Guest article for this blog from my daughter Pooja Krishnan, who is sheltering in sofa with her favorite game.
More than a decade ago, my sister and I got two Nintendo 2DS consoles, an upgrade from our old Gameboy. Super Mario and Animal Crossing were our staples – we played for hours on end until my sister’s DS actually split in half. My personal favorite was Animal Crossing: Wild World – I would get absorbed into the world encased in my DS. Animal Crossing: Wild World is a simulation game with no end goal and no set plot – one just lives amongst adorable anthropomorphized animals, catching fish and bugs and digging up fossils. Sure, you’re constantly in debt to a raccoon named Tom Nook, and if you don’t interact with your neighbors often enough, they leave town – but all in all, it’s a wholesome, nostalgic game.
Nostalgia drove me to purchase Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was released earlier this month. The premise is, Tom Nook bought a deserted private island, where you move to, along with a handful of other animals. He essentially commands you to develop and maintain the island.
My initial impressions are that the graphics are beautiful and that the customization aspects of the game are remarkable. Literally everything in the game is customizable – after you achieve enough tasks and develop the island a bit, you get the ability to completely reshape the island, add cliffs, expand rivers, and more. The quality and ease of movement is far superior to Wild World (this is a given, however, as Wild World was released 15 years ago). Visits to mystery islands provided by “Dodo Airlines” provide an opportunity to go to islands with different fruit, trees, bugs, and fish; DIY crafting abilities allow you to create your own furniture and redecorate in a more personalized manner.
To wit, here is some snark from AC
All in all, the game is just as enthralling as Wild World was as I first started playing – stuck in quarantine, I’ve had the option to visit my friends’ islands over online play, develop my island, and explore the vast features that this game offers. –Pooja
Editors Note:
PS: Huge sales for AC:New Horizons. No better way to beat away the pandemic blues, as many people have figured out.