Animal Crossing: New Horizons! by Grace McDonough

On March 20th, just five excruciatingly long days from now, one of the most highly anticipated video games of the year will become available on the Nintendo Switch. Animal Crossing: New Horizons!!

Animal Crossing is a bit abstract to explain to an audience who didn't begin playing when they were really young. Essentially, the games revolve around you, the player, moving to a new town where you are the only human. When you arrive, the player is approached by a raccoon named Tom Nook, who sells you a house and puts you into crippling debt. While you're stuck paying off that debt, you're free to run around the town, fishing and catching bugs, planting flowers, doing chores for your neighbors, and picking weeds. Okay, I know this doesn't sound like the most riveting game, but I swear, Animal Crossing has an unforgettably charming atmosphere that players of all ages can enjoy. 

This new installment in the series will be the fifth main title of the Animal Crossing lineage. For me, I began playing on the GameCube. It was my brother's game, but we all had villagers living in the same town together. Our town was named Butttown (three t's). My brother, Jack, his villager was named Frank and mine was named Clam. Since it was technically my brother's game, a lot of times I just had to sit and watch him play, but sinking into a bean bag in my cool basement on a hot summer day to watch is a very fond memory to me. We did have a favorite villager. He was a penguin named Roald. I am a bit of an anarchist while playing, so I like to hit villagers I don't like very much with my bug-catching net until they get angry. Repeating this act of violence gets them to move away. 

Official art provided by Nintendo

The Animal Crossing games of the past are beloved because of the freedom it provides the player. The story aspect takes a backseat and instead of traversing the world on an epic quest, all this game really requests of the player is to make money. Customization and interactive conversations allow creative players to activate their imagination in a laid-back style of gameplay. What I've noticed is that over time, the games have gotten tamer. At first, there was a multitude of personality types between characters. Some of them were really mean, throwing honestly personal insults at the player character. This is an aspect that has been lost, and I miss it a lot. Personally, I want this new game to really have a diverse cast of characters with different personalities and lots of things to say.

Roald the Penguin

This is an important current event for me for lots of reasons. One, the nostalgia factor of one of my favorite games ever getting revamped. Two, Animal Crossing is praised for being a relaxing escape from everyday life, something that a lot of people could definitely use right about now if you ask me. And three, what better time to throw countless hours into a video game than during a nice long break! If anything I've said so far has really piqued your interest and you own a Nintendo Switch, then you'll be pleased to know that Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrives in stores and digitally this Friday.