New In­for­ma­tion Re­vealed About New Hori­zons

MISHAWAKA – “An­i­mal Cross­ing: New Hori­zons” had its own ded­i­cated Nin­tendo Di­rect this week which re­vealed a boat­load of new in­for­ma­tion. 

Many Nin­tendo fans and gam­ing fans in gen­eral are un­fa­mil­iar with the “An­i­mal Cross­ing” se­ries, prob­a­bly be­cause it looks and sounds like a game for peo­ple who’re old enough to un­der­stand what money is but not old enough to un­der­stand why mommy and daddy now have so lit­tle of it. How­ever, now is the per­fect time to study up; the new ti­tle, “An­i­mal Cross­ing: New Hori­zons” re­leased a tor­rent of in­for­ma­tion con­cern­ing the new game in a Nin­tendo Di­rect on Thurs­day, Feb. 20. 

This Di­rect took the form of a three-part “in­for­ma­tion ses­sion” headed by the ruth­less se­ries’ loan shark, Tom Nook. Still sound like a game for kids? Nin­tendo seems to think so! The first ses­sion was more of an overview of what play­ers al­ready knew about “An­i­mal Cross­ing,” how it all fits in with the new game, what things they were ex­pand­ing and some ba­sic me­chan­ics of the game. The sec­ond por­tion in­cluded fu­ture de­vel­op­ment plans, like free con­tent up­dates. The third and fi­nal part of the Di­rect was an FAQ ses­sion. 

The best way to sum­ma­rize the plot of the game is same schtick, dif­fer­ent day. In a strik­ing ex­am­ple of par­al­lelism, the game takes place on an is­land as de­serted as your bank ac­count. Tom Nook’s com­pany has funded a “De­serted Is­land Get­away Pack­age,” de­spite him be­ing the only thing you need to get away from. This means you and a se­lect group of an­i­mals – who are will­ing par­tic­i­pants, as far as you know – are flown out to an is­land in the mid­dle of nowhere; you are given a tent, a cot, a lantern and a debt so large you could prob­a­bly build a bridge back to civ­i­liza­tion us­ing all the money you owe. 

It’s not just sun­shine and a tax-col­lect­ing tanuki that’s in this game, though; most of the game’s me­chan­ics re­main the same, but there are plenty of new ad­di­tions, namely, the abil­ity to jump. Jump­ing, pole-vault­ing and, only if you’re in a pinch, a he­li­copter are the new tra­ver­sal op­tions in this game. Be­yond that, brand-new land­scap­ing op­tions are open to play­ers, in­clud­ing paving your own roads, min­ing cliffs and clear­ing trenches for rivers. 

The fu­ture de­vel­op­ment plans in part two are, es­sen­tially, mak­ing the de­serted is­land less de­serted. Play­ers will be able to in­vite new res­i­dents to the is­land and gain ac­cess to new fa­cil­i­ties, like a mu­seum, a shop, a tai­lor and a camp­ground, which is less of a new fa­cil­ity and more of what you’ve been liv­ing in for your time thus far. I feel ob­lig­ated to men­tion that it was at this part of the Di­rect that the fan-fa­vorite char­ac­ter, the worka­holic Shih Tzu, Is­abelle, was first shown on-screen, and view­ers promptly lost their mind over the much-loved, adork­able yel­low dog. There are also re­turn­ing char­ac­ters from other games, like Har­vey, a per­pet­u­ally-camp­ing dog; Ce­leste, a mu­seum-dwelling owl; and La­bel, a fash­ion-de­sign­ing hedge­hog. It’s a weird game. 

Fi­nally, part 3 is the por­tion where the de­vel­op­ers an­swered some an­tic­i­pated ques­tions con­cern­ing the game. One ques­tion read, “Can I play the game to­gether with my fam­ily on a sin­gle Nin­tendo Switch sys­tem?” The an­swer was yes, and eight play­ers can oc­cupy one is­land. These res­i­dents can be sep­a­rate users on the Switch and they can all have their own homes on the same is­land with­out in­ter­fer­ing with any other per­son’s ac­count.  

An­other ques­tion asked, “Does this game sup­port ami­ibo?” This, in my opin­ion, is a pretty silly ques­tion; it’s akin to ask­ing, “Do you want me to give you more money, Nin­tendo?” Of course, the re­sponse was yes.  

Still an­other ques­tion in­quired, “Will there be a spe­cial themed sys­tem to go along with the game?” Once again, Nin­tendo demon­strates com­plete knowl­edge of its tar­get au­di­ence, be­cause they know all those poor saps will be chomp­ing at the bit to drop $299.99 on a new, “An­i­mal Cross­ing” themed Switch. How do I know the ex­act price, you ask? Well, if you stop eye­ing my shop­ping list, which that is def­i­nitely not on, I’ll tell you. 

All in all, this Nin­tendo Di­rect was ex­actly what the “An­i­mal Cross­ing” fan­dom wanted, starved as they are for new con­tent on this ti­tle that’s al­ready seen a hefty de­lay; I say that like I’m not burn­ing up with im­pa­tience along with them. Ei­ther way, “An­i­mal Cross­ing: New Hori­zons” re­leases on Mar. 20, 2020, mean­ing I’ll be off to my very own de­serted is­land with my tent, a cou­ple of an­i­mal friends and the great­est in­hu­man con-artist of all time in less than a month. Hope they’ve got Wi-Fi out there…