The Animal Crossing Craze
BY FRANCESCA SERVELLO '22
Do you crave a relaxing vacation on a remote island where you can make friends with a variety of talking animals without any real burdens to hold you back? As it turns out, so do millions of people across the globe! You can find all these things and more in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the newest installment in Nintendo’s classic video game franchise. Many players find solace in the relaxing atmosphere of the game, especially in the aforementioned virtual lack of responsibility (minus the back-breaking loans you have to pay back to a raccoon). I cannot go five minutes on any social media platform without seeing some sort of content relating to this game. So, why is this game so inescapable? Why do I, and many, many others, find it incredibly difficult to stop playing the game at three in the morning? Hopefully, I can provide some answers.
Well, the simplest answer would be the whole quarantine situation. New Horizons was released only a week after most schools began shutting down in response to COVID-19, giving their target audience exponentially more time to play the game. People can just log into the game and immerse themselves in their deserted island and play for hours on end, barely coming up for air. Rumor has it that Nintendo created the virus in order to sell more games, but (hopefully) that’s just gossip.
Aside from all the quarantine business, what else created such a reaction to the new Animal Crossing installment? Well, the game works in real time, setting a slow pace that makes you want to come back every day for more. Unless you “time travel,” or change the time on your Switch in order to go forwards or backwards ingame, shops and upgrades won’t happen in one day. The need to see what’s new and exciting on your island entices players to log on every day. Not to mention the guilt trip your villagers send you on if you stop playing the game for any period of time. Disappointment is always difficult, but it hits differently when it comes from the very villagers you’ve worked so hard to impress and form relationships with.
The game also includes a feature called the “Stalk Market” which is exactly what it sounds like. The player can buy any amount of turnips from a small, exceptionally cute pig named Daisy Mae and check in with the Nooklings, nephews of the loan shark (raccoon?) Tom Nook, to see if they can catch a good price for their turnips and turn a profit. Holding off a spike in prices until the end of the week is always a good way of getting people to come back to the game. Another appealing aspect of the game is the natural aspect of it: fishing and bug-catching. Nothing is more relaxing than fishing for five hours straight, if you don't mind the rush of self-hatred when you pull the rod back too quickly and end up scaring away the fish you swear was going to be worth thousands upon thousands of bells (the ingame currency). Or the anger you feel when you catch the sixteenth sea bass of the day. It’s at least a C+, right?
Overall, the hype surrounding this game is well-deserved, no matter the cause. It seems as though a multitude of factors contribute to the game’s success, from the multiple delays put on the game’s release over the past few years, to the gameplay itself, and to the global pandemic keeping everyone inside and in great shape to spend hours at their television screens. Hopefully no conspiracies were actually involved, because I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I had to boycott Nintendo for something shady like that (especially after spending over three hundred hours in the game). Despite all this, at its core, Animal Crossing is a wonderful game that can be enjoyed by everyone. And it just so happened to have a perfect release day. Definitely check it out if you have the time, which I’m sure you do.
Well, the simplest answer would be the whole quarantine situation. New Horizons was released only a week after most schools began shutting down in response to COVID-19, giving their target audience exponentially more time to play the game. People can just log into the game and immerse themselves in their deserted island and play for hours on end, barely coming up for air. Rumor has it that Nintendo created the virus in order to sell more games, but (hopefully) that’s just gossip.
Aside from all the quarantine business, what else created such a reaction to the new Animal Crossing installment? Well, the game works in real time, setting a slow pace that makes you want to come back every day for more. Unless you “time travel,” or change the time on your Switch in order to go forwards or backwards ingame, shops and upgrades won’t happen in one day. The need to see what’s new and exciting on your island entices players to log on every day. Not to mention the guilt trip your villagers send you on if you stop playing the game for any period of time. Disappointment is always difficult, but it hits differently when it comes from the very villagers you’ve worked so hard to impress and form relationships with.
The game also includes a feature called the “Stalk Market” which is exactly what it sounds like. The player can buy any amount of turnips from a small, exceptionally cute pig named Daisy Mae and check in with the Nooklings, nephews of the loan shark (raccoon?) Tom Nook, to see if they can catch a good price for their turnips and turn a profit. Holding off a spike in prices until the end of the week is always a good way of getting people to come back to the game. Another appealing aspect of the game is the natural aspect of it: fishing and bug-catching. Nothing is more relaxing than fishing for five hours straight, if you don't mind the rush of self-hatred when you pull the rod back too quickly and end up scaring away the fish you swear was going to be worth thousands upon thousands of bells (the ingame currency). Or the anger you feel when you catch the sixteenth sea bass of the day. It’s at least a C+, right?
Overall, the hype surrounding this game is well-deserved, no matter the cause. It seems as though a multitude of factors contribute to the game’s success, from the multiple delays put on the game’s release over the past few years, to the gameplay itself, and to the global pandemic keeping everyone inside and in great shape to spend hours at their television screens. Hopefully no conspiracies were actually involved, because I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I had to boycott Nintendo for something shady like that (especially after spending over three hundred hours in the game). Despite all this, at its core, Animal Crossing is a wonderful game that can be enjoyed by everyone. And it just so happened to have a perfect release day. Definitely check it out if you have the time, which I’m sure you do.
