Benzyme's Warp-Zone

"Is that the... M-m-mayor?! Where the hell have you been for 3 years! You abandoned us during covid!" 

I was interested in returning to the free Animal Crossing: New Horizon (and paid Switch 2) update  to see if it would actually add any content to make people return to Animal Crossing. 

For posterity if anyone reads this in the future, during 2020, Animal Crossing was a big deal. I think more then every I had friends buy a switch, and log on to the play this game. We had a network of 20 strong, making use of discord and each other to buy and sell and simulate society that Australia's covid rules had taken away.

I never expect Animal Crossing to be this fun every again, especially 6 years later (WHAT?! Where did the time go?) But I was curious if Nintendo would add content to attract anyone to come back. 

So far, based on my switch friends list. Only one person has come back and she does not make use of the Switch 2 features. 

So I do think this DLC fails in its goals. Whilst it does add a new hotel that can be customized and worked through about two hotel rooms a day, where you add furniture and set themes and later get rewarded with rare and cool items. Such as a working NES that will boot up the NSO NES game service. This feature seems really to be just a free repeat of the Happyhome Resort Island DLC that loyal fans got for free with NSO subscription and have played to death. 

There is an option to now build and decorate islands with friends. This is a cool feature for those that love island customisation and much needed when 6 years later you may have already become fairly satisfied with your own island and have zero desire to destroy everything to start from scratch. But this is really Minecraft create for girls that like the dollhouse aspect of Animal Crossing, but I do think that doll house aspect has been done to death and the hotel experience is just the doll house experience all over again. 

It is a popular criticism that Animal Crossing has lost a lot of its edge and limitations that made the older games fun. I agree and find a lot of NPC dialogue dry. But that's not my main criticism. My main criticism is there is not enough to do in the game. 

The $8 AUD Switch 2 upgrade will get you the 4K resolution, mouse controls for decorating and 12 player online that can make use of gamechat's camera and microphone features. Which is cool and if that stuff existed in covid, may have been gamechanging to make the switch even more popular. 

But at a $750 AUD console that keeps going up in price with every tariff, Australian tax and RAM shortage that occurs. I don't think many of my friends except those that owned a switch lite are coming back for the Switch 2, six years later. So far, I really only use the gamechat feature to chat to one friend and only when he grinds in Pokemon. It's a great feature, I like it and don't mind it on in the background. The Switch 2's separate processor to do all that is great. The open distant mic filtering voice to be clear and clean is fantastic. But I am literally never going to have 12 people to play animal crossing with at the same time ever again unless their is another pandemic. 

The main issue I believe ultimately stems from, with each animal crossing update. There is not actually enough gameplay to play with friends. Not even enough to do with two people (to rouse my Wife to come back to her island and play with me) let alone 12 people. I hope this is a quick DLC dump, for first time kids buying the console on the switch 2 so the devs can run off and finish Splatoon Raiders. I am sure a new Animal Crossing for Switch 2 won't arrive anytime soon and I'll have to get my kicks for cosy funny Nintendo life sims from the upcoming Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream where I plan to recreate miis of every member of my local Reformed Baptist church. 

But for the future of Animal Crossing they really need to think of more gameplay options for people to play together. A customizable dream island is okay. Especially when the core islands could be restrictive. But I think there needs to be actual mini-games and different modes that people can do for fun. There needs to be more interactivity and life simulation elements. Mini-Townsfolks quests to do together, maybe a small board game mode. Fantasy Life style jobs that can be done as a mini-game. A randomized puzzle dungeon to complete together for rare rewards. Somewhere specific to journey with friends where you can feel a sense of progress with friends. 

Or furniture in the future needs a lot of cool interactions. New Horizons boasted a lot of new interactable furniture but there needs to be more games to play in multiplayer. A soccer ball should be able to be used as a soccer ball. A slide should be usable as a slide. Maybe more NPCs dialogue and talk about your friends more and have more permanent memories. 

I hope Nintendo has more ideas in the future. Because right now, I don't think anyone is coming back for this update. And if they do, they will log in for the length of the hotel event and then never again.

Maybe Poketopia: Pokémon Animal Crossing, actually will be fun. But I have zero interest spending money on it. Oh well.