@Yorumi Whether the "cut" content represents an "enormous" deficit, and the new content merely a "miniscule" addition is a matter of opinion.

@NEStalgia I don't suppose you know what a straw man fallacy is, do you? Because your comment here is a pretty good example of it.

@VoidofLight "[New Horizons] is aimed more for the decorative player than it is for the people who like the life sim elements."

This statement continues to baffle me. As far as life simulations go, I don't see any significant difference between New Horizons and previous Animal Crossing games. Villager interactions have always been largely a shallow "Click on villager; read dialog; done" affair. Even the vaunted New Leaf wasn't any different. I would say if New Horizons deserves any criticism on this point, it's that it stuck to the formula used in previous entries in the series rather than doing something new.

@Yorumi "The list of cut content is enormous, the list of added content in miniscule."

At least that's your opinion.

@Yorumi "The main criticism of NH is that it cut a ton of content out of the game..."

And the main compliment for New Horizons is that it added a ton of new content that wasn't in previous Animal Crossing games while maintaining the core mechanics.

See? You're a "glass is half empty" kind of thinker.

@Yorumi I'm sure if you put your mind to it, you could come up with a list of design deficiencies for New Leaf as well — for instance, the stupidly random method for getting town project requests; the fact that progression in New Leaf largely consisted of tediously grinding for bells; that by far the most efficient way to earn bells was to farm beetles on Tortimer's Island; an aggravating grass wear mechanic that could turn your town into a muddy wasteland if you weren't careful; villagers who would move out without warning; and so on.

So, is New Leaf perfect? No. Are there things I wish it did differently? Yes. Does that prevent it from being an enjoyable game? No. And you could say the exact same ting about New Horizons.

@Yorumi That's "the glass is half empty" thinking. It's true that New Leaf had certain features that New Horizons doesn't have, but it's also true that New Horizons has a number of significant features that New Leaf doesn't have.

@ModdedInkling "Had COVID not existed, this game would've died much earlier..."

I disagree. I think part of the disenchantment with New Horizons stems from the fact that a lot of people had too much time on their hands, so they binged on New Horizons, playing for hours a day for weeks and burned themselves out on it. That's really not how Animal Crossing is designed, and not even New Leaf could hold up to such intense and focused play. The fact that some New Horizons players are complaining about not having a full museum, or all crafting recipes after less than a year suggests they are approaching Animal Crossing with the wrong mindset. It's supposed to be something you dip into for 15 or 20 minutes a day between other games, but due to the pandemic, there seemed to be this rush by some people to "beat" the game as quickly as possible, and now they're complaining that there's nothing left to do.

Love New Horizons. 480 hours, and I still play almost daily (some days more than others), but more content is always welcome. Hopefully Nintendo has plans for something substantial.

Misread the headline. I thought they were adding Metroid tunes to Monster Hunter and became very confused.

I always liked the idea of StreetPass, but even at the peak of the 3DS, I was lucky to get three hits a week despite living in a large college town and carrying my 3DS everywhere. I never really understood why. Completing the StreetPass games became easier once my wife and I bought a 3DS for each of our three kids, so we were always guaranteed multiple StreetPass hits a day from each other.

I agree with the comments up-thread that between StreetPass, SpotPass, and MiiVerse, the 3DS really felt like a community of players, able to passively and actively interact. The Switch does feel rather sterile in that regard. Even though the marketing tries to sell it as something people will sit down and play together, it is largely a solo experience just like any other console.

I miss MiiVerse. That was one of the coolest things Nintendo ever came up with, so of course they discontinued it and never bothered with any sort of replacement.

@BloodNinja "There has to be more similarity than the wildly different devices you mentioned."

The Switch, Google Pixel, and FiiO music player are not "wildly different devices". That was my point. They are all essentially the same device but designed for and sold to different segments of the consumer market (the primary difference between them is in the software and not the hardware). As this relates to the Switch and the Steam Deck, as I said initially, the Switch will appeal primarily to people who want a portable gaming console, and the Steam Deck will appeal to people who want a portable PC. Nintendo and Valve are going after two different types of consumers. Personally, I can't see someone who wants the pick-up-and-play simplicity of a console buying a Steam Deck, whereas a PC gamer with a large library of PC games and who likes to tinker with custom software and operating systems will not want a Switch.

@johnvboy "I think he is suggesting they are very similar in their set up..."

That's where I suspected he was heading with this, and it's a silly point. All modern electronics use similar if not identical components. Case in point, if you did a teardown of my Switch, my FiiO hi-res digital audio player, and my Pixel phone, you would find more similarities than differences, but each one still has significantly different target market. Someone who wanted a phone wouldn't buy a Switch, and someone who wanted a portable game console wouldn't buy a digital music player.

@BloodNinja And I'm asking you what about it? I don't see the relevance.

@BloodNinja What about it?

I would have thought this was obvious. Switch is targeted at people who want a portable video game console. Steam Deck is targeted at people who want a portable PC. They're completely different markets.

@Phostachio "I don’t really know much about basketball, why is LeBron unlikeable?"

Short version, he's a blowhard who gives himself more credit than he deserves, and he's a shill for China.

@kingbk I don't remember Nike having a particularly big presence in the first movie beyond the fact that Michael Jordon was basically the face of Nike at the time. If anything, it was a commercial for the Michael Jordan brand.

Unlike Michael Jordan, LeBron James is thoroughly unlikeable.

As far as I'm concerned, Peter Capaldi is the last Doctor. I didn't leave Doctor Who, Doctor Who left me.

I got an email about that survey, but I didn't see what was in it for me, so I declined to participate. They could have at least given us something for our time, like a free game from the eShop, or an exclusive piece of in-game swag for New Horizons.

Like many comedians, Robin Williams hid his pain behind laughter. Ever wonder why he seemed so good at playing morose characters in some of his later movies? It's because that's who he really was. It's strange how some of the funniest people are also the saddest.

"Free" NES games as a bonus in Animal Crossing and Metroid Zero Mission... the good old days before Nintendo realized they could print money at will by selling decades old software.

So we all agree, it's a lazy port, but we don't care. Ha ha!

@JaxonH "Has everything to do with the fact it's objectively not lazy by any reasonable comparison..."

That's your opinion.