The Animal Crossing franchise is another in a long line of series that you would think wouldn’t resonate with people…and yet the opposite happened. Ever since its arrival on the Gamecube, fans have loved the franchise, and it’s been a best-seller for Nintendo for some time. And now, fans are eager for the next entry on the Nintendo Switch, Animal Crossing New Horizons.
There are a lot of new things about this particular entry, including the fact that for the first time, you’re going to start your journey on your own private island! Nintendo published an interview with producer Hisashi Nogami and director Aya Kyogoku and they talked about why the island setting was chosen this time:
With the Animal Crossing series, we’ve always had players moving to a new location that already existed. We wanted to give them a new experience and thought that a deserted island would be perfect.
With this theme, players can enjoy gaining a foothold on a new life and developing the island. As you progress, new residents may appear and new facilities will be built – it will eventually start to feel like the familiar Animal Crossing life. In other words, you can enjoy the phase before the place becomes a village this time.
The team also elaborated on how multiplayer would work in New Horizons:
There are two main multiplayer modes. One is similar to the legacy titles where you’re able to visit other villages or have people come to visit your village. You’re able to visit other islands or have your friends visit you locally or online. Up to eight people can play on one island.
The second mode is a completely new form of local multiplayer. For the first time in the series, up to four residents living on the same island can play together at the same time in local multiplayer on a single system by sharing Joy-Con controllers. Before, we’ve had a feature that let families or friends make their own houses and reside in the village on a single system, but they weren’t able to play simultaneously. But this time, with one system, you’re able to live and play in the same village simultaneously.
With all of these features, it’s easy to see why players are excited for the game to arrive. Animal Crossing New Horizons comes to Switch on March 20th, 2020.
