Surviving Lockdown With Animal Crossing New Horizons

When people ask you what you did during the Covid-19 lockdown, what are you going to be able to tell them? I learnt a new craft? I took up gardening? I read a book a day? Me? I will have to admit that I spent most of my time glued to my Switch playing Animal Crossing New Horizons.

I have played Animal Crossing New Horizons every day since it was released on March 20th, and have been enjoying it so much, I've already clocked up over 570 hours on the game! I'll admit I'm totally addicted, but I'm loving this game so much, and it's proving to be a great distraction from everything that's going on in the world at the moment. It's even helped to settle my anxiety, which was all over the place when lockdown first began in the UK. It could not have been released at a better time.

Before New Horizons was released, I was a big fan of Animal Crossing New Leaf, and had played it every day for over fifteen months after receiving a copy as a Christmas present from my younger sister. So, I was naturally excited for New Horizons as soon as I heard about it last year, and bought a Switch Lite just so I could play it.

I preordered the game and began playing it as soon as it arrived on release day. It took me four hours and a lot of resetting to settle on an island I liked (no, I'm not joking!), but once I was happy with a layout, island fruit (oranges), and airport colour (yellow) (all very important factors, as any AC devotee will tell you), I jumped right in to the game, and I've barely stopped playing since.

It didn't take me long to fall in love with this game or to become addicted to it just like I was with New Leaf. It's just so cute and wholesome.

I love that it includes many of the popular aspects and characteristics of previous Animal Crossing games we all know and love like fishing, catching bugs, expanding and decorating a house, cross breeding flowers, designing your own island, shopping for clothes and furniture etc., but with a new high def make over, and a ton of new features that were missing in the past. Some of my favourites include: Terraforming (waterfalls; waterfalls everywhere!); the ability to dig up trees and bushes and replant; crafting furniture from materials found on the island; wishing on shooting stars to earn star fragments for special furniture; having a large selection of clothes and accessories to shop from each day; being able to change your character's look at any time and getting a choice of skin colours; the ability to choose where to place villagers' houses and move the buildings; being able to send gifts to friends; and by far my favourite, the ability to place furniture outdoors! It used to frustrate the hell out of me that I couldn't do this in New Leaf! Now I can place sun loungers on the beach, and make a cemetery out of gravestones. It provides much more creative freedom.

Another thing I love is that the anthropomorphic animal islanders are even cuter in New Horizons than they were in New Leaf. I love how they now sing, run around air-planing, sit in random places eating snacks, and do yoga, I don't know why it amuses me so much. I've already said goodbye to a few characters since the beginning (Ken, Bruce, Bubbles, Zucker, Doc, Diva, Huck), and had several new ones move in, and I'm fairly happy with my current selection. I currently have Iggly, Mint, Gala, Cheri, Pinky, Poppy, Bianca, Nana, Tia and Eloise. I'm still hoping to find Lily and Peanut again, which were two of my favourites from my New Leaf town, but every time I island hop for new characters, I seem to find the worst characters like the eagles and gorillas. Or Ken. Ken's a creep.

I'm really enjoying visiting friends and my sister's islands to hang out, trade, shop, and find island inspiration, and having them visit me to do the same. It's the new cool way to socialise since we can't do this together in real life right now, and we don't even have to worry about social distancing! We can just run round islands together, wish on shooting stars, and beat each other with nets! Haha! (Still waiting on the return of the toy hammer, so nets will have to do for now!) The only bugbear I have about visiting other islands is that you now need a Nintendo subscription to be able to visit friends, which I feel is cheeky considering the price of the game. (You don't need the subscription to visit friends or family playing nearby via local play, though). I think it should be free and accessible to all players.

I've invested so many hours in to my island trying to make it look as pretty as possible. I've got loads still to develop, but the front section has been turned in to a housing estate with the plaza, a playground, and a cafe in the middle. I've got azalea hedges everywhere, and the gardens are filled with pink flowers. My funfair is taking shape, and I love my little cemetery and secret beach that I dug down to out of the cliff face. I'm still working on furnishing my house, but so far I'm happy with my pink and mint basement diner, and the pastel coloured playroom in my attic. I also began a Cute room this weekend, for the Cute furniture I have so far, and just added a second human character so that I could add another house to my island to decorate because six rooms are not enough for all the ideas I have planned. (It's also a great way to get extra storage when you've used up your 1600)!

I'm mostly aiming for a pretty, pastel, natural look for my island, but with fun, and creepy areas added in, but it's sure to change a thousand times before I'm satisfied with it. It's one of those games where you find yourself constantly tweaking and improving the look until it's perfect. It's all consuming, but it's proving to be the perfect distraction from the Corona Virus and isolation. It's given me something else to concentrate on and stops me thinking about all the awful stuff going on because I'm too busy trying to catch butterflies, craft recipes, and construct the perfect layouts. Even the natural sounds of the waves and the waterfalls are really calming, just like being near water in real life. It makes you feel like you're outdoors, even though you're cooped up indoors doing your part to stamp out the virus and keep everyone safe. Gah, I love it!

If you enjoy social simulation games and are looking for a fun way to occupy your time on lockdown and distract yourself from virus life, I couldn't recommend Animal Crossing New Horizons to you more. It's fun, it's cute, it's a great game to play with friends, and there is always so much to do. Yes, it's pricey, but it's worth every penny. Everyone I know who plays the game is addicted. Just be prepared to be, too! Once you start playing, you won't be able to stop!

If you play ACNH and want to hang out or trade, leave me your friend codes!

Do you play Animal Crossing New Horizons? What do you enjoy most about it?