➤ Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the review 🎮

You can't imagine how difficult it was to write this Animal Crossing: New Horizons review. The Nintendo franchise is pretty much a genre on its own. There is hardly anything that resembles it and, if there is, it is only a pale imitation. The various Animal Crossing that have followed one another over the years have continually built on the foundations laid by the first Dōbutsu no Mori - it is the Japanese title - in 2001: despite this, every time we have to re-explain what Animal Crossing is and how it works, even to the new ones. players, we feel strongly uncomfortable. Conveying its appeal is not easy; it makes you want to appeal to the Nintendo Difference sacred amendment and let fate do the rest.

There is little to do: this is not an experience for everyone. There will always be someone who will find it deeply ridiculous to spend time collecting fruit and shells for anthropomorphic animals that seem to come out of an episode of Melevisione. And there will always be someone else who will let themselves be conquered, someone who will find in that light-hearted, eccentric alternative world, so full of joy and color, a perfect balance that only Nintendo's alchemists could achieve. We dedicate this review to those who love to take flight on the wings of fantasy.

The first steps

Imagine you bought a vacation package to reach a desert island where you can build a community of your own: here, the new Animal Crossing: New Horizons begins just like that. In the past we have moved to villages and cities, reaching them by train or by bus, but this time we will arrive by flight. Your very first decisions will be about the initial shape of the island and the appearance of the inhabitant who will represent you in the game. The new editor it includes a greater variety of distinctive signs than in the past, which should please the most demanding players. The first thing you will discover, once you go ashore, is that a large part of the island will be temporarily closed to you: rivers and gradients divide the map into several parts, preventing you from freely exploring the territory. And basically, in the beginning, you will have to learn how to live in your new home. The first few days are a giant tutorial and good old man Tom nook he will give you all the tools and will explain to you in detail how to get used to it: be careful, because there are a lot of news also for the old players of Animal Crossing.

One of them is the Nook Phone, a smartphone which, in essence, is an interface that you can call up with a button to access various apps or features such as the map of the island, the camera with which you can capture the best moments of your adventure, the editor models that you can then copy onto clothing and so on, and so on. The most important app of all, however, is that of miles, a new dynamic that in a way disrupts the nature of Animal Crossing, profoundly affecting the gameplay. To make you understand the importance of Miles, it will be better to tell you about our experience, also because talking about Animal Crossing: New Horizon with a sterile explanation of mechanics and news would not only make little sense, but it would be an insult to its carefree nature.

Miles after miles

We arrived at our destination on February 26, when the island still had a gray aspect from the winter we were leaving behind, the wind that shook the trees, fueling an atmosphere that was not exactly the most welcoming. Three of us got off the plane: it was us, Amleto and Cigliola. The two visitors who, together with us, bought Tom Nook's vacation package, settled in immediately and ran with us to set up the tents. In fact, this was the first step in our life on the island: we chose an empty land next to a stream and a few meters from the beach, then we returned to the square to celebrate the beginning of our adventure together with Tom Nook, Mirco and Marco. Nook also entrusted us with the very important task of baptizing the island which, after a long reflection, we decided to call Portogatto.

These first steps in Animal Crossing: New Horizons weren't that different from usual. We immediately started collecting shells and fruit to sell to the two little raccoons, along with the weeds scattered all over the place and which, for the first time in the series, can be pocketed. Nook then explained how to use the bank gives lavoro in its marquee: a simple and immediate interface that allows you to reuse the collected materials to build tools, furniture and decorations.

With the twigs and the collected stones we have then manufactured the most important tools for every self-respecting inhabitant of Animal Crossing: a shovel, a hatchet, a fishing rod, a net. Everything you need to hunt for insects, fish and wood, grow new fruit trees, unearth fossils and hidden treasures. At this point, a common Animal Crossing immediately enters its fundamental collection and sale loop: the starlets, the historical coin of the series, is still needed, even more than before, but there are also the Miles that actually give meaning to our games.

Nook has in fact explained the function of the Stellomat, a device where we can pay the accumulated stars and which also allows us to access the Nook Catalog, which records all the objects found in the game, but above all the Miles Catalog. The Miles, which we have already mentioned, are accumulated by reaching certain objectives that the Nook Phone catalogs in the app Miles of Nook: Most of these achievements are initially hidden and practically unlock themselves as we lead our life on the island. Imagine the classic achievements or Trophies, then multiply them progressively. For example, catching a fish rewards you with a certain number of Miles; then you have to draw ten, fifty and so on, each stage rewards you with more and more Miles, and the same happens when you catch a butterfly or cut some wood, among other things. Each activity is a goal that pays off in Miles and that pushes us to experiment, to build and, more generally, to play.

Miles are used to buy new DIY patterns, new furniture and clothing - the catalog is progressively updated - but also and above all new features such as tool wheel, which allows you to choose the tool to be equipped on the fly, updates that improve the various apps and new options to customize the inhabitant, for example hair and particular signs. Fortunately, the Miles catalog It also includes a series of smaller, and completely random, daily milestones that you can continuously complete to earn new Miles: each milestone achieved is immediately replaced by a new random goal, guaranteeing a constant flow of Miles. If you have already played at least one Animal Crossing before, you can easily understand the importance of this novelty: the Miles, in practice, continuously give us a purpose even in those days when there are no particular events or when we have already finished ours. round of daily activities.

Improve the island

We arrived in Portogatto that the island had three inhabitants, in addition to the Nooks and the operators of Dodo Airlines. At this point, any Animal Crossing would have basically left us to ourselves: it is no mystery that the first few days are always the most monotonous, mostly because there is not a lot to do and the resources at some point run out. . That Nintendo wanted to distance itself from this philosophy is already understood by the Miles, but there is also a kind of narrative which develops alongside our island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Please note that we are not talking about a real plot, but a series of primary objectives that give a logical sense to the progression. Tom Nook, in fact, intends to transform our Portogatto into a full-fledged community and for this reason he has entrusted us with some important assignments. One of the first, for example, was to build a museum in which to exhibit the fauna of the island that they continued to sell in exchange for stars. At the same time, we had to collect a generous amount of materials for Marco and Mirco, so that they could build their own workshop.

From the museum to the shop, passing through the arrival of new inhabitants, Animal Crossing: New Horizons began to show its true face almost immediately, unveiling a complicated interlocking game that follows our progression without overwhelming us with information, capabilities and functionality. Watching the juicy Direct we feared that New Horizons might overdo it, mixing the DIY experience in the Pocket Camp episode for mobile systems with the relaxed nature of a series that should do everything but become a goal-oriented RPG. Instead, despite having played every single Animal Crossing released over almost twenty years, the organicity and consistency with which Nintendo has developed the progression of our life on the island however it amazed us. Each day was a discovery and slowly we began to learn completely new ways to bend the environment to our imagination. When Tom Nook taught us how to make a pole and a ladder, we finally found a way to cross streams and climb hills, and that way we could explore the rest of the island and decide where to build bridges and ramps. And that was only the beginning.

We cannot and absolutely do not want to reveal the exact order in which we learned certain new patterns and transformed Portogatto into our small tourist paradise, but if it is true that on February 26 we were three inhabitants celebrating the beginning of a new life on the island , on March 14, ten of us met to inaugurate the opening of the sisters' boutique Aug and Phil. While Portogatto, in recent weeks, has grown up with us and our tent has become a nice little house with two rooms, a comfortable bed - which we have built and, subsequently, recolored at will - and lots of junk here and there. At this point, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has officially entered that assembly line that we mentioned at the beginning, the loop of every self-respecting Animal Crossing, this time multiplied by the incredible freedom of Customization which offers us not only our home, but the whole island.

Bridges, ramps, fences, pavements, and more plots of land to rent to earn a few more Miles that doesn't hurt, and many other ways to transform the scenery, not just by planting trees - literally moving them from one point to another, if we want! - but placing decorations and objects everywhere, without disturbing the revolutionary possibility of changing the geography of the island practically at will. Portogatto today sports a large lighthouse that lights up at night to guide imaginary sailors into the distance; to the east, on a small hill, we found space for an inviting thermal spring that we surrounded with bamboo trees; to the north, on a cliff against which the waves punctually break, we have set up a monolithic complex that is very Stonehenge and that we were lucky enough to find in one of those packages hanging from the balloons that occasionally float above our heads. Now our goal has changed: to improve the island, fill it with life, and get a certain singer to perform for our community.

New horizons

There are still many things we would like to do and the desire to spend at least an hour in Portogatto every day has not yet passed, especially in such a dark moment as the one we are experiencing in the reality of the national quarantine. We haven't attended any party yet: February and March were poor in events and we just met some old knowledge like Gulliver and Spiriteo, we bought turnips on Sunday mornings and Sahara carpets on Mondays, as was done in almost all the old Animal Crossings. We also met Fiorilio, the hippy dog who in New Horizons lives on an island of his own where we can set up a real photographic set and indulge ourselves with the Nook Phone app. It is in fact possible to change the island temporarily and visit, for example, those of friends, but to find out what Animal Crossing: New Horizons is like in multiplayer mode you will have to be patient a little longer, since Nintendo has absolutely forbidden us to connect the console to the Internet for the duration of the test. In short, our rating is mainly based on what New Horizons offers offline, also because not everyone wants or can afford a multiplayer mode which therefore becomes an added value.

However, we visited the random islands almost every day, designed to broaden the horizons of lone players. Just buy the special ticket at the Stellomat and show it to the operator of the Dodo Airlines: these procedural islets they are used to gather extra resources, especially if you have run out of them for the day, and perhaps to meet new animals that may decide to move to your island. The casual nature of these scenarios helps players who cannot collaborate in multiplayer mode to enrich their island with exotic fruits, rare collectibles and other little surprises. It is a kind of lottery that does not always pay back the cost in Miles, but that can sometimes be a real jackpot: imagine ending up on an islet full of fruit that does not grow on your island - and which will therefore be worth much more to the sale. - or teeming with rare insects that you can take to the Blatero museum or sell to the Nook twins. Don't worry: your inventory is bound to grow and Mirco and Marco have found a solution to do business even at night. Nintendo listened to us.

In fact, if there is one thing that does not return to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it is the constant, insistent need for accumulate stars. Veterans of the series will certainly be used to saving up to pay off debts with Tom Nook or buying the rarest furniture and clothing, but New Horizons raises the bar by asking for stars for virtually every service. Building bridges and ramps costs a small fortune, moving entire buildings just as much, and then there are the tools that wear out and break, forcing you to buy them again or collect the materials needed to make them. It is a loop within the loop, in other words, which reveals the only dark side of the Nintendo title, and that is an important farm that may bore some players: there is nothing worse than breaking a net while you are catching butterflies and having to go around the island to buy or make another one. But we are still talking about an experience to be lived in small doses, to be savored day after day without bandaging your head or racing to unlock a new feature or a new tool, and New Horizons, in this sense, is truly the best. Animal Crossing that a gamer looking for escapism might want.

Aesthetic and technical aspects

First episode of the series in high resolution, the new Animal Crossing certainly does not strain the muscles of Nintendo Switch and faithfully adheres to the essential style that has characterized it for years, while maintaining the sensitive evolutions adopted in the latest iterations to streamline the polygonal models and make room for a greater variety of garments and animations. That said, Animal Crossing: New Horizons sports a myriad of tiny details that embellish the general glance, testifying to the maniacal care and love that the Nintendo team has reserved for this latest creation.

We could make a very long list of these details - ranging from the rain that ripples the surface of the water to the wind that shakes trees and flowers at different intensities - but what struck us most is the new dynamic lighting which, together with a much more sophisticated shading system, significantly defines the framed scenario, involving the player much more. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a clean, colorful, full of energy title, and it conveys an amazing tenderness and good humor.

Nintendo did not intervene in an incisive way on models of the inhabitants, but has made some interesting tweaks here and there with a view to what is an all-round visual improvement. The animals they now sport a "flocked" shader reminiscent of velvet figurines, as well as slightly more slender proportions that allow for a greater variety of animations and behaviors. It is not uncommon to see them sweeping the floor, doing tai chi in the square or resting with a book in their hands in the shade of a cedar.

Their artificial intelligence has remained relatively limited to interactions and dialogues that depend on their individual characters: our neighbor Hamlet, for example, is a true record-breaking sportsman who spends most of his time running like crazy. L'Spanish adaptation it is, as always, a joy. The dialogues are funny and spontaneous, full of puns and funny quotes.

We could draw up a dry list of news and information, we said, but it would make little sense because we are sure that Animal Crossing fans have already booked the game for months. For them, this review is just a confirmation that the title they have been waiting for has exceeded all expectations and represents the natural evolution of a franchise that didn't necessarily need to find a new direction, but that did it anyway. We can only suggest to everyone else that they ask themselves if they are Animal Crossing types. It is difficult to understand and we are not sure if it is advisable to recommend the purchase to those who do not know what they are facing: the calm pace of play, the emphasis placed on modeling and decorating the island, the importance that the collecting compulsive are the fundamental aspects of a singular experience. Watch the gameplay videos, read our in-depth articles and finally ask yourself if what you need is some healthy escapism, because in this case it would be difficult to find a better game.

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9.5

Readers (178)

8.5

Your vote

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is without a shadow of a doubt the spearhead of a series that has continued to make converts since 2001, embracing an ever-wider audience. Nintendo has perfected the proven formula by integrating slightly more complex mechanisms that do not distort the franchise as we had feared, but which indeed find an even more convincing balance between the dynamics of a social simulator and those of a management title. The freedom of customization that New Horizons guarantees is simply incredible and we can't wait to find out what new things await us in the months to come with the updates and holidays that will follow one another on the calendar of our beloved Portogatto.

PRO

Lots of customization possibilities
Miles guarantee a constant stream of goals that never leave the player on their hands
Attention to the smallest details

AGAINST