Animal Crossing: New Horizons has taken over lives — nay, the world at large. But part of what makes Animal Crossing so great (yet so frustrating) is that it doesn't really tell you how to play it. One of the reasons Animal Crossing is one of the best Nintendo Switch games is due to how much it allows you to share your creativity with others. There are so many talented people in the Animal Crossing fandom! As such, we're sure that even more gorgeous dream islands will become available as time goes on. Engagement - Because there are so many things to do and so many different elements to the game, it all manages to feel completely engrossing. Animal Crossing doesn't feel like a video game, it feels like a tiny world that lives inside the Nintendo 3DS.
- Facts About Animal Crossing
- What Is Animal Crossing About Switch
- Whats So Fun About Animal Crossing Qr
Despite not having left the house in who knows how long, our household has made a handful of new friends since sheltering-in-place: Isabelle, K.K., Tom Nook to name a few. If you too have turned your home into an Animal Crossing sanctuary, welcome. Nintendo's recently launched game Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch has seemingly taken over everyone's homes, free time, and entire lives. This begs the question: why is Animal Crossing so soothing?
Why not Tetris or Mario Kart or some bootleg version of Barbie Magic Hairstyler? What is it about this social simulation game — filled with colorful animals, bell currency, and 'recipes' for how to build fishing poles — that feels so apropos right now? Perhaps the answer is about as simple as you might assume and given the state of *gestures widely* everything, simple answers are what we all need.
Life, Idealized
Since launching on March 20, 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been downloaded millions of times. In Japan alone, the new Animal Crossing was downloaded 1.8 million times in just three days, setting records for the game series. Major retailers like Amazon have sold out of the Nintendo Switch with Animal Crossing undoubtedly contributing to that shortage. (The new Animal Crossing is currently only available for Nintendo Switch.) If it seems like everyone is playing Animal Crossing, that's because most everyone is.
More than 297 million people have been told to shelter in place amidst the coronavirus outbreak, and that's just in the United States. We're having to Google how to safely buy food and figure out what we need to buy to last us until our next limited grocery store trip. Health experts and government agencies are recommending, if not requiring, that we practice social distancing for the foreseeable future. Life is currently far less than ideal.
Animal Crossing is almost exclusively ideal. Though you still face life-like problems — paying off debts, learning basic life skills, figuring out how to afford the things you want — the stakes are so, so low. There are few negative consequences in Animal Crossing, if any. Your character can't die. You aren't hiding, chasing, or trying to catch some elusive 'bad guy.' You're just trying to get by and enjoy your time.
Animal Crossing is a reminder of the Before Times. It is escapism on X-Games mode.
This lack of urgency is integral to the game. As Jennifer Scheurle points out in a piece for Polygon, the pacing in Animal Crossing is key to its relaxing nature. You learn new skills gradually and are given ample time to explore and play at your own pace. Additionally, gameplay happens in real-time, meaning if you're playing at night, it is nighttime for the Animal Crossing universe, too. If you don't accomplish what you set out to do today, there is always tomorrow.
'It's a form of pleasant escapism from our present harsh reality,' Dr. Erika Martinez, licensed psychologist and founder of Envision Wellness, tells Bustle over email. 'It's distracting, mindfulness entertainment that's helping people cope,' which Martinez notes is fine in the short-term but isn't a long-term cure-all by any means.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is centered around an island getaway. (Whether you interpret that as a vacation, the start of a new life, or being admitted into witness protection is up to you.) Unless you're incredibly wealthy or willing to risk the health and safety of yourself and those around you, you probably aren't going to take a vacation anytime soon. In this sense, Animal Crossing is a reminder of the Before Times. It is escapism on X-Games mode.
Control and Choices
We've had little say in the choices we've had to make over the past month. Many if not all of us have spent this time adjusting and adapting, forced to compromise things like a consistent source of income and seeing loved ones in order to prioritize health and safety. This lack of control directly feeds into the appeal of Animal Crossing, Natalie Ryan, a psychotherapist in NYC, explains to Bustle over email.
'The predictability that this kind of virtual world provides can relieve some of the anxiety we might be having around the lack of control in our current climate,' Ryan says, emphasizing how uncertain this time has been and how destabilizing that can be.
'With these types of games, we're able to be fully immersed in a fantasy world that allows us to make choices, feel our basic needs are being met and taken care of, and generally feel more safety and autonomy — a stark different from our current reality,' Ryan says. 'Being involved in a world where the complexities and fears are left to the side can help us cope with our own realities.'
The ~Aesthetic~
One 2019 survey called The World's Favorite Color Project found that the lighter a color is, the more often it is associated with calmness and relaxation. The color palette of Animal Crossing is fairly muted, tapping into pastels and softer hues. While there are lush greens, deep blues, and bright reds, those are limited to more natural elements: the grass, the sky, some apples.
The animation evokes Pixar-esque soft edges, too. Nothing too sharp, sudden, or jarring. There are no jump scares or sudden attacks. (Unless you count running into Timmy and Tommy as an 'attack.') The sound track is reminiscent of a 'soothing nature sounds' playlist. The sound effects are often cute, silly blips and bloops. It is, to put it simply, just incredibly pleasing.
As one Redditor put it in a thread answering why Animal Crossing is so popular right now, 'the music and sound effects and overall vibe of the game [are] cute, lighthearted, and wholesome.' And who among us could use some good vibes?
Playing Animal Crossing feels almost meditative. I've watched my husband play hours of Animal Crossing, picking up bundles of wood and burying fruit to grow a new tree. The motions are repetitive without being boring, creating a new routine when many of us have had our real-life routines uprooted. The benefits of meditation and mindfulness run the gamut of reducing stress to coping with anxiety. As one blog post from Psychology Today states, 'research even suggests that mindfulness can help people better cope with rejection and social isolation.'
Simulated Social Connection
As we navigate working remotely through video conference platforms and figure out how to still be social even when social distancing, many of us are craving human connection. As New Horizons game producer Hisashi Nogami told The Verge, Animal Crossing is best enjoyed with other people. You can play Animal Crossing with friends, inviting them over to your newly decorated home or going on fishing trips together. One couple even hosted their wedding on Animal Crossing. Getting to see, experience, and enjoy the same environment with the people you love is a rarity right now; Animal Crossing is one way to work around that.
'A fantasy of a place where things are clean and orderly, where we have control of our surroundings, where things are somewhat predictable and logical, sounds pretty good right now,' Christine Celio, Ph.D., clinical director of mental health integration at One Medical, tells Bustle over email. 'This is at the heart of COVID-19 anxiety -- it is unprecedented in recent history, so prediction is so challenging. We get new updates on symptoms and approaches to treat it on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. Reading the news increases that sense of insecurity, whereas playing a game like this creates a sense of calm and predictable outcomes.'
On top of all of this, Animal Crossing is also nostalgic for many people as the original game was released nearly a decade ago. It's something old made new, something familiar made fresh. Some studies have suggested that nostalgia is good for your brain helping combat everything from loneliness to boredom to anxiety, three things many of us are likely feeling right now.
If you're looking for games to play while self-isolated, Animal Crossing may be just the escape you seek. Come for the zeitgeist of it all. Stay for the good vibes.
Experts:
Dr. Erika Martinez, licensed psychologist and founder of Envision Wellness
Natalie Ryan, a psychotherapist in NYC
Christine Celio, Ph.D., clinical director of mental health integration at One Medical
Since the release of the first Animal Crossingon the Nintendo 64/GameCube way back in 2001, Katsuya Eguchi's beloved, open-ended, social simulation game has been lauded for being a peaceful space where players can connect with one another and create experiences that are tranquil and…
You what? Animal Crossing is none of these things. Let us tell you what Animal Crossing is. It is the most messed up, dystopian hellscape Ninty have ever put their name to; full of cannibals, mutants, inappropriate sea turtles, ghosts, tax barons, massive testicles and some weird religious stuff that we've just thought about that's really freaked us out.
With the latest game in the series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, due on the Switch this March 20th, we thought we'd take a scalpel and cut open this beguiling monster, pulling its diseased heart out and raising it towards the sun. What follows are five reasons why the Animal Crossing series should be locked in a stony tomb and forgotten about, forever…
IT'S A GAME THAT REVOLVES AROUND A BIN DWELLING LANDBARRON
The first character you meet when you boot up Animal Crossing is Tom Nook. He looks nice. He is, after all, a racoon, and aren't racoons adorable? That'll be racoons who are the U.S.A's biggest carrier of rabies; according to the Center for Disease Control, the masked bandits account for 28.6% of all animal rabies reports. Or ask the 82-year-old New Jersey man who, just last September, was left with gaping wounds in his back, legs and arms after a racoon attacked him while he was sitting in his yard. No, take our word for it. Tom Nook is a total dick.
It's never explained how Nook came to be Animal Crossing's sole trader, but we can bet you that broken windows and intimidation played a part. There are serious Mafioso vibes at play here. First, he offers you a home – unfurnished, obviously – putting you in debt from the moment you start the game. Then he'll offer to sell you furniture – for an inflated price – but to get it you'll have to deal with Timmy and Tommy, two-child raccoons, the relationship of which to Tom is never established.
Child labour was abolished in the UK in 1933. In Animal Crossing the fight goes on. And think about all those packages you're asked to deliver in the game, no questions ask. This guy is running a racket. Can we mention the widely held belief that Tom Nook isn't a racoon at all – but a human in a racoon suit?
'We think he is very misunderstood,' one of the game's two directors, Aya Kyogoku, told Kotaku back in 2013. 'He's just passionate about his business. He's not like a loan shark. He doesn't add a handling fee or anything like that. He can wait as long as it takes for you to pay back. He's not as bad as other people might think he is…' Note that in early Animal Crossing games Tom will ‘joke' about sending some cousins of his to see you if you haven't made a down-payment on your house in a while. Nintendo has actually worked to make the character less aggressive in recent years.
Incidentally, Tom isn't based on any regular racoon, but the Japanese Tanuki racoon dog. In Japanese folklore said creature is depicted as a shapeshifter, a prankster – and is known for having massive, magical testicles (maybe the answer as to why Mario can put on a Tanuki suit and fly in Super Mario 3 has finally been found). Just think of that next time you turn over all your hard-earned bells to the Nookster.
IT'S NOT JUST A GAME. IT'S A CAPITALIST FANTASY
2017's iOS/Android game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a fun bite-sized appropriation of the series bigger games. It's also the perfect microcosm of the fragility of friendship. https://parties-torrent.mystrikingly.com/blog/hedge-18-1-3. Here you make friends by doing things for them, always being rewarded with goods or cash. Nobody ever just wants to hang out.
And of course, just like in the real world, cash is king. You can get a jump on your progress in the game via the digital leprosy that is microtransactions. And who is running said online trading post? Tom Nook, obviously, who is depicted lying in a bath of banknotes, like he's f***ing Tupac. Oh, we should note that you can literally buy him – like the greediest of Comic-Con alumni, 250 leaf tickets and he's all yours.
But Animal Crossing has never been shy about showcasing its capitalist ideals. This is, after all, a game where resources aren't limited and are never in decline. Running short on cash? Starcraft remastered linux. Go chop down a forest and sell the lumber (and while we're on an environmental tip, what kind of fertilizer peppers this land's soil – these trees grow back in days!). Hungry? Why not empty the ocean of fish; eat them yourself or sell them on, there are no fishing quotas here!
As you read this, in the real world, the earth finds itself in the grip of a climate emergency. And yet, if we carried on like the inhabitants of Animal Crossing do, then… well, look out for Nintendo's forthcoming Mad Max/Animal Crossing crossover forthwith.
IT'S A GAME WITH TERRIFYING POSIBILITES FOR EVOLUTION
It is Russia. The year is 1920-something. And the controversial scientist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov has just impregnated three female chimpanzees with human sperm. His aim? To create the world's first human-chimp hybrid, the ‘Humanzee'. He fails. Is banished to exile in the Kazakh, SSR. Then in 1932 he dies of a stroke, his crazed vision unfulfilled. Hey, everyone needs a hobby.
Pictures to gif 1 4 0 cm. And the relevance of this to Animal Crossing is? Well, think about it. This is a game filled with many different types of animals – and just one human. Who will keep you warm on cold, wintery nights? It's only human to want to be loved…
While we're at it, what's the deal with Stitches, the game's nightmarish stitched together teddy bear? Or Sprocket (who we think is a robotic ostrich)? Or Ribbot (a robotic frog)? Or, God forbid, Hopkins – an inflatable rabbit! More so, dare we even consider how these unnatural creations came to be?
Facts About Animal Crossing
IT'S A GAME THAT DOESN'T KNOW WHETHER TO BE FRIENDS WITH ANIMALS. OR EAT THEM
What Is Animal Crossing About Switch
It's a conundrum that's plagued humanity from the very moment someone drew a cute anthropomorphic chicken. We speak of course, of the uneasy relationship between wanting cute animal motifs in our lives – and tasty animal meat on our plate. This is a problem that bothers the Animal Crossing verse, also. This is a world where nature's apex predators, creatures like wolf and bear, live peacefully with rabbits and deer.
But why, pray tell, are some animals anthropomorphised and some not? This is a game in which you can keep a caged bird – and invite a bigger bird over for tea. Where you can eat a squid – and share it with your octopus neighbour. AND NOBODY GIVES A S**T! EVERYONE JUST THINKS THIS IS NORMAL! None of this is quite as dystopian as those real-world animatronic pigs who chop sausages in the window of high street butchers – but it runs them close.
We sort of want to talk about Chadder, a character in the game who appears to be a mouse, only made out of cheese – but frankly, we're exhausted. https://downloadautos.mystrikingly.com/blog/windows-10-wallpaper-official.
THIS IS A SERIES WITH CREEPYNESS AT ITS VERY CORE
You barely have to look for creepiness in Animal Crossing; it's there everywhere you look. Explain the character Coco to us, a character who appears to be a rabbit – only wrapped tightly in bandages, a bit like some horrifically disfigured burns victim – with coal-black holes for eyes and a mouth, meaning her head looks not unlike a mask one of Slipknot might have worn back in the days when they didn't write wimpy ballads.
Let's not dwell on Mr. Resetti; a character that creeped so many younger players out with his agitated guilt trips about resetting the game, that Nintendo responded to the huge amount of complaints from player's parents and reworked the character.
Whats So Fun About Animal Crossing Qr
Consider the strangeness of many of the villager's utterances. There's Pierce the eagle and his request for the player to bring him a skeleton. Sea turtle Kapp'n and his observations on the smell of your hair or uncomfortably direct inquiries about your relationship status – all whilst trapped on his boat in the middle of the ocean (sample quote: 'you look a touch queasy, do I scare you me lass?)!
But perhaps strangest of all is Annabelle's fourth-wall breaking retelling of her dream during the DS era, 'where a giant, disembodied hand keeps poking me with a stylus.' Wait, is this how Jim Carrey felt in The Truman Show? Wireless keyboard compatible with mac.
If both Easter (renamed Bunny Day) and Christmas (that'll be Toy Day) exist in the world of Animal Crossing, does that mean… Jesus does? Does that mean Satan does? And what about other religious deities? Is Margie the elephant actually Ganesha? Is Kyle the wolf in fact Anubis? Are we being too blasphemous yet? Or is this whole thing some kind of Jamestown cult, with Tom Nook at the heart of it? Last we checked; Tom's store Nook's Cranny was all out of Kool Aid.
It feels excessive to even mention that Animal Crossing has a character in it who is actually a ghost (actually a wisp, named – um – ‘Wisp'). She only appears, at between 12pm and 4am. Sure. That's not creepy. Nope. Not at all.
