By: M. Ahmadad

On March 20, 2020, ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ was released on the Nintendo Switch, allowing for one island to be shared on multiple accounts per console. The game revolves around building and enjoying your own customized community and life on a deserted island. You can have homes with your friends or family, or invite humanoid animal villagers to live and participate in daily activities with.

The game was not meant to be released during the COVID crisis, and the Nintendo developers for ‘New Horizons’ stated that it was quite disappointing, but hoped that it could help as an escape for the mundane and isolated feeling that came with the stay-at-home requests. People were a little under 2 months into practicing social distancing, so the game was very well received.

‘New Horizons’ was not only the best selling game in the Animal Crossing series, but the best selling game of all time in Japan. It is also the best selling Nintendo Switch game, and the 14th best selling video game ever.

The 2020 quarantine is generally perceived as a major playing factor as to why so many people joined the Animal Crossing fanbase. The idea of creating your own dream town, and decorating a community, was extremely appealing for those feeling down because of COVID creating a shift of what social interactions were okay, and what weren’t.

The creativity of ‘New Horizons’ allowed players to have digital social events, such as going fishing with friends, having picnics, going to watch shows or meteor showers, building together, gardening, and more.

The game also served as a temporary replacement for events that were canceled due to COVID, like couples throwing wedding ceremonies in Animal Crossing, or having a graduation party in the game instead of in real life.

The game was also used as political marketing by Joe Biden, having his campaign team create an island that people could visit using his Island’s code. Both him and Kamala Harris were living on that island, and you could visit them and see “their version” of Animal Crossing America.

I liked ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ a lot when it came out; it was a fun way to pass the time during online school. I mostly only gardened and covered all my villagers’ houses with flowers everywhere, but I later moved on to terraforming cliffs and rivers and placing bridges to make an actual structured town.

I named my island Akkala, after the ‘Legend of Zelda’ region.