With farming and life simulators at an all-time high of popularity with recent hits like Coral Island and upcoming titles like Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, it's little surprise that people now, more than ever, have been wanting to explore more relaxed games. Animal Crossing has always had a dedicated following of players, but New Horizons changed the way we view how we play, experience, and interact in games like these, and this is in big part due to the success of the Switch in the height of the pandemic.
Since its release in 2020, Animal Crossing has become an influential hub for the genre with updates that went on to make a great game even better, with features that would substantially increase the enjoyment and quality of life within Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
10 Dream Islands
When Luna was introduced during a summer update after the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, this gave players the chance to experience a variety of islands without having to get the permission of another islander who is online. This gave players another creative outlet to turn islands into experiences.
The theme park approach to islands that would eventually take over the landscape of Dream Islands added another incredible layer of depth to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Whenever players would get bored with their own or couldn't rely on someone to open their gates, having that ability to go into a creative, interactive island made Dream Islands a huge investment for a lot of players to explore new ideas.
9 Wet Suit
Islands have always been a hot destination for those looking to vacation and get away from everyday life, but islands are what they are because they're surrounded by a body of water. It felt odd that the most villagers could do in Animal Crossing: New Horizons was fish when it came to doing anything water-related, but an update later in the summer of 2020 would introduce a wet suit that would allow players to dive, swim, and more, expanding the interactive nature of the island.
Going into the water added a breath of fresh air to the game, giving players a chance to collect pearls, new fish while diving, and more that would give a plethora of extra activities and seasonal events to do on the island, and even more to give Blathers for the museum.
8 Merchants
Once villagers got acquainted with their new life on an island, the bells would be flowing into those that understood basic commerce and agriculture. This would leave not only Tom Nook very happy, but with an overflowing amount of bells in players' pockets and not much to spend on outside a rotating selection of items in the shops.
Shortly after release, Leif and Redd would eventually make their way to the island and give villagers a variety of options to look forward to and spend their money on. Leif would take care of a lot of new gardening options which would include shrubs, flowers, and seeds to spruce up the island with, while Redd would sell a catalog of specialty items and antiques that included art and furniture, most of which could also be donated to the museum.
7 Brewster's Café
New Horizons implemented a lot of new ideas that entertained players both old and new, but one of its missing components was a mainstay in the series: Brewster's Café. Thankfully after a few updates, however, Brewster made his long-awaited appearance on the island and brought along plenty of caffeine to the museum where his new shop would be.
Brewster's Café has always been a fun little spot to test your barista skills in past games, and though it was mainly a new lounge area this time around that created some unpopular opinions for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it was still a fun little spot to take other villagers and friends visiting an island too. The same offerings were there such as coffee and water, but it was also a great spot that would introduce a new way to take photos during some downtime.
6 Cooking
Working on recipes was fine for the better part of the two years Animal Crossing: New Horizons received updates, but many players eventually reached a point where they could craft nearly every available item the game offered, including some of the most expensive furniture in the game. Cooking brought a fun new way to create dishes similar to other games in the genre, and this included finding new recipes all over again much like the gameplay loop that would happen with furniture.
Whenever players caught new fish, picked up bottles shoreside, or went to the restaurant with the Happy Home Paradise DLC, recipes were obtained that opened up the opportunity of putting the kitchen to good use. Thankfully, existing appliances were automatically updated to work with this new feature, so no special measures were needed to get cooking right away.
5 Hide Owned Items
Though it's a feature that is otherwise a common quality-of-life option in other games to help simplify the screen in shops, Animal Crossing took a bit of time to come around to the idea of hiding items that were previously owned. Thankfully the feature would eventually come around, making the shopping process much more seamless and user-friendly.
With a simple press of the Y-button in shops, players were finally able to keep the list of items available limited to those that have been unattained. This helped tremendously with focus and keeping track of the items a player wanted the most without the stress of constantly scrolling through the same items repeatedly.
4 Custom Design Pro Editor+
Animal Crossing: New Horizons really gave players and villagers the option to be creative in many ways, and designing custom art and content would end up being a big part of decorating items, walls, and more throughout the island and homes with a canvas for paintings, hats, clothes, and plenty of other objects.
Having the Pro Editor+ installed into the phone made it so it wasn't necessary to keep going back to the Able Sisters shop. This also included a massively expanded inventory where players could upload and download significantly more designs than before.
3 Harvey's Shopping Plaza
It can be somewhat problematic to wait for certain characters and events to happen on a player's island since Animal Crossing has traditionally always been tied to a player's system clock and functions in real time. Thankfully, the final update to Animal Crossing: New Horizons brought the ability to go to Harvey's Island and create a market that would solve this problem.
All specialty merchants like Saharah (Rugs, Wallpapers), Kicks (Shoes, Accessories), and Redd (Paintings, Statues) to name a few would all set up a small shop here after players funded the new plots, making this a big park when a certain item is needed - especially for tools that don't last long before breaking - and a player is tired of waiting for them to show up on the island.
2 Island Transfer Tool
One of the most mind-boggling decisions Nintendo has made with their Nintendo Switch Online service is that not every game is compatible with cloud saves. This decision to restrict some save data from reaching another console would cause huge inconveniences to players, and as Animal Crossing: New Horizons could have easily been declared the game with the most collective hours spent per player for the year 2020, the risk and discomfort of the console becoming lost or broken - or simply for save data to corrupt - would mean hundreds of hours of hard work gone forever.
The Island Transfer Tool was one way to circumvent any issues regarding a damaged Switch or the need to play elsewhere. Though it took the better part of eight months post-launch for the feature to arrive, it helped a lot of villagers migrate their islands to another Switch they owned without much of a hassle.
1 Happy Home Paradise
The only DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons would come after months of silence, but it was a great way for players to plateau and eventually sunset the game as it would receive minimal updates other than bug fixes thereon after. Though it was paid DLC, the content offered was massive and expanded the game with what was essentially a more contemporary Happy Home Designer but with a twist.
This feature allowed villagers to make dream vacations come true for other residents, working with Lottie, Niko, and Wardell to provide limitless options for what was possible within homes, schools, and other locations. This also brought permanent new additions that could be used outside the DLC and onto the main island, such as partitions, soundscapes, pillars, and more. It was the ultimate creative outlet for fans of the franchise who saw New Horizons until its final updates.
Source:gamerant.com